LENIN POLITICAL AUTHORITY Flashcards
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
LENIN’S RETURN AND THE GROWTH OF BOLSHEVIK SUPPORT
Lenin greeted the crowds in Petrograd and gave a rousing speech – his words were later written down in the April thesis which demanded that:
- Power should be transferred to the soviets.
- The war should be brought to an immediate end
- All land should be taken over by the state and re-allocated to peasants by the local soviets.
These are summed up as a demand for peace, bread, and land.
Lenin also stressed a policy of non-cooperation for non-cooperation with the provisional government, giving rise to “all power to the soviets”.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
Adapting Marxist theory, Lenin argued that the Russian middle class was too weak to carry out a bourgeoise revolution and allowing them to continue in power held the proletariat revolution back.
Initial reaction to his return = mixed:
Some feared he grew out of touch and his radical proposals would do more harm than good.
- There were allegations that Lenin was in pay to the Germans.
- The Mensheviks feared Lenin would undermine what they had been doing, and by stirring up discontent, would provoke a right-wing reaction.
- Some thought Lenin’s call was unrealistic as Bolsheviks only had 26,000 members and were still in the minority.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
However, Lenin gradually built-up support with his speeches and had won over the central committee of the Bolshevik party by sheer force of personality.
When the first all-Russian congress of soviets met, it passed a vote of confidence in the provisional government.
Lenin won a key adherent when
Trotsky decided to throw his full weight behind the Bolshevik cause, and Kerensky’s determination to continue the war played into the Bolsheviks’ hands.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
JULY DAYS
* Caused as grain prices had doubled in Petrograd between February and June, following a poor harvest, and shortages of fuel and raw materials had forced 586 factories to close with the loss of 100,000 jobs.
- The workers wanted price controls, but the government was frightened to act against the industrialists.
- Consequently, 20,000 armed sailors from Kronstadt joined workers and soldiers on the streets.
- They chanted Bolshevik slogans, such as All power to the soviets, attacked property, looted shops, and seized the railway stations and other key buildings.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
Warrants for the arrest of Bolsheviks, who were blamed for stirring up the troubles, were issued and several, including Trotsky, were gaoled.
It is unclear whether the rebellion was actually stirred up by Bolsheviks and Lenin, who had been on holiday when the rioting broke out, always claimed that the demonstrations were spontaneous
what did he do
- He immediately returned, but just as quickly fled in disguise into exile in Finland.
- Troops loyal to the Soviet dispersed the crowds and the Soviet newspaper Izvestia denounced the role of the Bolsheviks, suggesting that Lenin was working in the pay of the Germans and against Russia’s best interests.
- Bolshevik propaganda was burned, and the offices of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda closed.
- Lenin’s reputation fell, for fleeing rather than leading, while other leaders languished in gaol.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
On 8 July, Kerensky replaced Prince Lvov as Prime Minister and it might have appeared that the Bolsheviks’ moment had passed.
Their cause was saved by the Kornilov coup; when Bolsheviks were released from gaols and soldiers, sailors and workers again took to the streets, his time supposedly in defence of the Provisional Government.:
Bolsheviks seized the opportunity to had trained in secret.
* The Bolsheviks were able to bask in the reputation of having been the only group to have opposed Kornilov consistently.
* Lenin sent orders from Finland urging his followers to keep up the pressure and ‘Committees to save the Revolution’ were set up throughout the country.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
- Consequently, Bolsheviks were elected in increased numbers to soviets throughout urban Russia and in the Duma elections in Moscow, Bolshevik support increased by 164% between June and December.
- The Bolshevik membership, which had stood at 23,000 in February, had reached 200,000 by the beginning of October, by which time the party maintaining a force of 10,000 Red Guards in the capitals factories.
- By September, when new elections were held to the Petrograd Soviet, the Bolsheviks won a majority, which together with their control of the Moscow Soviet placed them in a powerful position.
- On 21 September Trotsky became Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
From mid-September, Lenin bombarded Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party with demands to stage a revolution and seize power.
However, the Central Committee and, in particular its two most prominent members,
Zinoviev and Kamenev, fearing that Russia was not yet economically ready for revolution, urged restraint and even burned some of Lenin’s letters.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
Kamenev and Zinoviev believed that they should not act before the results of the Constituent Assembly elections were known, while Trotsky suggested they should work through the Petrograd Soviet and wait for the Congress of Soviets which was due to be convened on 26 October. He believed that, at this congress, they could
win the support of all socialist parties for a Soviet government without having to resort to violence.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
THE BOLSHEVIK SEIZURE OF POWER, OCTOBER 1917
On 7 October Lenin secretly returned to Petrograd to attend a meeting of the Central Committee and try to win them over in person to the policy of taking power immediately.
Kerensky was well aware that the Bolsheviks wanted to seize power:
- He responded by sending some of the more radical army units out of the capital.
- This provided an excuse for the Bolshevik-controlled soviet, which claimed that Kerensky was abandoning the capital to allow it to fall to the Germans, to set up a Military Revolutionary Committee under Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky on 9 October. The committee controlled 200,000 Red Guards, 60,000 Baltic sailors and 150.000 soldiers of the Petrograd garrison.
- Its declared purpose was to control troop movements fin the face of a German threat).
- However, its existence also seemed justified by the fears that government ministers might support a right-wing coup.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
On 10 October Lenin harangued the Central Committee of the Party all night and finally succeeded (with a vote of ten to two) in persuading them that ‘an armed rising is the order of the day.
Kerensky tried in desperation to close down two Bolshevik newspapers and restrict the Military Revolutionary Committee’s power.
He even ordered that the bridges linking the working-class areas to the centre of Petrograd should be raised.
However, Bolshevik propagandists suggested that
his actions were a betrayal of the Soviet and an abandonment of the principles of the February Revolution and used them as an excuse to act.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
It therefore just remained for Trotsky, with his tremendous power and influence on the Military Revolutionary Committee, to organise the final stages of the Bolshevik Revolution.
* Through the night of 24-25 October, with the support of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, and in the name of the Second Congress of Soviets,
- 5000 sailors and soldiers from Kronstadt moved into the city and Bolshevik Red Guards seized key positions around the capital.
- These included the telephone exchange, the post office, railway stations, the news agency, the state bank, bridges and power stations.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
Since Kerensky could not rely on the Petrograd troops to defend the Provisional Government, he left for the front.
He hoped to be able to contact loyal troops who would march to the city and defend it.
The rest of the government met in an emergency session in the Winter Palace where on the evening of 25 October, Red Guard soldiers and sailors surrounded the palace.
The October Revolution in Petrograd, whereby power passed to the Bolshevik Communists, thus proved a relatively small-scale affair.
- Much of Petrograd remained unaffected by the disturbances - trams and taxis ran as normal and restaurants, theatres and cinemas remained open.
- Even Trotsky had to admit that the revolution was essentially a series of small operations, calculated and prepared in advance.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
CONSOLIDATION OF BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT OCTOBER-DECEMBER 1917
670 delegates that had arrived for the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets in the Smolny Institute held their first session.
* The Bolshevik action of the previous day was not universally approved and even the Bolsheviks,
Zinoviev and Kamenev spoke out against the coup.
12 . Political authority, by December 1917.
The Menshevik leader predicted that Bolshevik power would last no longer than three weeks, while the SR faction was split the left congratulated Lenin, while those to the right accused him of using violence to seize power illegally.
- Although 500 voted in favour of a socialist government, the Mensheviks and right-wing SRs were dismayed to find that the majority of seats for a new executive committee to carry this out went to Bolsheviks and more extreme left-wing SRs.
- In protest, these ‘moderates walked out of the congress, leaving a Bolshevik and left-wing SR coalition in control.
- Their action simply played into the Bolsheviks’ hands.
