Why were the Bolsheviks able to consolidate their control of Russia, 1917 - 1924?
Getting control of peasants
treaty of Brest-litovsk
Precarious government position
- A socialist revolutionary leader gave the party "no more than a few days"
- A Menshevik leader gave it "three weeks"
- No guarantee that the central government could get its decisions carried out
Political Misjudgements
- Socialist revolutionaries didn't take action because they thought the Bolshevik government would collapse quickly and the Constituent Assembly would triumph
- Underestimated the Bolshevik's capacity to survive
Striking civil servants and demonstrations
- Over the capital civil servants mounted protest strikes the state bank refused to hand over any money
- The money was much needed by the Russian government
Workers and peasants were distracted
- Declining living conditions and disillusion with revolution made it difficult to rouse anyone to action
- The attention of urban workers was more focused on keeping their own factories going and keeping their jobs
- Peasants only concerned with land; what was going on in the cities was largely irrelevant to them
End of the War
- The Decree on Peace was signed on 26 October
- Russian army at the front disintegrated rapidly as soldiers rushed home
- This meant the German army was free to walk into Russia and take what they want
- The army could not be used against the Bolsheviks by the generals
- There were peace negotiations made at Brest-Litovsk which kept the peace
Getting Control of Peasants
- The Bolsheviks' position was extremely precarious
- The Bolsheviks introduced some decrees straight away without the Soviet's permission
- LAND DECREE: Peasants could take any land they liked. It belonged to the 'entire people'
- WORKERS' CONTROL DECREE: Factory committees controlled finance and production
- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA DECREE: Self-determination to national minorities
opposing parties
- The Kadet party - did well in Consituent Assembly elections
- The Right Wing Socialist Revolutionaries
- Leaders of the Bourgeois counter revolution
Attacking oppostion
- Denounced and outlawed the Kadet party
- Lenin set up Cheka - force of dedicated Bolshevik supporters who provided dependable security
- Lenin encouraged class warfare to deal with the leaders of the counter revolution
- Right Wing Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were put in prison
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Collapse of the army
Officers and conservative forces couldn't count on any loyal troops to attack the Bolsheviks
- Patriotic Russians didn't agree with giving away large chunks of the Russian homeland this encouraged people to join anti-Bolshevik forces
- It caused splits in the Bolshevik party
- Left Wing Socialist Revolutionaries who wanted to fight a revolutionary war left the Sovnarkom
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Precarious Government position
MAIN FACTORS
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Striking Civil Servants and Demonstrations
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Immie :)
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