Establishment of Bolshevik Goverment

Question 1

What was Lenin’s ‘April Theses’

Answer 1

The demands he made to crowds in Petrograd
Power transferred to the Soviets
War ended immediately
Land redistributed to the peasants

Question 2

What were Lenins slogan for 1917

Answer 2

‘Peace, bread and land’ and ‘All power to the Soviets’

Question 3

What was the Bolshevik reaction to Lenin turning up in 1917

Answer 3

Some feared he had become out of touch, was in the pay of the germans, would undermine what the mensheviks had been doing and his calls for revolution were unrealistic as he only had 26,000 members

Question 4

Who were the first two bolsheviks in the capital and who did they support

Answer 4

Stalin and Lev kamenev, they supported the provisional govt

Question 5

How did lenin build support throughout 1917

Answer 5

He took credit for things that were already happening e.g. peasants seizing land(they kinda just did that when the tsar govt collapsed)

Question 6

Who importantly fully threw their weight behind the bolshevik cause in mid 1917

Answer 6

Trotsky

Question 7

Why did the July Days rioting take place

Answer 7

Grain prices had more than doubled and shortages caused nearly 600 factories to close

Question 8

What was Lenins reaction to July Days

Answer 8

He fled, as he was held responsible for stirring up the masses, and the Bolsheviks were subject to strict measures

Question 9

Why did the Kornilov Coup benefit the Bolsheviks

Answer 9

The Bolsheviks were the only faction to oppose Kornilov from the start, and they started being elected in larger numbers

Question 10

What was Bolshevik membership in oct 1917

Answer 10

200,000

Question 11

Who urged Lenin that the time for revolution was not right

Answer 11

Zinoviev and Kamenev

Question 12

Which key bolshevik became leader of the Petrograd soviet in septmeber 1917

Answer 12

Trotsky

Question 12

What was the pretext for the Bolsheviks setting up a military revolutionary council

Answer 12

Kerensky sent the more radical units out of the city as he knew the bolsheviks wanted to seize power

Question 13

How many people did Trotsky claim were involved in the october revolution at most

Answer 13

25 to 30 thousand

Question 14

Who made a famous 1927 propaganda film about the storming of the winter palace

Answer 14

Sergei Eisenstein

Question 15

Why did the Bolsheviks claim the number of people involved in the October revolution was larger than it actually was

Answer 15

It was important to them that they came into power by popular revolution

Question 16

Why is the heroic lenin view of the 1917 revolution critiqued

Answer 16

Russia was already on the way to socialist takeover, Lenin just ensured it was a bolshevik one
Since he was absent for 1917, he mostly reacted and took credit for events, rather than driving for change himself
Oct revolution was closer to a coup than a true peoples revolution, Lenin staying in peotrograd reinforces this; it was just a small minority who overthrew the tsar

Question 17

When the All Russain Congress of the Soviets was held after the revolution, who expressed disdain for the revolution

Answer 17

Mensheviks as a whole condemned it, and so did Zinoviev and Kamenev. The SRs were split.

Question 18

Despite a majority of votes at the All Russain Congress of the Soviets being for a new socialist goverment, who did the majority of eecutive committee seats go to, and what was the response.

Answer 18

Bolsheviks and extreme left-wing SRs
The moderates walked out of the congress, leaving a left wing and bolshevik dominated Soviet. Trotsky told them they were a ‘pitiful bunch of Bankrupts’, that would soon be consigned to the ‘dustbin of history’

Question 19

What did the executive committee establish as the new soviet goverment in 1917

Answer 19

Sovnarkom

Question 20

What were Lenins first decrees in charge of Russia

Answer 20

Promised Peace, with an armistice established in November and demobilisation programs
Private land ownership was abolished and peasant seizures were legitimised, increasing peasant support for bolsheviks and buying them breathing room
Workers given control to supervise their won factories(backfired as workers did not work hard and did stuff like take conveyor belts to make shoes(shows shortages at that time))
Gender equality granted
Banks and Church land nationalised

Question 21

How many days did it take the bolsheviks to convince the state bank to hand over its reserves

Answer 21

10 and only with the threat of armed intervention

Question 22

Why was Lenin not overthrown pretty much immediately by Kerensky

Answer 22

He agreed to inter-party talks, many of Kerenskys troops were convinced to desert and defect, and workers and soldiers repulsed the rest from petrograd

Question 23

Did lenin brook cooperation with other parties in 1917

Answer 23

No, the only other party allowed in Sovnarkom was left wing SRs and even then they were expressly told to follow the bolshevik lead. Lenin would accept no efforts to dilute his control.

Question 24

What actions did Lenin immediately take against other parties in 1917

Answer 24

Immediate press campaign against his enemies, incl the bourgeoisie
Closure of opposition press
purge of the civil service
Establishment of the Cheka
LEading opposition Kadets SRs and Mensheviks were rounded up and imprisoned

Question 25

Who won the most seats in the 1918 constitutent assembly and what was Lenins response

Answer 25

SRs, He declared the CA a Bourgeois tool to control the people and promptly dissolved it

Question 26

Which two communists expressed fear over Lenins trampling of the common people

Answer 26

Gorky and Rosa Luxemburg