Bolshevik consolidation of power, 1917-1921

History · AS: The Russian Revolution, 1894-1921. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

The Bolsheviks took power as a minority, so they moved fast. Early decrees gave peasants the land and promised peace. Rivals were removed: the Cheka hunted opponents and the elected Constituent Assembly was closed after one day.

Peace with Germany at Brest-Litovsk cost huge territories, but Lenin accepted it to save the revolution. A Civil War followed between the Reds and their many enemies, the Whites. The Reds won because they were united, held the centre of Russia and had Trotsky's Red Army.

The army was fed by War Communism, which ruined the economy and caused revolts. In 1921 Lenin retreated to the New Economic Policy.

Rules to remember

Decree on Land, October 1917: private estates were abolished and the land passed to the peasants.
Cheka, December 1917: political police under Dzerzhinsky to fight 'counter-revolution'.
Constituent Assembly: the SRs won most seats; the Bolsheviks closed it in January 1918.
Brest-Litovsk, March 1918: Russia lost Finland, Poland, the Baltic provinces and Ukraine; the Left SRs left the government.
War Communism: grain requisitioning, state control of industry, a ban on private trade.
Tambov peasant rising (1920 to 1921) and Kronstadt sailors' rising (March 1921): demands included freely elected soviets and an end to requisitioning.
Tenth Party Congress, March 1921: NEP replaced requisitioning with a tax in kind and allowed private trade; factions inside the party were banned.

Common mistake

Do not say the NEP brought back capitalism completely. Peasants could sell their surplus and small businesses returned, but the state kept heavy industry, banking and foreign trade.

Worked example

Why did the Kronstadt rising alarm Lenin more than the White armies had?

The Whites were old enemies: former officers, landowners and supporters of the Tsar.
The Kronstadt sailors had been strong supporters of the Bolsheviks in 1917.
If loyal supporters now rebelled against War Communism and one-party rule, the regime was losing its own base.

Answer: It showed that the Bolsheviks' own supporters had turned against them, which pushed Lenin to bring in the NEP.

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