Lenin establishing control

Question 1

Sovnarkom established

Answer 1

This was composed exclusively of Bolsheviks with Lenin as chairman and Trotsky as Commissar of Foreign Affairs

Sovnarkom centralised B power + sidelined the soviets

however, ppl didn’t want a one-party state + demanded co-operation between parties to avoid factional strife + civil war

Lenin invited SRs to Sovnarkom to claim he was representing the interests of the peasants

Question 2

Lenin’s early decrees

Answer 2

in order to survive Lenin gave peasants what they wanted:

• Decree of Peace: immediate peace with no annexation or indemnities = 27th October
• Decree on Land: abolished private ownership, peasants allowed to seize land without compensation
• Decree on workers: workers control allowed workers to ‘supervise” management
• Decree on Nationality: self-determination to the ppl of the former Russian Empire

supports his theorising, but it could be argued he had little choice as peasants already seizing land + workers taking factories.
decrees didn’t help create conditions necessary for socialism

Question 3

How did Lenin deal with Opposition?

Answer 3

Dec 5th = Cheka established t
provided B with security + bought Red guards + military units under its control
civil service purged

antiB news closed down
kadets, SRs + Mensheviks arrested
= mainstreaming B ideology

Question 4

Class Warfare

Answer 4

used CW to keep MC under control
Bpress identified MC as the enemy + licenced the plunder of their houses

= Lenin pitied the soldiers, workers + peasants against a common enemy to gain their support

Question 5

Constituent Assembly

Answer 5

Nov = elections → SRs win majority = 54%
Lenin only wins 24% = Lenin appalled

5th Jan 1918 = he dissolved it in 1 day as it posed a threat

by march, R becomes a one-party state + became a key principle of Soviet Communism
Lenin believed that B understood the needs of the Proletariat better than themselves

Question 6

End to the War

Answer 6

Lenin + Trotsky assumed B seizure would spark similar rev in Europe
but this didn’t happen

Bukharin wanted to turn the war into a rev one → arguing this was necessary to defend both socialism + R = split in the party

but this was a betrayal of the promise B made on seizing power

Lenin took a pragmatic approach + signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on the 3rd March 1918

Question 7

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Answer 7

3rd March 1918

R lost 1/6 of its pop + ~30% of farming land + RW

this was imp as it set the precedent for future action by establishing ‘socialist at home’ which would take priority over the spread of international rev
it provided the intellectual foundation for Stalin’s ‘Soviet first’ approach