Question by Ember: How was Lenin able to gain and maintain power in the Russian Revolution?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Hispanicity
During the Russia revolution the Czar became hugely unpopular. That many of the Russian workers were protesting and many soldiers disobey their commanders. During this period Russia was with war against Germany. Knowing the Revolution was going on the Germans got Lenin and return him into Russia hoping he could take Russia out of the war. Lenin was a strong leader and knew how to handle the crowds of people. He and the Bolsheviks fought against the whites army. He promise bread and peace which many Russian supported. He gain the trust of the people as Lenin said he would make the workers get control of the government. Once he got the leadership of Russia he rename the country as the Soviet Union. He only rule for a couple of years before he suffer from a stroke. He didn’t want Stalin to take over which he did.
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Spellbound says
Lenin was able to gain and maintain power in the October Revolution for several reasons:
The February Revolution was swamped by the the October Revolution because it lacked democratic legitimacy. The Provisional Government was the re-constituted last State Duma. It refused an election to a promised interim government – the Constituent Assembly – saying that Russia would hold elections after the war.
The Petrograd Soviet was seen by many as a genuinely democratic institution, as it’s members were elected to it from the garrisons and factories of the capital.
The Bolshevik slogans “Bread, Land and Peace” and “All Power to the Soviets” sum up the other major factors: The cities were starving as the peasants were now in uniform fighting in the war – they could not plough, sow or harvest the crops. And the food delivery infrastructure had broken down. The peasants wanted the Provisional Government to give them the land they worked on – it didn’t, and the most of the land was still owned by the aristocracy. And Russia was doing badly in the war and most people wanted Russia to withdraw from it.
Soviets were seen as genuinely democratic bodies – they were mostly formed spontaneously and ran everything from factories to city blocks. By demanding All Power to the Soviets the Bolsheviks were tapping into popular democratic demands.
Other factors:
Lenin was a dedicated, determined and capable leader. He motivated his party and, through agitation & propaganda, the Bolsheviks became very popular in the army and in the factories.
Trotsky was an extremely gifted administrator. He was the chairman of the Milrevkom – the Military Revolutionary Committee – this was the organisation that orchestrated the events of October 1917.
The leadership of the party was loyal to Lenin, and they followed his orders with conviction.
The party had a competent propaganda machine, producing newspapers, banners, posters and setting up recruitment drives in the army and factories.
The Bolsheviks were able to win the civil war because: their enemies (the White Armies) were disunified and often fought between themselves; the Whites also treated the civilian population with brutality; the Bolsheviks controlled the central, European part of the country, with all the communications (railways, telegraph and telephone exchanges) and the Bolsheviks were dedicated, utterly loyal and focused.
See:
The Bolsheviks in Russian Society – Vladimir Brovkin
The Russian Revolution – Sheila Fitzpatrick
The October Revolution – Roy Medvedev
http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917october&Year=1917
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/events/revolution/index.htm