Developments between the revolutions of 1917 Flashcards
How many members did the Bolshevik Party have at the time of the February Revolution?
23,000
How many representatives did the Bolshevik Party have in the Soviet of 1,500 at the time of the February Revolution?
40
Which major Bolsheviks were first to reach Petrograd in March 1917 and what did they do?
Lev Kamenev and Stalin
Took control of the party newspaper, Pravda
Who was Lev Borisovich Kamenev?
Lev Borisovich Kamenev was the son of a Jewish railway engineer, who joined the Social Democrats in 1901. Arrested many times, he was deported to Siberia, where he met Stalin in 1915. He returned in April 1917 and edited Pravda, opposing Lenin’s April Theses. With Zinoviev, he voted against an armed uprising in October 1917, preferring a coalition with the Socialists. Nevertheless he was made a Commissar in Lenin’s government and joined Trotsky at the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, making peace terms with the Germans in 1918. He was forced from power by Stalin, expelled from the party in 1932 and executed in 1936.
Who was Stalin?
Stalin, the son of a Georgian cobbler, was one of the few leading Bolsheviks who could claim peasant roots. He had trained as a priest but was attracted by Social Democracy. He was repeatadly arrested and exiled to Siberia, but he escaped several times, taking the name Stalin (man of steel). He became a Bolshevik and helped raise money by robbing banks. He was in Siberia from 1912 to 1917 but returned in 1917. He played only a minor role in the October Revolution but was made Commissar for Nationalities because of his background. He eventually took the leadership of Russia after Lenin’s death and established himself as dictator until his death.
What three policies did Kamenev and Stalin accept before Lenin’s April Thesis, adopted by other left-wing socialists?
Support for provisional government, continuation of war and the Soviet leadership
At the time of Lenin’s return, the Petrograd Soviet, all Menshaviks and most Bolsheviks believed in the need for a ‘bourgeois stage’ of revolution. Why did Lenin and Trotsky not accept this?
They believed that the Russian middle class was too weak to carry through a full ‘bourgeois revolution’ and that to allow the middle classes to continue in power was to hold the inevitable proletariat revolution back. Since Lenin believed that the whole of Europe was on the brink of socialist revolution anyway, he felt the Russian revolution had no need to confine itself to bourgeois democratic objectives. This belief is sometimes referred to as the theory of ‘permanent revolution’.
What is permanent revolution?
The concept that continuing revolutionary progress within the USSR was depended on a continuing process of revolution in other countries.
How can the demands in the April Thesis be summed up as and supported by what motto?
‘peace, bread and land’
‘All power to the Soviets’
What demands did the April Thesis have?
The war should be brought to an immediate end.
Power should be transferred to the soviets.
All land should be taken over by the state and re-allocated to peasants by local soviets.
How did Lenin caused an uproar among the delegates when his proposals were first put to a meeting of the Social Democrats?
Some Bolsheviks feared that Lenin had grown out of touch during his years of exile and that his radical proposals would do more harm than good.
There were allegations that Lenin was in the pay of the Germans (which were to some extent true).
The Mensheviks feared Lenin would undermine what they had been doing and, by stirring up discontent, would provoke a right-wing reaction.
Some though Lenin’s call to oppose the Provisional Government was unrealistic since the Bolsheviks were still in a minority among the socialists.
What is a faction?
A group of dissenting voices within a larger group, in this case the Party; when there are a number of different factions competing for influence, we refer to ‘factionalism’.
Who was Nikolai Semyonovich Chkheidze?
Nikolai Semyonovich Chkheidze was a Georgian Social Democrat politician who had been a member of the Fourth Duma and became President of Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. He disagreed with Lenin and favoured the continuation of the war with Germany. He was forced into exile by the Bolsheviks in 1921 and committed suicide in 1926.
How did Lenin eventually get his way with the Bolsheviks regarding his ‘April thesis’
He got his way due to his skills of persuasion, tactful retreat and compromise, threats of resignation and appeals to the rank and file.
What is the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party?
From 1912, this leading group determined the Bolsheviks’ broad policy objectives; it comprised 21 members in 1917.
