2. Lenin's return to Russia and the April Theses

Question 1

How did Lenin return to Russia?

Answer 1

• In exile in Switzerland - only was back was through Germany
• Was helped by German authorities in journey back to Russia - they saw him as a way to de-stabilise the Russian war effort
• Made his way through Sweden and Finland to Petrograd

Question 2

What did Lenin do between Feb. Rev. and his arrival at the Finland station in April?

Answer 2

• Worked furiously on strategy and tactics he intended to employ on his return

Strategy - plan of action designed to achieve a long-term objective

Tactics - the methods used to implement a strategy

Question 3

What did Lenin’s return give rise to?

Answer 3

• Persistent accusations by political enemies that he was a Germany spy

Question 4

‘Letters from Afar’

Answer 4

• Published March 1917 - results of Lenin’s thinking
• Argued that the Feb. Rev. = bourgeois revolution in Marxist terms
• Should be swiftly followed by 2nd revolution - workers, in alliance w/ peasantry, would seize power

Question 5

Why was Lenin’s proposal in Letters from Afar greeted with astonishment by other leading Bolsheviks?

How did Lenin respond to this?

Answer 5

Appeared to involve radical departure from Marxist doctrine. 
- Marxist theory suggested that a proletarian revolution can only take place after a long period of deteriorating working-class living standards 

Lenin - suggested that the transition from capitalism to communism could be telescoped in a matter of months

Question 6

What was Lenin’s first task upon returning to Russia?

Answer 6

• To win his party over to his views - succeeded after a brief period of in-fighting within Bolshevik ranks

Success based on his force of personality - received support from new entrants into the Bolshevik party

Question 7

Bolshevik membership increase

Answer 7

Feb 1917 - around 25,000 in Russia

April 1917 - 75,000

Many were working-class in origin and radical in outlook - cared little for the niceties of Marxist theory
- They preferred Lenin's daring to the caution of some of his lieutenants

Question 8

Lenin’s next task after winning his party over to his views

Answer 8

• Recognised that Bolsheviks were far too weak to mount a serious challenge for power
• Tactic for drumming up new support was to announce series of policies to appeal to left-wing opinion in Petrograd
• Became known as April Thesis - front and centre were radical alternatives to the PG’s policies on the key issues of peace, land reform and future of govt of Russia

Question 9

Desire for peace

Answer 9

• One of strongest currents flowing through Russia in 1917 - strong anti-war feeling especially in Petrograd
• After Feb. Rev. - seemed possible that the Petrograd Soviet’s ‘Appeal to the All the Peoples of the World’ could spur govts of Europe’s warring power into starting peace negotiations

However - clear that no-one outside Russia was in hurry to negotiate
- Peace seemed far away as ever - left PG’s ‘revolutionary defencesist’ strategy increasingly open to criticism

Question 10

Need for land reform

Answer 10

• PG was aware of it - and aware of the danger of peasants taking matters into their own hands and seizing the land of the nobility
• However, refused to sanction peasant land seizures

Question 11

Why didn’t the PG sanction peasant land seizures?

Answer 11

1) Insisted that land reform was a matter for a future democratically elected parliament - not the caretaker PG
2) Argued that disorderly peasant land grab likely to lead to an unfair distribution of land between peasant households
3) Believed that land seizures encouraged desertions from the army - with peasant