Leninism: An Analysis

YEAR 12 ATAR MODERN HISTORY

LENINISM, 1917-1924 – AN OVERVIEW

UNIT CONTENT

• the significant ideas of the period, including autocracy, Marxism, communism, Leninism, Stalinism, and collectivisation;
• the internal divisions and crises within Russian society, including the impact of World War I; the causes, events and outcomes of the February and October Revolutions in 1917;
• the initial reforms and decrees of the Bolsheviks; the opposition to the Bolsheviks; the Brest-Litovsk Treaty; the civil war and the reasons for the Bolshevik victory.

OVERVIEW

1. Leninism 

• Key features and application in a Russian context

1. Background

• Crisis of dual authority resulting from the February Revolution of 1917
• Reasons for the Bolshevik success in the October Revolution of 1917

1. Initial reforms and decrees of the Bolsheviks

• Creation of Sovnarkom and the distribution of power in revolutionary Russia

Lenin’s decrees on Peace, Land, Workers’ Control and Nationalisation

Peace: The Decree on Peace outlined measures for Russia's withdrawal from the First World War without "payment of indemnities or annexations". This decree aimed to secure the support of many soldiers on the disintegrating Russian front. The sincerity of this Bolshevik assurance came under scrutiny when V.L Lenin endorsed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which divested Russia of its Baltic territory.

Land: The Decree on Land outlined measures by which the peasants were to divide up rural land among themselves. It advocated the forceful dissolution of many wealthy estates by peasant forces. Such measures no doubt contributed to an increase in Bolshevik support amongst the peasantry but were counterproductive in that the Russian war front disintegrated as soldiers (who were formerly peasants) returned to secure land for themselves.

Factories: The Workers' Decrees outlined measures for minimum wage, limitations on workers' hours, and the running of factories by elected workers' committees. This consolidated Bolshevik support amongst the working classes in the cities, where they had taken power.

The Bolsheviks also declared approximately 100 other decrees outlining the formal setup of Bolshevik government through the medium of the soviet institutions. Nevertheless, Soviet political sovereignty was to be further challenged by the fact that the Social Revolutionary party attained over 50% of the votes in a democratically elected Assembly in January 1918. The Assembly was promptly shut down by the Bolsheviks claiming the Soviets (workers' councils) were a more advanced democratic representation of the Russian people.

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