Developments between the revolutions 1917

Question 1

What was Lenin’s reaction to the Feb rev & Tsar’s abdication?

Answer 1

• He had not expected this to happen as early as march 1917
• He had not expected the revolution in his lifetime

Question 2

How did Lenin return to Russia?

Why did he get the help to return?

Answer 2

• Lenin was exiled in Switzerland
• German government helped him travel to Petrograd on the Sealed train
• Train was sealed so Lenin could not influence German Marxists on his journey to destabilise the German political picture
• German government wanted Bolsheviks to return as they saw this as opportunity to further destabilise Russia
• Germans potentially believed Russia would withdraw from WW1 with the influence of Bolsheviks
• Meaning Germany would no longer have to fight on 2 fronts

Question 3

What was the date of Lenin’s return to Petrograd?
What did his return mean?

Answer 3

• 3rd April 1917
• He would seek to change Bolshevik policy to capitalise on Russia’s current instability

Question 4

Which 3 old Bolsheviks also returned once revolution had begun?

Answer 4

1. Joseph Stalin, arrived March 1917
2. Grigory Zinoviev, arrived April
3. Nikolai Bukharin, arrived May

Question 5

What were Lenin’s aims proclaimed in & when were they published?

What were the aims?

Answer 5

• Lenin’s April Theses, 7th April 1917
• ‘All power to the Soviets’
• ‘Peace, Bread & Land’
• Peace: WW1 should end
• Bread: Food shortages should end
• Land: All land should be nationalised & delegated to peasants
• He also believed the Feb rev was the first step towards a socialist revolution

Question 6

How did Lenin’s politics deviate from traditional Marxist ideology?

Answer 6

• Marxist ideology:
  1. Socialist revolution could only happen after a Bourgeois revolution
  2. Russian proletariat must develop before a revolution can occur
  3. No quick way to socialism, Marx had identified natural laws in his stage theory that must be followed
• Leninist-Marxist ideology:
  1. Russian middle classes were too weak to commit to a revolution, the proletariat needed to do it
  2. Russia was an exception, the PS was already in situ so Russia was primed for a socialist revolution
  3. The rest of Europe seemed close to a socialist revolution so Russia would be supported by socialists (Rosa Luxemburg , Karl Liebknecht)

Question 7

What was the nature of the impact of Lenin’s return?
(5 points)

Why was this?
(5 points)

Answer 7

• Initially Lenin had little impact
• April Thesis did not win popular support
• Despite this radicals (Trotsky) began to support it
• Majority of Bolsheviks began to oppose dual authority
• He maintained a political threat
• Lenin had sent Bolsheviks into parties to foster strikes but this was fruitless
• Bolshevik party small (23,000 members)
• Soviets dominated by SR’s & Mensheviks
• Only 40 Bolsheviks in the PS
• Bolsheviks in Petrograd had agreed to the demands of the Ps by agreeing to support the PG whilst upholding workers rights

Question 8

Why was Lenin’s return successful?

Answer 8

• Despite initially not gaining support attitudes towards dual authority began to sour upon the arrival of Lenin & other leading Bolsheviks