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Modern History

Home > Modern History > National Studies > G Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941 > Communism in theory and practice

V.I.Lenin

 

Outcomes:

• Analyse and evaluate the role of key features, issues, individuals, groups and events of selected twentieth-century studies (H1.2)
• Explain forces and ideas and accesses their significance in contributing to change and continuity during the twentieth century (H2.1)

Key features

From this tutorial you will learn about:

• Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917
• Significance of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Main features of Communist (Bolshevik) ideology at the time of the revolution
• Social and political reforms of the Bolshevik government
• The Civil War and aims, nature and impact of War Communism
• The New Economic Policy (NEP)

Contents

• Lenin and the Bolshevik revolution in 1917
• The significance of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Reasons for the Bolshevik consolidation of power
• The aims, nature and impact of War Communism and the New Economic Policy (NEP)
• The results of the Bolshevik seizure of power

Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917

The first moves of the Bolsheviks in November 1917 were intended to give themselves revolutionary legality. For this, they used the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets in which they outnumbered their opponents. Not surprisingly, that body approved of Bolshevik actions against the Provisional Government and agreed to a new government, known as 'The Soviet of People's Commissars'.

Then in a bid to get constitutional legality, the Bolsheviks allowed the elections to the Constituent Assembly, called by Kerensky, to continue. When it met in January 1918, it refused to recognise the authority of the Congress of Soviets, and Bolshevik troops dissolved it. This was to be the last election on a wide franchise held in Russia.

As for general policy, Lenin's first aim was to stop the war at all costs so that he could concentrate on internal matters. At first, however, the German demands were so outrageous that Trotsky refused to sign the 'peace treaty', allowing the German armies to sweep forward once more into the vast open spaces of Russia. At this stage, according to socialist theories, the Bolsheviks should have waged a revolutionary war against the invaders and called on the German troops not to use force against their fellow workers. But they were afraid to do this in case they lost control of events and the government. So this marked a very early break between theory and practice.

The significance of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Lenin eventually persuaded the Bolsheviks of the necessity to accept the German demands, and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March 1918. This was a savage treaty; it puts the German claim that they were maltreated by the wicked allies at Versailles into perspective. The old Russian Empire had lost:

• one-quarter of arable land and population
• three-quarters of iron and coal
• half of industrial plant

This was a staggering price to pay for peace, and Lenin could only get it accepted by the party by arguing that revolution was imminent in Germany, so the price would be only a temporary one.

Lenin's comment on the Brest-Litovsk Treaty was: 'the absolute truth is that without a revolution in Germany, we shall perish.'

Reasons for the Bolshevik consolidations of power

Opposition was bound to mount as the realities of Bolshevik rule became clearer. Nearly the whole of the civil service went on strike, bringing the administration and distribution of food almost to a standstill. The Church, of course, was also in opposition; the Cossacks resisted; so too did the ordinary people, particularly the peasants, as they realised what was happening. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk horrified Russian opinion of every shade, including quite sincere revolutionaries. The Bolsheviks were forcing their enemies to unite against them.

Yet even though they were attacked from north, south, east and west, with allied intervention occurring on a large scale, with famine and acute discontent arising from their economic policies, the Bolsheviks survived. Why? There are several reasons.

1. The first reason for the Bolshevik triumph was undoubtedly the divisions between the anti-Bolshevik forces and their lack of coordination with the allied armies.
2. Another and more important reason was their failure to enlist peasant support. Counter-revolutionaries are habitually blind to the lessons of revolution. Since they had seen what the Bolsheviks were like, the more prosperous peasants would have supported their opponents. But the reactionary elements in the White armies soon made it clear that their main aim was to win back the lands the peasants had stolen, and re-establish the feudal system. So the peasants did not like either side, and withdrew into sulky isolation, slaughtered by the armies of both sides as their territory was occupied.
3. A good efficient fighting force was created in the Red Army, led brilliantly by Trotsky.
4. This army had the advantage of internal lines of communication and control of the railways.
5. They could increasingly rely on the reaction of Russian patriotism against foreign intervention. The White armies became identified with hated foreigners.
6. The growing strength of the Bolsheviks was reinforced by the ruthless terrorism of the Cheka, who summarily executed thousands of real and imagined opponents of the regime.
7. Finally, the skilful and relentless propaganda that bound their supporters and divided their opponents was important.

But it was the Red Army that defeated the Whites in the field, and the driving force behind this was Trotsky. By 1920 the Red Army consisted of 5 million men, although probably only 600,000 were available at any one time. Discipline was tightened; political commissars were appointed to watch over all activities; the election of officers was abolished; and former tsarist officers were forced to serve in the Red Army by the holding of their families as hostage.

The economy collapsed, and official barter replaced money everywhere. A vast black market grew up. Discontent was rife. Outbursts of peasant anarchy occurred; and in March 1921 the sailors of Kronstadt naval base, once the spearhead of the revolution, mutinied and rose against the men who, they claimed, were corrupting the revolution. They demanded the end of the bullying of the peasants and a return of real power to the Soviets. Their rising was put down in blood by Trotsky ­ the man who later wrote a book entitled The Revolution Betrayed.

The aims, nature and impact of War Communism and the New Economic Policy (NEP)

But the Communist Party under Lenin had at least seen the danger signs. Economic improvement had to come. Lenin, therefore, persuaded the party to adopt the so-called New Economic Policy (NEP). Despite its weaknesses, this was an improvement and should have continued, but neither Lenin nor the other Communists had abandoned their aims. What they sought was a breathing space, and to get this they had to increase production at all costs. Pasternak, in his book Dr Zhivago, describes the NEP as 'the most false and ambiguous of all Soviet periods.' It was not surprising that he was persecuted by the government of Khrushchev!

All this, of course, is a far cry from Karl Marx, and even further from the mainstream of socialism. They had turned Marx's theories into an uncompromising dogmatism, of which they were the only interpreters.

In short, Lenin used the revolution of the bourgeoisie to seize power himself. Whatever he wrote or said, the fact remains that he abandoned Marx's theory of how and when societies change. By his very seizure of power the Bolsheviks were committed to many things they had not previously supported:

1. There was a lessening of internal democracy. Marx had wanted the leaders of his party to be responsible to its members. Lenin had felt obliged to insist on loyalty, on the party acting as one.
2. The bureaucracy became more powerful, and the tsarist bureaucracy reappeared, retaining many privileges.
3. Any chance of democracy in the country as a whole was abandoned. Lenin was convinced he was right, and would allow no other parties and no other leaders to oppose him. The 'dictatorship of the proletariat' became the 'dictatorship of the party'. Since there cannot be room for more than one party, and since it is utterly correct in its views, it is justified in using any methods to exclude or crush those mistaken or wicked enough to disagree with it.

The results of the Bolshevik seizure of power

There were four broad changes in Marxism in general and Russia in particular as a result of Lenin's seizure of power:

1. Lenin had changed Marxism from the doctrine of a highly organised and literate working class into one of state imposition of socialism by force, based on a despotic party and a police state.
2. Communists have abandoned Marx's economic determinism. They first engineer a revolution and then use state power to transform society.
3. The third and worst result of Lenin's bid for power has been the suppression of human freedom. He wrote in 1906: 'Great questions in the life of Nations are settled only by force.' Or, as Mao put it, 'all power comes from the barrel of a gun.'
4. And for the Russian people ­ they had overthrown one set of masters for another.