The Consolidation of the Communist Dictatorship

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?

  1. Lenin didn’t want a democracy, wanted one-party state
  2. Wanted dictatorship – no sharing of power
  3. Dismisses it as bourgeoisie
  4. Prevent civil war between Congress of Soviets and CA supporters
  5. CA wouldn’t endorse decrees – couldn’t co-operate
  6. Lenin – said he wanted to put the proletariat first
  7. Claimed CA would postpone action
  8. 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:
  1. 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