Rise of the Bolsheviks

Question 1

Soviets compromised by coalition

Answer 1

• voted in favour 2 May
• solve authority crisis, Milyukov kicked out
• reinforce democratic center
• Kadets moved into right-wing opposition, defence of bourgeois rights
• Soviet seen as statesmen
• workers peasants disillusioned by failure to make reforms
• “increasingly came to be seen as guardians of the bourgeois state” Figes
• ‘these despicable socialists that have sold out to the government’ Lenin

Question 2

July Days - Bolsheviks discredited

Answer 2

• German agent accusations, leaflets released 4 July by Minister of Justice Pereverzev, right wing press
• soldiers turned against them, 800 imprisoned, military cadets ransacked Pravda officers at dawn 5 July
• Mensheviks campaigned for no trial, wanted to unite, ensured survival
• Lenin moved towards armed uprising idea, because he perceived Ker as miltiary dictatorship

Question 3

July Days - orchestrated by Bolsheviks? development

Answer 3

• First Machine Gun Regiment addressed by Trotsky on 2 July, said power to the Soviets
• 1000 guns, 10,000 soldiers
• 21 June machine-gunners resolved to overthrow PG if it continued with the threat to break up revolutionary regiments by sending them to the front, other regiments said similiar

Question 4

July Days - orchestrated by Bolsheviks - didn’t plan to do it

Answer 4

• ‘caught off balance… talked of inssurection in a general way, but not planned it’ Fitz
• ‘The Bols made up everything as they went along’ Figes
• Lenin said on 20 June that need to resist provocations of counter-revs, wait until offensive over and to gain majority in Soviets

Question 5

July Days - orchestrated by Bols - had some control

Answer 5

• Lenin left 29 June, MO took control over situation, encouraged armed uprising and transformed itself into operational staff for the capture of the capital
• elected a Provisional Revolutionary Committe led by Semashko who assumed leadership
• Pravda was going to publich Zinoviev Kamenev calling for restraint, came out with blank fornt page

Question 6

July Days - coup d’etat

Answer 6

orchestrated as a ‘power seizure’,, masked as spontaneous when failed –Pipes

Question 7

July Days - events

Answer 7

• 20,000 Kronstadt 4 July, + 20,000 Putilov, with Soviet slogans
• Soviets refused to take power ‘the decision of the revolutionary democracy cannot be dictated by bayonets’ Tsereteli
• put down by troops