Was Terror the main method by which the Bolshevik leadership exercised control over the Party
between 1917-24?
During the period 1917-1944, terror was exercised in order to have control over the party, however
we must consider other methods of control such as the political dominance of creating a one-party
state, Lenin’s personal vendettas and … Moreover, it can be argued although these factors were
central to the Bolsheviks control, the factor which consolidated control significantly more was the
use of terror as it came in multiple forms.
Terror was evidently important during the leadership of the Bolsheviks as terror directly links to
power due to the fact that intimidation and fear maintains disciple and loyalty, so in December 1917
the Bolsheviks implemented the Cheka (secret police) to deal with counter revolution, sabotage and
speculation, often operating outside of the law. For example, one victim a clown named Bim-Bom
performed acts with anti-Bolshevik jokes, clearly not a serious threat was then shot by the Cheka.
Moreover, by removing someone who was barely a threat in such a public place forces the Russian
society to see how ruthless and therefore scary the Bolsheviks are, so in return reducing revolution
and revolts which prevents political overthrow. So, terror was a huge part of keeping power and
control. Although terror was one effective method of control, other methods such as removing
political opposition also played a role in keeping power. Furthermore, after only receiving 25% of
votes in an election, the Bolsheviks set up a democratic system to rule on behalf of the people but by
1921 it was clear in reality they had created a one-party state as the vote was taken away from the
bourgeois classes. This meant that the Bolsheviks had reduced all political threat such as all capitalist
parties as well as other left-wing groups like the Mensheviks and the SRs by making it difficult to
publish their newspapers consequently causing their political views and presence to be restricted so
that the party lost power, the SRs who had been given a role in the Bolshevik government, lost all
influence when they walked out in 1918 in protest at the decision to pull out of the first world war.
This effectively removed them as a party leading the Bolsheviks to have zero threat. Clearly, this
political factor was of vital importance due to the fact having no opposition enables clear focus on
ruling and controlling party. Therefore, although terror was a good way of maintaining power,
having no one competing for power means automatic power. However, later the Bolsheviks used
terror to fully eliminate opposition through arrests and execution, 5000 Mensheviks arrested in
1921. Moreover, despite having no political opposition causing automatic power, the use of terror is
constantly implemented and was a part of removing political opposition. Therefore, terror is the
main method of exercising control.
However, another key factor that contributed to exercising control was the tenth party congress and
creation of the party structure that mirrored the state. For example, the Bolsheviks banned factions
within the party this was significant because it prevented from groups with separate political views
forming, so therefore preventing future uprising and opposition because the penalty for breaking
this rule was expulsion from the party. Moreover, this factor highlights how the Bolsheviks had clear
control and power over the party because everyone was forced to follow their political views and
ideologies. Additional to this, the way the structure of the party was set up caused the party to be
highly centralised and therefore powerful. For example, Politburo which was at the top of structure
met daily making decisions, this became more important than the Sovnarkom which was also meant
to make decisions. As a direct consequence of this, it meant the party itself was stronger and more
important than the government, so clearly this meant the Bolsheviks had power over them.
However, there are aspects of terror in this argument as through using their dominance they used
the threat of being removed from the party and probably far worse to keep their views central and
prevent overthrow. But the use of the structure could arguably maintain more control because even
