April Theses Essay

The April Theses were a series of directives issued by the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin upon his return to Petrograd, Russia from his exile in Switzerland. The Theses’ were mainly written toward Bolsheviks in Russia and returning to Russia from exile. Lenin denounced liberals and social democrats in the Provisional Government, he also told Bolsheviks to not cooperate with the government. He called for new communists policies and told the soviets to take power. In the next few months, the April Theses influenced the July Days and October Revolution and were identified as Leninism.

The Theses was issued on the 4th of April in 1917, after the collapse of Imperial Russia. Just over a month after the February Revolution which ended with the abdication (when a monarch gives up their power) of Tsar Nicholas II, and the establishment of the liberal Provisional Government under Georgy Lvov and later Alexander Kerensky. Liberals and moderate socialists who wanted to instigate political reform dominated the Provisional Government and created a democracy with elections for an executive and a constituent assembly.

Lenin wanted to return to Russia asap but it would cause problems because he was kept in Switzerland as World War I continued in close states. Fritz Platten, a Swiss communist, set a plan up with the German government to get a safe way for Lenin and his company to get through Germany by the so-called "sealed train." The German government obviously hoped the return of Lenin would create jumble of political things in Russia, which would lead to the surrendering of Russia and the end of Russian participation of the war on the informal alliance side, ending the war on the Eastern Front and letting German forces to focus on their...

... middle of paper ...

...eturn to Russia was a baffling period for Russian Socialists, who before had held Lenin in high admiration and had believed he would bring them together after his return. Even though his extensive positions caused more separation than ever among Russia’s many political groups. Lenin’s denial to agree backfired on him, however, in the autumn he would need the support of these groups to assure power.

Eventually, Lenin did go back short-term on his earlier big positions, with the goal of gaining more support. In particular, he temporarily accepted the Petrograd Soviet. Although this effort did have some limited triumph, it didn't reach the level of support that he had hoped for. So, he decided to focus on slandering the provisional government and also building up connections within the military so after the revolution, he could deal with all the attackers by force.