The Bolshevik Consolidation of Power 1917-24
The establishment of government and power:
The distribution of power:
- Lenin persisted with the notion that Sovnarkom had been appointed by the Congress of Soviets.
- According to this view, the distribution of power in revolutionary Russia took the form of a
pyramid, with Sovnarkom at the top, drawing its authority from the Russian people who
expressed their will through the soviets at the base.
- In reality, the Bolsheviks had the power, not the soviets.
- The key body here was the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party; it was this organisation
under Lenin’s direction that provided the members of the government - Sovnarkom was
basically a wing of the Bolshevik party.
- In theory, the Central Committee derived its authority from the All-Russian Congress of the
Bolshevik party, whose locally elected representatives voted no policy.
- In practice, the congress and local parties did as they were told - this was in keeping with Lenin’s
insistence that the Bolshevik party operate on the principle of democratic centralisation, a
formula that guaranteed power was exercised from the top down, rather than the bottom up.
The Bolsheviks early measures:
- Lenin argued that the change from a bourgeois to a proletarian economy could not be achieved
overnight.
- They would continue to use the existing structures and officials until the transition had been
completed and a fully fledged socialist system had been adopted - this was referred to as state
capitalism.
- Lenin was aware that many Bolsheviks wanted to introduce a sweeping revolutionary policy, but
the new regime did not have the power to impose this - their authority did not run much
beyond Petrograd and Moscow.
- The government had inherited the problems of food shortages, crippling transport and
communication system and financial collapse.
- This restricted Lenin’s choice of action, but he introduced 3 decrees that were meant to define
its approach to national policy.
- Decree on Peace, October 1917
- Not so much a decree as an appeal to the warring nations to enter into talks for ‘a
democratic peace without annexations’.
- Was Lenin’s hard-headed first step towards making peace with Germany, something the
Bolshevik government had to do if it was going to survive.
- Decree on Land, November 1917
- Private ownership of land was abolished, land shall not be sold, purchased, leased or
mortgaged.
- All land shall be confiscated without compensation and become the property of the
whole people.
, The Bolshevik Consolidation of Power 1917-24
- The decree simply gave Bolshevik approval to the reality of what had been happening in
the countryside since the Feb Rev - in lots of areas, peasants had overthrown their
landlords and occupied their property.
- Decree on Workers’ Control, November 1917
- Was largely concerned with authorising what had already occurred.
- During 1917, a large number of factories had been taken over by the workers.
- However, the workers’ committees that were then formed seldom ran the factories
efficiently - there was a large fall in industrial output.
- The decree accepted the workers takeover, but it also instructed the workers’
committees to maintain the ‘strictest order and discipline’ in the workplace.
- Vesenkha
- Was set up to take charge of all existing institutions for the regulation of economic life.
- Initially, it couldn’t exercise the full authority granted to it, but it presided over a
number of important developments: banks and railways were nationalised, foreign
debts were cancelled, and the transport system was improved.
- These practical achievements suggest how effective centralised control might become
should the Bolshevik regime gain complete power.
The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly:
- As a revolutionary, Lenin’s primary objective wasn’t to win mass support, but to create a party
capable of seizing power.
- The October revolution had comet too late to prevent the elections to the All-Russian
Constituent Assembly from going ahead in November as planned.
- They were outvoted by nearly 2 to 1 by the SR’s.
- Only won 24% of the total vote.
- They had gained barely a quarter of the seats.
Lenin’s motives for destroying the assembly:
- Constituent Assembly gathered in Jan 1918
- Was dissolved at gunpoint by the Red Guards.
- No democracy left
- Justified this action by saying that the original reason for electing an assembly had already been
achieved by the formation of a Soviet government in Oct 1917.
- Claimed that the Constituent Assembly was corrupt - the elections had been triggered by the
SR’s and the Kadets.
- Did not truly reflect the wishes of the Russian people.
- ‘To hand over power to the Constituent Assembly would again be to compromise with the
malignant bourgeoisie’ - Lenin.
- ‘The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly by the Soviet government means a complete and
frank liquidation of the idea of democracy by the idea of dictatorship’ - Lenin to Trotsky.
, The Bolshevik Consolidation of Power 1917-24
Peace with Germany:
- Trotsky and Lenin shared the view that Russia did not have a realistic chance of winning the war.
- He wanted to buy time for Bolshevik agitators to exploit the mutinies which the strain of war
had produced in some units of the Austro-German armies.
Bolshevik tactics at Brest-Litovsk:
- Trotsky coined the slogan ‘neither peace, nor war’ to confuse and infuriate the German
delegation at Brest-Litovsk.
- Constantly ignored the point of discussion and launched into revolutionary speeches calling on
Germany to overthrow its bourgeois government.
- Lenin and Trotsky saw themselves as victors, believed that a great international workers’ rising
was imminent and saw themselves as international revolutionaries.
- They had limited loyalty towards Russia as a nation - first concern was to spread the
proletarian revolution worldwide.
The terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk:
- ⅓ of European Russia lost - major grain source
- Contained population of 45 million people
- Had to pay 3 billion roubles in war reparations
The ‘Left Communists’:
- Condemned the signing of the Treaty - party members who believed the first task was to
consolidate the October Revolution by driving the German imperialist armies from Russia.
- Later used to describe those who opposed NEP
- Collapse of Germany’s Western front in August 1918 destroyed their argument.
