2. Lenin's return to Russia and the April Theses Flashcards
How did Lenin return to Russia?
- 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
What did Lenin do between Feb. Rev. and his arrival at the Finland station in April?
- 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
What did Lenin’s return give rise to?
- Persistent accusations by political enemies that he was a Germany spy
‘Letters from Afar’
- 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
Why was Lenin’s proposal in Letters from Afar greeted with astonishment by other leading Bolsheviks?
How did Lenin respond to this?
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
What was Lenin’s first task upon returning to Russia?
- 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
Bolshevik membership increase
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
Lenin’s next task after winning his party over to his views
- 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
Desire for peace
- 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
Need for land reform
- 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
Why didn’t the PG sanction peasant land seizures?
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