BOLSHEVIK CONSOLIDATION OF AUTHORITY:
How did Lenin set up the new government?
- Lenin did not use Soviet as a government
- Created Sovnarkom – mostly Bols and some SRs (left) later
- Lenin did not want to share power with Mens etc.
- Limited power
- Soviets and bodies – Mens, SRs, countryside – Bols are non-existent
- Even some Bols controlled soviets were uncontrollable
- Protest strikes by civil servants, banks refused to hand over money – took ten days and armed force to make banks open vaults
- Lenin gave workers and peasants what they wanted
- Power given to local soviets to manage own affairs
- Sovnarkom ruled through decrees
- Decree on Land – take estates of gentry, now belonged to everyone
- Decree for Worker Control – factory committees given right to control production etc.
- Decree for Rights of the People of Russia – self-determination to national minorities
- Decrees increasingly benefit Bols as time goes on
How did Bols deal with threat from opp?
- Some opp but weak and uncoordinated
- Aware of dangers of civil war
- Build up forces of terror – Cheka
- Set up 7 Dec 1917
- Close down opp press
- First right and centre then left
- Outlaw and denounce opp parties
- Encouraged class warfare
- Intimidate middle classes into submission
- Anyone accused of being a bourgeoisie = arrested, beaten or robbed
- Legal system abolished, replaced with revolutionary justice = violent
- Abolition of titles gave lower classes power and dignity
- Striking civil servants arrested, civil service purged
- Bureaucracy that developed was poor quality but obedient
How did Bols deal with other socialists?
- Petitions for a socialist coalition and co-operation to avoid factions
- People didn’t want to lose rev due to socialist infighting
- In favour of Soviet power, not one-party rule
- Railwaymen’s union and post and telegraph union threatened to cut off communications
- Lenin sent representatives to talks with other parties about a power-sharing gov
- Lenin allowed planned elections for Constituent Assembly to go ahead
- Kamenev and Zinoviev were in favour of a socialist coalition gov
- Bols only would have to maintain by terror
- Would be destroyed in following civil war
- Lenin was not serious about a coalition; both Kamenev and Zinoviev temporarily resigned
- Lenin engineered collapse of talks
- Lenin did make an alliance with left SRs – could claim to represent peasants
Constituent Assembly – 12 Nov 1917:
- Could claim to be legitimate gov – approx. 400 people, 130 pro-Bols
- SRs – 48% of vote
- Bols – 24% of vote
- Kadets – 4.7%
- Mens – 4.1%
LENIN’S REACTION:
- Accepts some left SRs into Sovnarkom = temporary coalition
- Can claim to have 72% of vote
- Ballot paper didn’t reflect left and right SRs – just SRs
- Undermines vote, people’s views not represented correctly
- 28 Nov – Kadets are banned – declared ‘enemies of the people’
- Leader – Milyukov goes to Germany for help – lives in exile
- CA can’t meet until 5th Jan 1918
- Uses extra time to cast doubt on CA and ability to run gov
- Lenin quickly destroys opp – Lenin wants one-party state, not CA
- CA met on 5th Jan, 4pm in Tauride Palace
- Lots of right SRs
- Chernov (SR leader) = chairman
- Bols passed decrees asked CA to endorse them – to become permanently legal
- Lose by 237 to 136
- Becomes clear to Lenin that CA won’t co-operate
- Sovnarkom agree to dissolve CA – allow CA to continue discussion
- At 4am – told to leave
- Final vote – decide to meet again at 5pm on 6th Jan
- 6th Jan – building locked, armed guards
- Afraid Bols would be angry so brought candles in case the power was out
- Fate of CA members – go home, meet in soviet instead, White Army, meet in school hall/the Ukraine
- Lenin’s alternative = 3rd All-Russian Congress of Soviets (many people in CA are in soviet)
- Bols have majority there
- 441 out of 707 delegates
- Meet on 10th Jan – one week
- Talk about running gov, ratify (endorse) dissolution of CA
Why did Lenin shut down the CA?
- Lenin didn’t want a democracy, wanted one-party state
- Wanted dictatorship – no sharing of power
- Dismisses it as bourgeoisie
- Prevent civil war between Congress of Soviets and CA supporters
- CA wouldn’t endorse decrees – couldn’t co-operate
- Lenin – said he wanted to put the proletariat first
- Claimed CA would postpone action
- Wanted pro-Soviet Revolutionary Republic to triumph
WW1:
- 26th Oct – Decree on Peace
- Calls for all nations to end WW1
- Makes sense – general war weariness, thought to last only until end of 1914
- All nations ignore
- 19th Nov – calls for an armistice (ceasefire)
- Lenin calls for peace
- Germany agrees to meet on neutral land – Brest-Litovsk
- Nov 1917 – Mar 1918 – meet there
- Lenin and Stalin did this to stop war before they lost
- Bukharin disagrees, thinks Germany will fall to Comm.
- Trotsky sent to B-L, won’t sign peace treaty but will end war – middle ground
- Forced to sign in Mar 1918
- Harsh terms
- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk TERMS:
- Breaks up Russian empire
- 5 major countries given independence
- Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania
- Russia loses 62 million people
- Less tax and people for army
- Lose 27% of farmland – bad for rationing and requisitioning
- Lose 74% of coal and iron reserves
- Treaty upsets SRs – they wanted to continue war
- Left SRs in Sovnarkom resign
- Sovnarkom becomes fully Bols (Mar 1918)
How did the Bols stay in power?
BOLS ACTIONS:
- Gave public what they wanted
- Oct 1917 – Decree on Land and Peace
- Nov 1917 – Ceasefire
- Nov 1917 – Worker’s Control Decree
- Nov 1917 – Rights of the People of Russia Decree
- Dec 1917 – Democratisation of the army
- Undermined CA elections
OPP LACK OF ACTION:
- Lack of organisation
- Assumed Bols wouldn’t survive
- Army order collapses
- Didn’t present a suitable contender