How dependant was Lenin's state on terror

Causes of the red terror

The terror was born out Lenin’s fear of counter revolution, but only intensified after his assassination attempt. He stopped his public visits and all other party members were arrested

Felix Dzerzhinsky

He was a religious fanatic and had spent years imprisoned by the Tsar. He argued for all out war to best wipe out counter revolutionaries.

The Cheka

One of the first government organizations to be established. It was based in the Lubyanka building and had 250,000 members by 1921. Cheka member had powers to arrest, try, and execute without a trial killing 200,000

Labour camps opened

The beginnings of the huge camp system called the Gulags were set up by Lenin to house these political prisoners being collected. It hadn’t taken long for the Tsar’s methods to reappear.

The OGPU

Came after the Cheka as the brakes were applied on the terror that had lost any political reasoning and local bosses were now killing independently. This new body focused on removing enemies in the party and did not use executions anywhere near as freely. Also led by Dzerzhinsky.

The Chitska

OGPU led cleansing of the party to avoid inefficiency and corruption. This was a mostly non-violent procedure where membership cards would be rescinded and they would be informed they were no longer needed in the party.

After the civil war

There was a drop in resistance with the start of NEP and the end of war communism and by this point most resistance of any meaning had been defeated. Terror still continued until Lenin’s death in 1924

Success of centralisation

The party base in Moscow was still very disconnected from the outer regions and local bosses acted independently still. Until the ban on factions in 1921 party resistance to Lenin’s ideas was strong and politburo discussion supported democratic procedure.

Dzerzhinsky after the terror

In 1924 he began creating a network of orphanages, but remained head of the OGPU and influential in the party. In 1926 he died of a very suspicious heart attack after turning on Stalin.

Limitations to his reliance on terror

The people were fuelled by the revolution and genuinely believed in Communism. The OGPU took over and ended the red terror. The Cheka had acted separately from Lenin’s control and the decentralised state made it hard to regain that. Terror dropped off during NEP years.