Russia - bolshevik consolidation

• One-party control:

  • 25th October 1917 - delegates voted 500 to 170 for a socialist government to replace overthrown prov govt
  • Lenin did not want to share power
• Constituent assembly

  • SRs won majority of seats
  • Lenin declared that ‘elections prove nothing’
  • Assembly met for one day and was closed by troops and never reopened
  • Lenin said that Russia was now governed by a ‘dictatorship of the Proletariat‘
• Peace with Germany

  • Armistice agreed in December 1917
  • Lenin and Trotsky did not agree - Trotsky opposed agreeing to a deal that would involve harsh terms for Russia whereas Lenin was less concerned
  • Bukharin led the ‘revolutionary war group’ that was against peace
  • Trotsky dragged proceedings out which annoyed the Germans, who ended the armistice and advanced into Russia
  • Lenin demanded Trotsky negotiate peace but harsh terms of Treaty of Brest-Litovsk were unpopular
  • Left wing SRs walked out of Sovnarkom in protest
  • Central committee only agreed to it because Lenin threatened to resign
• Consolidation of one party state:

  • Workers put in charge of railways
  • Goverment support for church ended
  • Industries were nationalised and land ownership abolished
• 1918 constitution - Structure was intended to be:

  • Sovnarkom
  • Central executive committee
  • All-Russian congress of Soviets
  • Local Soviets
• Reality of 1918 constitution:

  • Lenin and Sovnarkom held most power
  • Congress only met at intervals throughout year
  • Sovnarkom was chosen by Bolshevik central committee
  • Workers votes were worth five peasant votes
  • Members of former ‘exploiting classes’ were banned from voting in July 1918
  • No free choice of candidates, only Bolshevik nominees