Survey

What are the core tenets of Marxist ideology as understood by the Bolsheviks?

Marxism holds that history progresses through class struggle, with the proletariat overthrowing the bourgeoisie to achieve socialism and ultimately communism—a classless, stateless society.

How were the tenets of Marxism interpreted by the Bolsheviks?

The Bolsheviks interpreted Marxism by emphasising the role of a disciplined vanguard party to guide the proletariat in overthrowing the bourgeoisie, particularly in a primarily agrarian society like Russia, to establish a socialist state.

How did Lenin adapt Marxist theory to fit Russia's conditions?

Lenin argued that a small, disciplined revolutionary vanguard could lead the proletariat to revolution, bypassing the capitalist stage. He believed peasants could act as a revolutionary force and that waiting for full capitalist development was unnecessary.

What was Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? about?

It called for a centralised and disciplined party of professional revolutionaries to guide the working class, who, he argued, could not achieve revolutionary consciousness alone.

What events led to the October Revolution in 1917?

WWI exhaustion, food/fuel shortages, the Provisional Government’s failure to enact reform, the discrediting of Kerensky during the Kornilov Affair, and the rise of the Bolsheviks with slogans like "Peace, Land, Bread".

How did the Bolsheviks seize power in October 1917?

Red Guards and the Military Revolutionary Committee, under Trotsky, took control of key institutions in Petrograd and arrested the Provisional Government with minimal resistance.

What was the Sovnarkom?

The Council of People’s Commissars, formed after the October Revolution to act as the executive authority, initially composed solely of Bolsheviks and chaired by Lenin.

What was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

A March 1918 treaty ending Russian involvement in WWI, ceding massive territories to Germany. It was humiliating but necessary for the Bolsheviks to focus on domestic consolidation.

What was the role of the Cheka?

The Cheka was a secret police force created to suppress opposition through terror, arrest, and execution. It became central to Bolshevik control, especially during the Red Terror.

What was War Communism?

An emergency economic policy (1918–21) involving grain requisitioning, nationalisation, forced labour discipline, and rationing, aimed at supplying the Red Army during the Civil War.

What was the impact of War Communism?

It contributed to economic collapse, famine, industrial decline, and peasant uprisings, but ensured the Red Army’s survival during the Civil War.

Why was the NEP introduced in 1921?

War Communism had caused widespread discontent, famine, and the Kronstadt Revolt. The NEP aimed to revive the economy and appease the peasantry.

What were the features of the NEP?

Grain requisitioning was abolished; private trade and small businesses were legalised; peasants could sell surplus; state retained control of heavy industry.

What were the political consequences of the NEP?

Despite economic recovery, political repression intensified: censorship, arrests of opposition socialists, and the banning of Party factions reinforced authoritarianism.