CHAPTER 5 – LENIN AND RUSSIA

The Bolsheviks controlled Petrograd but in other places their takeover was not so easy. However,
Lenin was sure that the Bolsheviks must win control of the country.

The Bolshevik revolution

The new Bolshevik government was formed and Lenin made new laws:

-Social classes are abolished

-The General title of citizen of the Russian Republic is established

-All ranks in the army are abolished. It now consists of equal citizens

-Private property is abolished. All land is the property of all the whole toiling people

-Workers’ control is the first step to transforming the factories, mines, railways and other means of
production and transport into the property of the WORKERS’ AND PEASANTS’ STATE
(ditactorship)

-The passing of all Banks into the possession of the Workers’ and Peasants’ State is confirmed as
one of the conditions for freeing the toiling masses from the burden of Capitalism

-Newspapers and magazines will be closed if they call for opposition to the Workers’ and Peasants’
Government; encourage treason by distortion of facts

-The CHEKA (secret police) ask all soviets to arrest and shoot all enemy spies, speculators,
organisers of revolts and buyers and sellers of arms.

Lenin tried to deal with the shortage of food in towns by sending soldiers out into the countryside to
seize grain, which often left the peasants without seed-corn to plant. Lenin defended this action
with the Marxits theory of the DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT. Lenin said it was
necessary for the Bolshevik Party to act as a dictator.

Most of Bolshevik supporters were in the army, the navy and workers of Moscow and Petrograd.
So Bolsheviks controlled the important centres of power. They used the telegraph to spread the
revolutionary decrees out to cities and towns of Russia hoping that local groups would act on them.
Some of the decrees did not follow strictly the Marxist theory because Lenin wanted to win support
of the peasants, as the Bolsheviks had little support in the rural areas.

Assembly elections

This lack of support was seen in the elections for the Assembly held in January 1918. In the
elections, the Bolsheviks only won 175 seats out of 707. Most seats went to the Social
Revolutionary Party, which had support among the peasants.
But when the Assembly met for its first sesión, Lenin ordered the Bolshevik Red Guards to
surround the building. After this sesión, the first freely elected Assembly in Russia’s history was
closed. It was never allowed to meet again.

This action made Lenin many enemies.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)

Lenin had hoped that the Russian Revolution would spark off revolutions all over Europe,
expecting that this would bring an end to the WWI as soldiers would refuse to fight. But this did not
happen despite the Russians continuos peace talks with the Germans, hoping for the expected
revolution. The Germans lost patience and forced TROTSKY (Lenin’s representative) to sign the
TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK, which ended Russia’s participation of the war. This treaty took
much of Russia’s population, railway system and industry (some of the land was to be returned to
Russia by the TOV).

The Civil War (1918-1921)

Britain and France were angry for Russia leaving the war because it had given Germany an
advantage: thousands of German soldiers had been taken from the Eastern Front to the Western
Front. Because of this resentment, Britain and France looked for ways of opening the Eastern
Front again. They made contact with the Bolshevik’s enemies within Russia.

From 1918 to 1921, Russia fought a CIVIL WAR. The Bolsheviks were called REDS (the colour of
the Communist flag) and their opponents were the WHITES (Tsarists, Liberals, Social
Revolutionaries and Anarchists). The Whites were helped by several countries (Britain, France,
Japan, the USA), which at first wanted to open up the Eastern Front with Germany again, but later,
they only wanted to crush the new Communist state to prevent its ideas from spreading.

A RED ARMY had to be put together if the Bolsheviks wanted to survive. So Trostky went from
front to front in a special train making speeches, encouraging soldiers and making sure that
supplies were available. He took on ex-Tsarist officers but attached a COMMUNIST PARTY
COMMISSAR to each one to ensure that they stayed loyal.

Fortunately for the Reds, the Whites did not act together. In 1918, a Bolshevik commander, keen to
weaken the Tsarist cause, ordered the Tsar and all his family shot. The foreign powers were
sickened by this and by the divisions among the Whites so they withdrawn their support and the
White forces crumbled away.

War Communism

Lenin put forward a policy called WAR COMMUNISM to try to win the war. It stated that everyone
between 16 and 60 had to work. Strikes were ilegal. Food Detachments of men with machine-guns
were sen tinto the countryside to seize food. The Red Army was allowed to take any supplies it
needed.

 Why did the Reds win the Civil War?

-The White forces did not act together, whereas the Reds acted under Trotsky’s command.

-The White armies were hundred kms apart and they found it difficult to get supplies, whereas the
Reds were gathered in the heartland of Russia, which included most of the railway system, so they
could get supplies easily.

Famine – 1921

By 1921, Russia was in a state of total collapse after 7 years of war. Peasants would refuse to farm
the land as they saw little point in growing crops only to have the harvest taken away from them
(Food Detachments still went on). Workers’ control brought chaos to factories and railways. Towns
were deserted since people went to the countryside to look for food.

There was a mutiny among the sailors at a naval base near Petrograd. They called for a 3rd
revolution, more free election, free speech and free trade unions. These were people who had
supported the Bolsheviks from the beginning and now were disgusted with War Communism and
the state of Russia. Trotsky ordered the Red Army to crush the mutiny.

New Economic Policy (NEP)

The mutiny and the sorry state of the land led Lenin to introduce some changes, letting some
aspects of CAPITALISM return: peasants were allowed to farm their own land and sell their
produce as tax; peasants were also allowed to hire people to work for them (kulaks); people were
allowed to run small businesses like shops; factories and trades began to flourish.

Farming soon recovered and there was food in towns again.

Death of Lenin

In 1918, a Social Revolutionary called Dora Kaplan had fired several shots at Lenin. In 1922, he
had a stroke and never recovered again. His sucesor was STALIN.