Vladimir Lenin and The Red Terror

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Eventually, nations collapse and kingdoms fail, termination can occur through many causes. Whether through being ruled by a sequence of out of touch men, engaging in war, having too many enemies, or an amalgamation: no nation is safe. Russia in the year of 1910 was in an immensely horrible situation, she had all of these problems. If it was not for Vladimir IIich Lenin, Russia would not have existed by 1920.

Throughout the February Revolution Lenin was living in exile. In April 1917, Lenin returned to Russia with the help of the Germans. The Germans sent Lenin back to Russia in the hopes that he would encourage additional revolutionary movement in Russia so that Russia would withdraw from fighting Germany in World War I. The February Revolution had already occurred whilst Lenin was in Switzerland. Although this revolution succeeded in conquering Tsar, the provisional government temporarily in the place of Tsar was still committed to fighting Germany in the war. It was well known by the German people that the Russians wanted to terminate their participation in the war. The German High Command made the decision to send Lenin back to Russia with the hopes that he would weaken the provisional government and disrupt the army.

Lenin arrived in Germany in the spring of April 3rd 1917, by an organised guarded train that the Germans had set up. Upon Lenin’s arrival he was greeted enthusiastically, but to the crowd’s surprise Lenin showed hostility, criticizing the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet. Not long after Lenin arrived he started to use propaganda, giving many speeches voicing for the conquest of the Provisional Government. On April 7, the Bolshevik newspaper printed the ideas enclosed in Lenin’s speeches...

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... effectively suppressed insurrections throughout Russia during 1918 and formed the early core of the newly established Red Army.

As the Bolsheviks, commonly known as the Reds were consolidating power. Lenin had opponents from multiple directions. Groups opposing the Bolsheviks ranged from monarchists to democrats, these groups then formed one group called the whites. At the end of the summer, on August 30th there was an assassination attempt on Lenin. He survived, but a brutal crackdown on all forms of opposition commenced shortly after. The Bolsheviks called it Red Terror. It was the atmosphere under which the civil war began. It lasted well into 1920-1921, by which point the Bolsheviks had fully crushed the rebellion.

Works Cited

http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Vladimir-Lenin/38806?topic

http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/russianrev/section3.rhtml

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