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The failure of the provisional government in Russia
Role of lenin in russian revolution
Role of lenin in russian revolution
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To decide on Lenin’s importance, regarding Bolsheviks success in the November Revolution of 1917 we need to identify the factors that we can take into account. These include: Lenin’s April Thesis, His effective use of “Peace, Land, Bread” and his ability to convince the Bolshevik central committee for an immediate revolution. However over the course of the essay we will see that it’s not just Lenin’s leadership that was the reason for Bolshevik success, we also have the mistakes of the Provisional Government and its overall weakness.
By starting with Lenin’s April Thesis we can analyse its key points which structured around the idea of “No Support for the Provisional Government” from this it developed into a campaign to give all power to the soviets, or in reality the Bolsheviks. The April Thesis basically outlined the plan for the November revolution and essentially set the Bolsheviks onto a path that would put them into the best possible position to take power when the time came, The April Thesis essentially gives us an insight into the amount of planning that Lenin put into the seizure of power and without the April Thesis it’s possible that the Bolshevik party would not have such an established purpose. Relating this back to the question we see that Lenin effectively laid down a purpose for the Bolshevik party to follow and when the Bolshevik party seized power it acted as a manifesto until they could create a fully established one.
Now we have established the importance of the April Thesis we can now take into account the importance of “Peace, Land, Bread” which acted as a rallying call for the revolutionaries during the November Revolution, despite the importance that some historians give it we can In fact say that it was...
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...was alone, Lenin’s leadership that enabled the Bolsheviks to seize power in November 1917. On the other hand, if we consolidate the facts we have covered in the essay we can identify key points that were capitalised on by Lenin such as the weakness of the provisional government and using his influence to motivate the Bolshevik Central Committee, we cannot deny that these were some of the more crucial factors regarding the Bolshevik seizure of power and without them a November Revolution may not have happened. A result of that would be a legitimate leadership within Russia and the Bolsheviks would then be seen as the aggressors. Concluding this we can make the decision that it was not Lenin alone who was the reason for the success of the Bolshevik coup rather an overall period of instability within the Russian leadership and the Bolsheviks offered an alternative.
The Seizure of Power by the Bolsheviks in 1917. How did the Bolsheviks seize power of the Russian Empire in 1917? They were able to do this as a result of taking advantage of the current political and social situations in the country at the time. Through such decisions as disbanding the army and siding with the majority. the peasants, through such promises as land, food, equality and peace.
In order to establish whether Lenin did, indeed lay the foundation for Stalinism, two questions need to be answered; what were Lenin’s plans for the future of Russia and what exactly gave rise to Stalinism? Official Soviet historians of the time at which Stalin was in power would have argued that each one answers the other. Similarly, Western historians saw Lenin as an important figure in the establishment of Stalin’s socialist state. This can be partly attributed to the prevailing current of pro-Stalin anti-Hitler sentiments amongst westerners until the outbreak of the cold war.
1) Adams, Arthur E. The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory: Why and How? Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1960.
Fiehn, Terry, and Chris Corin. Communist Russia under Lenin and Stalin. London: John Murray, 2002. Print.
In the short-term it is clear that Trotsky had a huge significance in the development of Russia, shown clearly through both his letters and documents, and the opinions of those close to Trotsky. The significance is obvious through his role in the build up to the October Revolution, his negotiations with Germany through the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, his contribution to Bolshevik success in the civil war and his attitude towards terror and his failure to out maneuver Stalin to succeed Lenin. Trotsky was hugely significant in the build up to and during the October Revolution. The first reason was his ability to convince many of the Social Democrats that the revolution was a real possibility, not just a theoretical concept. This is evident through much of Trotsky’s work as the leader of the Petrograd Soviet in September 1917, which saw Trotsky re-invent the Bolshevik plan to seize power, curbing Lenin’s ruthless ambition as he aimed for the swift overthrow of Kerensky.
The accumulation of these factors centred on Lenin's leadership helped stamp Bolshevik power across the Soviet Union. Lenin’s pragmatic leadership was the most considerable factor in helping to fortify Bolshevik power. His willingness to take power in October/November 1917 and the successes of the move, through his right-hand man, Trotsky, was critical as it helped give him unquestioned authority within the party despite members of the Central Committee i.e. Zinoviev and Kamenev suggested industrialisation needed to occur first. This highlighted Lenin’s communist ideology, which was essential to the Bolsheviks maintaining power. Following the failure of the Provisional Government, Lenin recognised that it was the Bolshevik’s priority to legitimise their government.
For many people, the 1917 revolution heralded a new age, much as the French revolution had. But instead of bringing on an age of secular republics, and liberalism, it brought on an age of oppressive states based on the Soviet Union’s model of government. To the untrained 20th century eye, the 1917 revolution’s model of state organization was something truly new, bizarre and intriguing. Yet, a brief synopsis of Russian history would quickly reveal that there were more similarities between the Soviet and Tsarist governments than Stalin or any other Soviet official would have cared to admit; the revolution was not as revolutionary as it seemed. This paper will use Hannah Arendt’s definition of revolution to demonstrate that the 1917 Bolshevik
Lenin's Death as the Beginning of a Period of Struggle for Leadership between the Leading Bolsheviks Lenin’s death marked the beginning of a period of struggle for
Lenin made a series of policies throughout the beginning of the Revolution and through his short time in public office that came to be collectively known as ‘Leninism’. There were many things that influenced Leninism, such as Karl Marx. Lenin had read Karl Marx and his...
In 1905 , Russia had a prerevolution that was put down of the Czar. Instead of learning from this prerevolution, Czar Nicholas II, made a very big mistake by in not introducing some reforms to correct the problems. So because of his actions, the situation grew worse. In 1917, the Russians were fighting in World War I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the Czar's rule. This uncontent along with economic hardships caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar called for the army to put down the revolution as they did in 1905. But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was kicked out of power soon afterwards. A temporary government was set up to decide on what kind of government Russia was gonna set up. Two political parties were set up. The Bolsheviks were one of the two. The leader of the Bolshevik party was a man named Lenin. Lenin was a firm believer of the theories and ideas of Karl Marx. So with his slogan of "Bread, Peace and Land", Lenin gained the support of the peasants and gained control of Russia and setup a communist state.
The Russian revolution of February 1917 was a momentous event in the course of Russian history. The causes of the revolution were very critical and even today historians debate on what was the primary cause of the revolution. The revolution began in Petrograd as “a workers’ revolt” in response to bread shortages. It removed Russia from the war and brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, replacing Russia’s monarchy with the world’s first Communist state. The revolution opened the door for Russia to fully enter the industrial age. Before 1917, Russia was a mostly agrarian nation. The Russian working class had been for many years fed up with the ways they had to live and work and it was only a matter of time before they had to take a stand. Peasants worked many hours for low wages and no land, which caused many families to lose their lives. Some would argue that World War I led to the intense downfall of Russia, while others believe that the main cause was the peasant unrest because of harsh living conditions. Although World War I cost Russia many resources and much land, the primary cause of the Russian Revolution was the peasant unrest due to living conditions because even before the war began in Russia there were outbreaks from peasants due to the lack of food and land that were only going to get worse with time.
Wood, A. (1986). The Russian Revolution. Seminar Studies in History. (2) Longman, p 1-98. ISBSN 0582355591, 9780582355590
Inspired by the works of Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin nonetheless drew his ideology from many other great 19th century philosophers. However, Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” was immensely important to the success of Russia under Leninist rule as it started a new era in history. Viewed as taboo in a capitalist society, Karl Marx started a movement that would permanently change the history of the entire world. Also, around this time, the Populist promoted a doctrine of social and economic equality, although weak in its ideology and method, overall. Lenin was also inspired by the anarchists who sought revolution as an ultimate means to the end of old regimes, in the hope of a new, better society. To his core, a revolutionary, V.I. Lenin was driven to evoke the class struggle that would ultimately transform Russia into a Socialist powerhouse. Through following primarily in the footsteps of Karl Marx, Lenin was to a lesser extent inspired by the Populists, the Anarchists, and the Social Democrats.
Lenin's Economic Policies in 1924 When the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917 they inherited many of the problems faced by the old Tsarist regime as well as those of the Provisional Government after the Tsars abdication. Lenin, as leader of the Bolsheviks took many measures to try and solve these problems, each with varying degrees of success. This essay will, therefore, go on to look at and discuss the various measures that Lenin and the Bolshevik party took, and, whether these measures created more problems for Russia in the end or in fact made significant progress towards the communist society that Lenin had prophesised for Russia. In the early days of Bolshevik rule, there were many problems facing Lenin.