The Reasons for Success of the Bolsheviks in 1917

The Reasons for Success of the Bolsheviks in 1917

There are a number of different reasons, why the Bolsheviks seized

power in 1917.

The Tsar took personal command of the army in the summer of 1915 and

left the government in the hands of his wife, the hated Tsarina (who

also had the misfortune of being German). She was called "the German

woman".

The offensive of 1916 had cost the Russians a million casualties and

discontent was rife in the army. The soldiers lacked proper military

training and the supply of arms and artillery were inadequate.

The whole war effort had being organised in a most haphazard way.

Manpower was conscripted indiscriminately without any regard for the

needs of industry, agriculture or communications. The countryside was

dispossessed of horses to serve the army's needs, leaving the peasants

with no means of tilling the land. Distribution problems had led to a

breakdown in food supplies to the cities. By 1916 Petrograd and Moscow

were receiving only a third of their fuel and food requirements. This

was made worse by hyper inflation that saw prices increase fourfold

during the war. These factors created serious discontent among the

working classes in the cities. There were a number of strikes that had

to be put down by troops.

The Kadets who wanted to give more powers to the Russian parliament or

Duma. This party could be compared to the Liberals in Britain. They

greatly admired the British system of government and wished to imitate

it, i.e. a constitutional monarchy – power of the Tsar would be

greatly reduced and important decisions would be made by parliament.

They were led by the respected Princ...

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...bility to recognise when

his policies had failed led him to abandon War Communism and replace

it with the New Economic Policy.

However Lenin instituted a very brutal totalitarian regime. Democracy

was banned and a one-party police state was established where

political opponents were shot out of hand. The murder of the royal

family cast a shadow across the new government. War Communism resulted

in a famine in which an estimated 5 million people died.

Perhaps two of the biggest criticisms of Lenin were his failure to

stop the rise of Stalin even though he realised his failings and his

use of terror as state policy. This policy was directed against

different groups in society who were seen as enemies of the people. He

devalued human life and Stalin was to take this policy to its logical

bloody climax in the 1930s.