Lenin - Origins of Revolution

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In 1917 the Bolshevik’s overthrew the Provisional Government causing Lenin to be elected chairman of the new government under Bolshevik rule. Russia was the first state to be under socialist rule in the world. Lenin was able to defeat a weak government and seize power. Lenin, with the help of Leon Trotsky, led the Bolsheviks into a new age in Russian history. The two halted any opposition set on conquering them after they took power. They defeated the “White Army”, consisting of anyone who opposed the Bolshevik government. These groups were the Mensheviks, Social Democrats, loyalist to Tsar Nicholas II, Constitutional Democrats or (Kadets), Social Revolutionaries and those in favor of the Provisional Government. On top of all of these groups who were against Lenin, he had to fight off the advancing German Army who was getting closer to Petrograd (St. Petersburg).
On December 3rd, 1917, a delegation led by Leon Trotsky met with German and Austrian representatives. For nine weeks they continuously negotiated and on March 3rd 1918, Trotsky was able to finalize peace talks, creating the Brest-Liovisk Treaty. The treaty caused large portions of Russian territory to be forfeited to the Germans and Austrians including the Baltics, Finland, the Caucasus and Ukraine.
Lenin appointed Trotsky as the commissioner of war of the “Red Army” or the Bolsheviks, in October of 1918. The Civil War of Reds vs. Whites ended with a substantial amount of bloodshed on October 25th, 1922 when the final opposition was defeated in Siberia. The Red Army and the Bolsheviks finally defeated all enemies that had been any threat to their surmounting power. They officially became the first socialist state to be recognized worldwide as the official government...

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Hill, Christopher Hill. Lenin and the Russian Revolution. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950.
Hornung, Andrew . "Lenin and the Russian Revolution." Workers Liberty. 16 Mar. 2010. 23 Sep. 2013. .
Levine, Issac Don. The Man Lenin. New York: Thomas Seltzer Inc., 1924.
Moss, Walter G. A History or Russia. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 1997.
Trotsky, Leon. The Young Lenin. New York: Doubleday & Company Inc., 1972.
Tucker, Robert C. The Lenin Anthology. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1975.
Ulam, Adam B. The Bolsheviks; the intellectual and political history of the triumph of communism in Russia. New York: Macmillan, 1965.
Volkogonov, Dmitri. Lenin: A New Biography. New York: The Free Press, 1994.

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