Lenin - Nature of Government

Question 1

What was the ruling like in Russia before 1917?

Answer 1

• Rule by a series of all powerful emperors called Tsars.
• Autocratic and Archaic rule
• Tsar and his family given the status of omniscient, omnipotent religious figures.
• The church was the next most powerful body under the Tsar
• Violent political repression common place.

Question 2

Why was the February revolution 1917 sucessful and not the revolution in 1905?

Answer 2

• In 1905 political repression and compromised ensured the Tsarist regime’s survival until the end of WWI
• Economic chaos, and political mismanagement and military defeat led to the Feb revolution in Petrograd: Tsar was overthrown and Provisional Government set up.

Question 3

What reforms did the Provisional Government put in place when it was established in Feb 1917?

Answer 3

• Removal of Tsar’s despotism
• Introduction of liberal system.
• Included freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.
• Promised democratic elections.

Question 4

How did Lenin and his Bolshevik followers rally enough support to overthrow the Provisional Gov?

Answer 4

• The Prov Gov continued to fight WWI, which worsened Russia’s already dire economic situation.
• Popular opinion was an end to war Russia’s involvement in the war, and Lenin promised that.
• Lenin argued for the redistribution of land to peasants (v.popular with the 80% peasant population).
• His demands were summarised the simple and increasingly popular slogan ‘Peace, Land and Bread’.

Question 5

When did Lenin Trotsky seize the Prov Gov and organise a coup d’etat?

Answer 5

October 1917

Question 6

What were the soviets?

Answer 6

• Small democratic councils that had emerged spontaneously in every town and village across Russia.
• Between feb and oct 1917 the soviets played a key role in governing Russia.
• Local soviets sent representatives to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

Question 7

What was the All-Russian Congress of Soviets?

Answer 7

• A congress which met in June 1917 to discuss Russia’s future.
• They met again in oct 1917
• Lenin and other senior Bolsheviks argued that the All-Russian Congress of Soviets should become the basis of the new Russian gov.
• Indeed, the oct revolution had formally handed power to the ARCS.

Question 8

When and why was the Sonarkom set up?

Answer 8

• 1917
• All-Russian Congress was too big to meet regularly so they elected a Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) to govern Russia on a day-to-day basis.

Question 9

What was the Sovnarkom/ how was it structured?

Answer 9

• Essentially the new Russian cabinet.
• The first sovnarkom was made of 13 people’s commissars and Lenin was elected Chairmen.
• Trotsky was commissar and head of foreign affairs.
• Stalin was head of national affairs.
• All of the new commissars were revolutionaries.

Question 10

What was some of the popular decrees that Lenin’s new gov voted to pass? Give their dates.

Answer 10

1) Decree on Land (oct 1917) - gave peasants the right to seize land from the church and nobility.
2) Decree of Peace (oct 1917) - Russia would withdraw from WWI
3) Workers’ Decree (Nov 1917) - established an 8 hours working day at a minimum wage.
4) Decree of Workers’ Control (April 1918) - allowed workers to elect committees to run factories.
These early measures allowed Lenin to establish control and win support from the various demographics of people with Russia.

Question 11

When did Lenin establish the Cheka and why?

Answer 11

• 1917

- A political police force to defend the revolution and dispense revolutionary justice.

Question 12

What level of real power did the Sovnarkom have in the early months of its creation?

Answer 12

• Very little
• The revolution had happened in Petrograd so Lenin did not have control of other major cities or the vast rural areas
• Senior figures from the former gov still had a great deal of power and refused to recognise Bolshevik authority.
• Russian Army initially refused direct orders from Lenin, as did State Bank and State Treasury.
• Initially, Sovnarkom was extremely disorganised and had no real infrastructure: Commissariat of finance was nothing more than a sofa with a large piece of paper pinned to it bearing the words ‘Commissariat of Finance’.
  Lenin’s gov would need to fight a civil war before it could gain full control of Russia.

Question 13

How democratic was Russia in 1918?

Answer 13

• Lenin and Bolsheviks claimed it was truly democratic.
• Lenin argued gov was formed of committees of working people who participated in gov on a daily basis.
• The first decrees were genuinely popular and clearly reflected the will of the people.
• In 1918 Russia was not yet a one-party state.
• Some members of other parties (i.e SRs) had junior positions in the government.

Question 14

What was in the Constitution of 1918?

Answer 14

• Sovnarkom responsible to Congress of Soviets which had other political parties i.e. meneshiviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.

Question 15

Why was there broad based support for Lenin’s new gov in 1918?

Answer 15

• Most people believed a coalition government had been formed, with all the socialist parties in equal power.
• Genuine support for Bolshevik government among the workers in Petrograd due to the popularity of the early decrees.

Question 16

Why, by nov 1917, was Lenin’s gov dominated by Bolsheviks who wanted a one-party state?

Answer 16

• More moderate communists such as Zinoviev and Kamenev resigned in protest when Lenin wouldn’t consider a coalition.

Question 17

What were the results of a nation wide election held in 1917?

Answer 17

• A Constituent Assembly was created with a Bolshevik minority.
• Lenin refused to recognised this outcome by breaking up the Constituent Assembly by force shortly after its first meeting in January 1918.
• He claimed it posed a threat to the power of the Soviets.
• Lenin turning against democracy.

Question 18

Why did Lenin begin to disregard even the soveits?

Answer 18

• Lenin had endorsed the treat of Brest-Litovsk, which gave away a significant proportion of Russian territory to central powers in exchange for Russia’s withdrawal from WWI.
• As a result, in the elections in April and May 1918 the Bolsheviks lost the support of the soviets across Russia
• To retain power Lenin refused to recognise the results and expelled the SRs and the Mensheviks from the soviets.

Question 19

How did Bukarin justify the Bolshevik abandonment of formal democracy?

Answer 19

• It was necessary to win the civil war.
• Lenin had now abolished the constituent assembly and refused to recognise the results of soviet elections
• New government can no longer be called democratic.

Question 20

What was the impact of the Russian civil war?

Answer 20

• Allowed Lenin to establish communist control across the whole of Russia.
• Radically changed the nature of the Bolshevik party (re-named the communist party in 1918) and the new gov
• Lead to the creation of ‘one-party state’ whose rule became increasingly centralised and authoritarian.

Question 21

When did the conflict of the civil war first begin?

Answer 21

• January 1918
• General Kornilov organised an anti-Bolshevik army and Mensheviks and SRs set up rival govs.
• In the summer of 1918 full scale fighting began with the enemies of Bolsheviks gaining significant ground.
• By summer 1919 the Red Army began to win the war.

Question 22

How did Lenin’s government change during the civil war?

Answer 22

1) It became increasingly centralised.
- Centralised control of economy with policy of War Communism.
- Political centralism. Party nomenklatura had the most power, democratic soviets disregarded.
2) Communist party became more powerful.
- Trotsky (leader of the Red Army) made the Red Army more authoritarian i.e conscription and harsh punishments.
- Terror used to suppress opposition.
* Centralised compromised communist ideals but allowed them to win the war.

Question 23

Describe how Russia moved from a ‘soviet-state’ to a ‘party-state’.

Answer 23

• Civil war meant to gov had to act quickly so Lenin tended to used the Politburo rather than the Sovnarkom because it could reach decisions faster.
• Politburo only contained Lenin’s most loyal supporters
• Sovnarkom was not abolished but ceased to function at the main centre of government, it served only to approve decisions already made by the politburo.
• From 1920 the Politburo effectively became the government of Russia.

Question 24

What did the rise of the Politburo indicate about the nature of government during/ after the civil war?

Answer 24

• The new gov was based on the Communist Party rather than the soviets.
• Soviets authority was bypassed in favour of Communist party nomenklatura.

Question 25

What happened in 1921?

Answer 25

• Major political unrest occurred in reaction to the Communist Party’s massive deviation from Soviet democracy and the brutality of the Cheka.
• Kronstadt rebellion. Sailors demanded ‘ Soviets without Communists’.
• Massive peasant uprising in Tambov.

Question 26

How did Lenin respond to the political unrest in 1921?

What were the consequences of this?

Answer 26

• Ruthless violent repression via the Red Army and Cheka.
• 1921 Cheka authorised to arrest and execute mensheviks and SRs (political trials).
• 1921 Ban on Factions
• By suppressing any form of political opposition Lenin created a one-party state and established communist dominance.

Question 27

What happened at the 1921 Party Congress?

Answer 27

Lenin pushed through a series of reforms in response to major political unrest:

• NEP/ end of War Communism.
• Ban on Factions: Party Unity. Those found forming factions could be expelled. Made opposition difficult to organise.

Question 28

What was the nature of the Russian government by the time of Lenin’s death?

Answer 28

• One-party state
• Soviets made less important, Sovnarkom no longer influential.
• Russia run by Politburo/ party nomenklatura
• Factions within party banned
• Principle that violence was justified in order to defend the revolution established.
• Workers gov replaced with a highly bureaucratic one.