The Bolshevik Consolidation of Power 1918-21

The Bolshevik Consolidation of Power 1918-21

The Bolsheviks under Lenin, when they came into power in October 1917,

faced immense problems in trying to consolidate their hold over the

ex-tsarist empire. Firstly, how were the Bolsheviks, in view of their

military resources, to extend their hold over the nation at large? The

second, was how could they achieve a speedy end to the war and effect

a rapid withdrawal of the German army, which was currently occupying

the western part of Russia. Thirdly, how quickly would they be able to

stage an economic recovery?

Beset by internal and external enemies, the Bolsheviks were engaged in

a desperate struggle for survival. Pre-1917, they had been spent in

preparing plans for the revolution, and less attention was given to

the details of how affairs would be organised once this had been

achieved. Trotsky had expressed this simple faith at his time of

appointment as commissar for foreign affairs, when h e said that all

that was required to be done was 'to issue a few decrees, then shut up

shop and go home'.

An internal threat occurred in 1918, in the form of a civil war,

fought between 1918 and 1920, in which the Bolsheviks (the Reds) were

confronted by a loose combination of anti-Bolshevik forces (the

whites); the external threat came from abroad in 1918-19, with a

series of military interventions by a number of foreign powers,

including Britain, France, the USA and Japan.

1 The Dissolution of A Constituent Assembly

For Lenin, true democracy was the rule of the Bolshevik Party, the

voice of the revolutionary masses. This particular interpretation of

democracy, often referred to ...

... middle of paper ...

...a committee and demanded new elections, freedom of

speech and press, assembly, trade unions, more political parties, the

release of left-wing prisoners, the end of food rations, the removal

of commissars from factories, and the allowance of food transfers.

They wanted collective human rights. The fact that the people who were

revolting against communism were the very people who founded it, meant

that Trotsky had to sit up and take note. Trotsky ordered 60,000 red

troops to storm the base, where ruthless fighting took place, and the

workers and soldiers eventually surrendered; this marked the height of

the political unrest.

The leaders of the demonstration were said to be Whites (whether this

was true or not is unclear), and they were executed. Lenin decided

that it was time to be more lenient of war communism ideals.