bolshevik party Flashcards
1
Q
Central committee of Bolshevik party
A
- Mid September Lenin had begun bombarding the 12 man Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party with letters demanding that they prepare for revolution and the seizure of power. 12 Sept, he stated that ‘history will not forgive us if we do not assume assume power now,’ but three days later the Committee voted against a coup.
- Lenin’s threat of resignation from the Central Committee failed to move them. The committee’s most prominent members, Zinoviev and Kamenev urged restraint, fearing that Russia was not yet economically ready for revolution. Even burnt some of Lenin’s letters. Believed that they should not act before the Constituent assembly elections.
- However Trotksy suggested that they should work through the Petrograd soviet and wait for the Congress of Soviets which was due to be convened on 26 October, believing that at this congress they could win the support of all socialist parties for a soviet government without having to resort to violence. A frustrated Lenin slipped back into Russia in disguise and on 10 Oct harangued the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party all night
- Lenin Finally succeeded in persuading the committee that ‘an armed rising is in order of the day’ Trotsky took Lenin’s side but Zinoviev and Kamenev refused to agree and published their own views in the newspaper Novaia zhin( New Life) declaring that ‘if we take power now we are forced into revolutionary war, the mass of soldiers will not support us’
