The Bolshevik Government + The Suppression of Opposition

• Lenin announced a seizure of power on 25 October 1917 and the All-Russian Congress of Soviets was introduced.
• The Congress of Soviets met on 26 October 1917 and they met with socialists to end the coup.
• Bolsheviks and extreme SRs were left in control after the Mensheviks and other SRs left.
• Lenin established a government of political commissars who were collectively known as the Sovnarkom.
• Trotsky was the Commissar of Foreign Affairs in the Sovnarkom.
• Commissars could rule without decree and no Soviet reference was needed.
• The Sovnarkom was primarily made up of Bolsheviks
• The Decree on Peace called for an end to war.
• The Decree on Land called for land to be property of the people.
• The Decree on Workers Control called for workers to have factory control.
• Titles and ranks were abolished under the Sovnarkom.
• Banks and churches were nationalised under the Sovnarkom.
• Early Bolshevik decrees seemed popular in society with the Decree of Land being especially popular.
• The Decree on Land helped the Bolsheviks win peasant support.
• Most of Russia was outside of the Bolsheviks control and the people called for a new government from the Bolsheviks.
• The "new government" from the Bolsheviks was meant to represent socialism but Lenin preferred one-party rule.
• Class warfare was encouraged and the Burzhui (anti-communism) campaign began.
• Anti-Bolshevik papers were closed.
• Many civil servants were dismissed and replaced by Bolsheviks.
• The Cheka was established in December 1917 which was the Bolshevik secret police.
• SRs, Kadets and Mensheviks were arrested under Lenin.
• Bolshevik opponents centred on a constituent assembly with Lenin allowing the election due to a fear of opposition.
• The SRs won most of the seats in the 1918 election which shocked Lenin.
• Lenin announced that the new assembly would be a bourgeoisie democracy.
• The bourgeoisie democracy met for the first time on 5 January 1918 but Lenin decided that the Bolsheviks would rule on behalf of the proletariats.
• Historian Sheila Fitzpatrick suggested that the Bolshevik's one-party rule "emerged as a historical accident".