how the bolsheviks established a one party state 1917-24

The creation of a one-party state and the party congress of 1921: difficulties faced by the Bolsheviks

• The Bolsheviks faced enormous difficulties in attempting to secure their hold on power

• These difficulties stemmed from the fact that, although the Party had grown in support since the beginning of 1917, the Bolsheviks remained a relatively small group

• Although the Bolsheviks claimed to represent the interests of the proletariat and peasants, they did not have enough support to lead a popular revolution; they had seized power by force

The creation of a one-party state and the party congress of 1921: opposition the Bolsheviks faced: left wing groups

Other left-wing groups who were denied a share of power by the Bolsheviks, such as the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs) and the Mensheviks, who were fellow Marxists.

The creation of a one-party state and the party congress of 1921: opposition the Bolsheviks faced: groups on the right

• Groups on the right (such as Tsarist supporters) and liberal groups who often represented the interests of the middle class and who now feared the Bolsheviks would take away their businesses and deny them political freedoms

• The ideology of Marxism, with its emphasis on giving power and control to the proletariat, represented a challenge to the rich and privileged within Russia

• The old social order seemed to be under attack

The creation of a one-party state and the party congress of 1921: opposition the Bolsheviks faced: nationalist groups

Nationalist groups within the Russian Empire, such as Ukrainians, Poles and Finns, who saw the collapse of the Tsarist regime as a chance to assert their independence.

How did the Bolsheviks deal with the other left-wing groups?

• Other left-wing groups shared many of the socialist aims of the Bolsheviks

• As a result, groups such as the SRs and Mensheviks hoped that they would be given a share in the new government

• Lenin made it clear that there would be no sharing of power

• Calls for a socialist coalition from the SRs and Mensheviks, even from some leading Bolsheviks such as Lev Kamenev, were swiftly and firmly rejected by Lenin

• Leon Trotsky, Lenin's closest associate, had pointed out to the SRs and Mensheviks: "You have played out your role. Go where you belong: to the dustbin of history

• Yet, for practical reasons, some left-wing SRs did join the Bolshevik government in the beginning

• Even this small measure of co-operation did not last long.

SRs and Mensheviks calling for initiative

• The SRs and the Mensheviks hoped that the calling of a parliament, the Constituent Assembly, in January 1918 would be a chance to regain the initiative. The Assembly was to be democratically elected and this played to the strengths of the SRs, who were able to mobilise their support among the peasantry

• The results were not in the Bolsheviks' favour

• They gained 175 seats in the Assembly with over nine million votes, but the SRs emerged as the largest single party with 410 seats and 21 million votes

• To use the Assembly as a national parliament would clearly pose a threat to continued Bolshevik rule. Lenin therefore dissolved the Assembly after only one meeting and condemned it as an instrument of the bourgeoisie

• In place of the Assembly, Lenin used the All-Russian Congress of Soviets as an instrument of popular suppor

• It was, of course, a body where the Bolsheviks had more influence. Not only had Lenin ignored the calls for a socialist coalition, but he had also ensured that there was to be no real forum for opposition

The destruction of other political parties

• The removal of the vote from bourgeois classes', such as employers and priests, stripped the opposition parties of a possible reservoir of support.

• The Mensheviks and SRs found it difficult to publish their newspapers due to restrictions imposed by the Bolsheviks.

• The left-wing SRs, who had been given a role within the Bolshevik goverment in 1917 and 1918, lost all influence when they walked out of the government in March 1918 in protest at the Bolshevik decision to pull out of the First World War.

• In March 1918, the Bolshevik Party renamed itself the Communist Party and, by 1921, all other parties were effectively banned.

• In April 1921, Lenin declared: 'The place for the Mensheviks and the SRs is in prison.' During the first three months of 1921, 5,000 Mensheviks were arrested. There were further waves of arrests of SR and Menshevik supporters later in 1921 and 1922, but by this stage they had ceased to exist as organised parties.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918: main opposition

• The initial opposition to the Bolsheviks came largely from the other socialist groups

• This was because the conservatives had been so shocked by the events of October 1917 that the implications of the Revolution took some time to sink in

• The demoralised conservatives were to find a cause of renewed outrage when Lenin put a quick end to Russian involvement in the First World War.

• The treaty took Russia out of the war at a great cost

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918: its purpose

Peace was concluded through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918).

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918: consequences

• Russia lost control over the Baltic States of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, Finland, Ukraine and parts of the Caucasus region

• It was a national humiliation for the conservatives, especially for military officers who had served in the Tsar's army: a humiliation that could not be tolerated

• The only way to restore Russia's pride, and with it the reputation of the armed forces, was to overthrow the Bolshevik regime and reject the Treaty

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918: the whites

• The Treaty also provided a necessary spur to those who wished to fight against the Bolsheviks, known as the Whites, because it offered the promise of foreign help

• The Allied powers of Britain, France, the USA and Japan were anxious to keep Russia in the First World War and were willing to provide arms, money and troops to those who would ensure Russia rejoined the fight

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918: why did Lenin sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk if it increased opposition and the likelihood of civil war?

• He was aware that a key factor in bringing about the collapse of the Tsarist regime and the Provisional Government was the pressure of fighting the First World War

• It sapped the energy and resources of the government, with little chance of military success

• Lenin realised that if his new government was to consolidate its hold over Russia and deal with its internal enemies, it needed to pull out of the war to concentrate on the job at hand

The Russian civil war 1918-21: who the whites were

• This White' opposition included a range of political groups

• those who wished to see the return of the Tsar; liberals, including supporters of the Provisional Government;

• military leaders unhappy with Russia pulling out of the First World War, national minorities seeking independence from Russia; and members of the Menshevik and SR parties who had been denied an involvement in the government

• The Czech Legion, part of the Austro-Hungarian Army stranded in Russia as prisoners of war, rebelled against the Reds

• The Whites also received aid from the Allies in the First World War.

The Russian civil war 1918-21: General Krasnov

• Although initial opposition from the conservatives in Russia was limited, the Bolsheviks were attacked by the forces of General Krasnov at Pulkovo Heights near Petrograd immediately after the October Revolution

• The Reds won this first encounter, but it was merely the prelude to the civil war

• After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, opposition to the Bolsheviks mounted, resulting in a series of military campaigns

• It was not until the end of 1920 that the Bolsheviks had defeated the Whites and secured communist rule over the country

How did the Bolsheviks win the civil war?: beginning of the civil war

• The area directly under Bolshevik control was limited to a central core based on Moscow, stretching to Petrograd in the north-west

• They were surrounded on all sides by White forces

• Nonetheless, it was the Bolsheviks who emerged victorious

How did the Bolsheviks win the civil war?: tactics

• This victory was largely achieved due to the better organisation of the Reds, in military, economic and political terms.

• In contrast, the Whites were an amalgam of different groups united only by their desire to get rid of the Bolsheviks

• These divisions were reflected in the military strategy of the Whites.

• Co-operation was limited and was not helped by the long front on which the Whites fought

• The Whites did receive help from Russia's former Allies in the First World War but, through corruption and inefficiency, they failed to put this to good effect.

• By the end of 1920, all of the White strongholds had been defeated and Bolshevik rule had been extended across the country

• The Bolsheviks' military strategy had been more coherent than that of the Whites and a lot of the credit for this must go to the invaluable work of Leon Trotsky. Trotsky, who became Commissar for War in early 1918, turned the Red Army into an effective fighting machine

• The army was formed from the Red Guard units and pro-Bolshevik elements of the old Tsarist armed forces

• Conscription was introduced to swell the number of soldiers to over five million by the end of the war

• The Bolsheviks had also been able to extend government direction over the economy to ensure resources were organised and deployed effectively through the imposition of policies known as War Communism

• Large-scale nationalisation of industry ensured adequate supplies for the Red Army (if not for civilians) and food supplies were requisitioned from the peasants. This latter policy was deeply unpopular with the peasants, but it did provide enough food to keep the Red Army going

the civil war: highly controlled system

• the experience of the civil war had encouraged the Bolsheviks to adopt a highly authontanan and centrally controlled system

• Nevertheless, it was not just better organisation that resulted in the Bolshevik victory.

• There was also a degree of active support for what the Bolsheviks stood for, especially from the workers who saw the Bolsheviks as the best guarantors of their gains from the Revolution

• The peasants did not like all aspects of Bolshevik rule, but the Land Decree of 1917 had guaranteed a distribution of land in their favour

• Thus, the Bolsheviks did not neglect the political dimension of the war. Their victory dealt a serious blow to any realistic chance of enemies within Russia threatening the new Bolshevik government.

The key results of the civil war: highly centralised government

The Bolshevik state had become highly centralised due to the demands of the civil war, fighting a war required quick decision-making and direction of resources by the government so power was now firmly in the hands of the government (Sovnarkom) and party leadership (politburo) based in Moscow.

The key results of the civil war: terror

The civil war had resulted in the Bolsheviks making extensive use of terror against their political opponents. This set the tone for the development of the Party after the civil war.

The key results of the civil war: militaristic values

The supporters of the Bolsheviks had been through a formative experience that must have affected them deeply. This experience seemed to reinforce militaristic values in the population. Those who fought in the war were a generation who did not buckle under pressure and who did not think twice about using force and terror.

The Tenth Party Congress, 1921

By the time the Bolsheviks held their Tenth Party Congress in March 1921, the civil war was all but won and attention could be focused on dealing with divisions within the Bolshevik Party.

The Tenth Party Congress, 1921: growth in party membership

The civil war had seen a huge growth in Party membership, from 300,000 at the end of 1917 to over 730,000 by 1921. This posed a threat to Party stability. To ensure conformity within the Party, a firm line was taken against dissent.

The Tenth Party Congress, 1921: the ban of factions

• The ban on the formation of factions within the Party was put forward by Lenin at the Congress of 1921

• This measure, known as On Party Unity, was an attempt to impose the view of the leadership on the Party

• The penalty for those breaking this rule was expulsion from the Party

• Despite victory in the civil war, this political tightening of the power of the Party leadership came at a time of continuing Bolshevik anxiety over their hold over Russia

The Tenth Party Congress, 1921: opposition

In 1921, the Bolsheviks had faced the Kronstadt Mutiny, a revolt by sailors previously loyal to the Bolsheviks, and a major peasant uprising known as the Tambov Rising. Clearly the Bolsheviks could not take their position for granted.