The Early Months 1917-18

• The Bolsheviks survived the first months in power by a mixture of concession and ruthless action.
• They overcame the strikes and protests from the working classes in the cities (who favoured Soviet rather than Bolshevik rule) and by-passed the Soviet to establish a Bolshevik-dominated government headed by Sovnarkom. 
• Prevented other political groups (except a few left-wing SRs) from sharing power and issued decrees designed to win support for the new regime. 
• The Constituent Assembly was forcibly dissolved in January 1918 while the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave the government the peace it needed in order to survive, despite having been controversial even with the Bolsheviks