Vladimir Lenin

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Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Lenin was the Bolshevik leader. He was a clever thinker and

a practical man; he knew how to take advantage

of events. When Lenin arrived in Russia, he issued a document called

the April theses, promising ‘peace, bread, land and freedom’. He

called for an end to the ‘Capitalist’ war, and demanded that power

should be given to the soviets. He demanded a revolution against the

Provisional Government as soon as possible. In November 1917, under

the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky, the Bolsheviks overthrew the

Provisional government, beginning the era of Communist rule in Russia.

Stalin played no real part in the events of the revolution. The

revolution was the result of detailed Bolshevik planning, and of the

failures and weaknesses of the Provisional government. Lenin knew that

there was enough discontent amongst the people for a revolution to

work. By October 1917 the Bolsheviks controlled both the Petrograd and

the Moscow Soviets. His slogans and policies were popular with the

people. In 1918 Lenin introduced the policy of War Communism, in order

to ensure that the Red Army was well supplied during the Civil War.

All industries were nationalised. Yet production fell as workers were

conscripted the Red Army. In agriculture, the Cheka were sent into the

countryside to seize all surplus grain and produce. Anyone who

resisted was shot. Yet the simple effect of this was that peasants

produced less food, so there were fewer surpluses to take. This helped

to cause the dreadful famine of 1921. War communism was s...

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...e purges of

the 1930s sent millions of Russians to their deaths, the population

was scared of the secret police, the NKVD, and the forced

collectivization of agriculture had wiped out a part of Russian

society, the Kulaks. Due to Stalin’s Purges the army and navy were

seriously weakened by the loss of senior officers; however in Lenin’s

time in Russia he used war communism to help feed and strengthen the

army. Stalin’s dictatorship can be compared to Adolf Hitler as they

ran everything by themselves and did whatever they felt like, even

though others objected. Lenin was clearly had a greater impact on

Russia as he was the one who contributed the most to the Revolution’s

and he got the Bolsheviks into power. He also helped to modernise

Russia. Stalin was a dictator and he did not do as much as Lenin to

help Russia.

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