Establishing Communist Party control LENIN

• Before the revolutions of 1917, Russia was ruled by emperors
• The Tsar's subjects had no political rights
• Russia's government was strong, but the economy was weak compared to that of Britain, Germany, the USA and other powers
• Russia had very little modern industry
• By 1913, only 2.4 million of Russia's 140 million people worked in factories
• The population as a whole remained very poor
• Political repression and massive inequality led to the growth of opposition
• The SR's were committed to overthrowing the Tsar
• The SR's weren't able to get passed the Tsar's political police
• Russia entered WW1 in 1914
• Russia's economy was too weak to provide food and equipment needed for war
• The Tsar was an incompetent wartime leader
• By early 1917, economic chaos, military defeat and political mismanagement led to the February Revolution
• The February Revolution was a popular uprising in Petrograd, Russia's capital city that overthrew the Tsar and set up a Provisional Government
• Following the February Revolution, the Provisional Government introduced a series of reforms
• The Tsar's despotism was replaced by a liberal system
• The Provisional Government reforms included freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion
• The Provisional Government promised democracy
• The Provisional Government continued to fight WW1
• Lenin argued for a second revolution
• Following his return from exile in April 1917, Lenin demanded an immediate end to WW1 and redistribution of land to peasants
• Lenin's demands were summarised in the slogan: "Peace, Land and Bread"
• As the Provisional Government continued to fight in the war and Russia's economic problems grew worse, Lenin's message became increasingly popular
• By October 1917 Lenin and his followers the Bolsheviks had support to overthrow the Provisional Government
• Lenin and Trotsky seized the moment and organised a coup d'etat, which allowed the Bolsheviks to take power
• Lenin seized power because

  He believed that a global revolution was needed to replace capitalism and imperialism with socialism
• Marx's view of history


  • History had progressed from Primitive Communism, slavery, Feudalism, and capitalism
  • Progress from one stage to another occurred due to class conflict
  • The English, American and French Revolutions were examples of the victory of capitalism over feudalism
  • Capitalism would also come to an end as capitalism would be replaced by socialism in Europe's most advanced economies
• Marx's writings on revolution and socialism


  • Did not contain a clear indication of how a revolution would happen
  • Did not show what socialism would look like
  • Were contradictory - in some places argued a revolutionary government would be more democratic, but also wrote about the "dictatorship of the proletariat" which would use power ruthlessly
• Lenin took both of Marx's ideas about democracy and dictatorship seriously
• Initially Lenin embraced a radically democratic state, but by the summer of 1918, the state was much more authoritarian
• Creating a 'Soviet-state'


  1. In October 1917, Lenin seized power on behalf of the Soviets

  2. The local soviets sent representatives to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets (ARCOS)

  3. The ARCOS became the basis of the new Russian Government

  4. The ARCOS elected the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) to govern Russia on a day-to-day basis
• Sovnarkom


  • Essentially the new Russian cabinet
  • First Sovnarkom was made up of 13 People's Commissars
  • Lenin was elected Chairman of Sovnarkom
  • Others included Trotsky and Stalin
• The new Commissars were revolutionaries who had supported Lenin since 1903
• Lenin's first government passed a series of decrees that were very popular
• Decrees passed by Lenin's government


  • Decree on Land (October 1917) - gave peasants the right to take land from the nobility and the Church
  • Decree of Peace (October 1917) - committed the new government to withdrawing from WW1
  • Workers' Decrees (November 1917) - established an 8 hour maximum working day and a minimum wage
  • Decree of Workers' Control (April 1918) - allowed workers to elect committees to run factories
• These early decrees allowed Lenin to take control over Russia by winning support from workers, peasants and soldiers, and ending WW1
• Initially the Sovnarkom had little real power as it only controlled Petrograd, not Russia's other major cities
• The Sovnarkom was very disorganised in its early months
• Lenin and the Bolsheviks claimed the new government was democratic, based on committees of working people
• There was evidence the new government was democratic, with the first decrees being popular and reflecting the needs of workers, peasants and soldiers