Bolshevik Party Essay

Vladimir Lenin, founder and leader of the Bolsheviks, failed the Soviet Union with his New Economic Policy (NEP), which was designed to bring more money to the USSR and help their economy flourish. This was introduced with the idea of “War Communism.” War Communism started during World War I and dealt with the economic and social problems facing the USSR during the war. With most resources going to the military, grain production was low and forced millions of peasants to move and turn to cannibalism. Peasants tried to revolt for change but were killed. Because of this, the Bolsheviks lost their main supporters (working class, peasants, etc.) This led Lenin to bring about the NEP. Many in his party saw the Capitalistic ideals of the NEP as a

Lenin was able to consolidate Bolshevik rule in Russia by combining popular policies and repression: To what extent do you agree with this statement.

From the initial seizure of power in 1917 until 1924, the Bolsheviks were confronted with a series of crises that threatened their ability to control and govern in Russia. The response and resolutions to these crises included Initial Reforms, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Civil War, Red terror, War Communism and the NEP. Under the leadership of Lenin, the execution of these responses were made possible and the Bolsheviks were able to maintain and expand their power. The Civil War however was the direct consequence of the Bolshevik’s actions as they tried to maintain their grasp on power. The victory in the Civil War was extremely pivotal for the Bolshevik consolidation of power as it brought control and power but more importantly it eliminated

     Marx describes the problem in great detail in the first chapter. He feels there is a problem between the bourgeoisie and the proletarians. The bourgeoisie were the oppressed class before the French Revolution and he argues that they are now the oppressors. The proletarians are the new working class, which works in the large factory and industries. He says that through mass industry they have sacrificed everything from the old way of religion, employment, to a man’s self worth and replaced it with monetary value. He is mad that the people of ole that use to be upper class such as skills man, trades people, & shopkeepers, are now slipping into the proletarians or working class. He

The Russian Revolutions of 1917 There were two revolutions that occurred in Russia in 1917. The first one, in February, overthrew the Russian monarchy. The second one, in October, created the world’s first Communist state. The Russian revolutions of 1917 involved a series of uprisings by workers and peasants throughout the country and by soldiers, who were predominantly of peasant origin, in the Russian army.

These effects however were more severe under Lenin and Stalin as they sought to increase grain production by coercion. While Lenin under War communism used grain requisitioning to forcefully collect peasant surpluses from them Stalin used collectivisation to force peasants to collaborate to produce as much food as possible. Similarly in both cases the peasants refused to conform; knowing that any surplus would be confiscated the peasant produced the barest minimum to feed themselves and their family and even less food was available for Russia. One of the greatest impacts were the famines that occurred in 1921 under Lenin where the grain harvest produced less than half the amount gathered in 1931 and Russia had international help from countries such as the USA. However these impacts were the greatest under Stalin. The amount of bread produced fell from 250.4 (kilograms per head) in 1928 to 214.6 in 1932. The impacts of collectivisation were at its worst in 1932-32 when occurred what many people describe as a self-made national famine. Stalin’s ‘’official silence’’ of the situation meant it wasn’t addressed and thus collectivisation killed between 10-15 million peasants and failed to increase agricultural output. Though a similar devastating famine occurred under

The Russian revolution was a monumental change for Russia they went from a government of ordocrasy to communism, with evidence it will show that this truly was a change Russia needed. Yet many argue that the death and outcome was not what the people had imagined when agreeing to communism.

Russia was a country rich in raw materials that had been undisturbed by modern extraction and refining techniques until then, however, the majority of the countries resource rich areas were nowhere near any railways, with the bulk of the heavy materials such as steel, iron, coal and copper being in the Urals, almost 1,000km away from the nearest railway system in 1860. Oil, another key ingredient in industrialisation was almost 1,500km away to the south, in the Caucasus area3. This lack of transportation in a period when steam powered machines were producing the goods and steam powered trains were delivering them and leading the industrialisation in other countries like Britain, the USA and a future foe in Germany is an indicator of the distance that Russia was behind its rivals under the leadership of the Tsar. So the Tsar’s Russia was largely an agrarian one, but even in the agricultural sector Russia was lagging far behind the rest of the West in terms of the methods employed by farmers, little fertiliser was used and the labour saving machines used in countries with enormous agricultural output like the US were nowhere near as widespread in Russia. The weaknesses of the Tsar’s management of the agricultural sector were highlighted in 1891 when famine hit. Due to the heavy tax on consumer goods, peasants had been forced to sell more of their

The Bolshevik Consolidation of Power 1918-21 The Bolsheviks under Lenin, when they came into power in October 1917, faced immense problems in trying to consolidate their hold over the ex-tsarist empire. Firstly, how were the Bolsheviks, in view of their military resources, to extend their hold over the nation at large? The second, was how could they achieve a speedy end to the war and effect a rapid withdrawal of the German army, which was currently occupying the western part of Russia. Thirdly, how quickly would they be able to stage an economic recovery?

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Lenin was the Bolshevik leader. He was a clever thinker and a practical man; he knew how to take advantage of events. When Lenin arrived in Russia, he issued a document called the April theses, promising ‘peace, bread, land and freedom’. He called for an end to the ‘Capitalist’ war, and demanded that power should be given to the soviets.

The Russian Revolution is a widely studied and seemingly well understood time in modern, European history, boasting a vast wealth of texts and information from those of the likes of Robert Service, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Allan Bullock, Robert Conquest and Jonathan Reed, to name a few, but none is so widely sourced and so heavily relied upon than that of the account of Leon Trotsky, his book “History of the Russian Revolution” a somewhat firsthand account of the events leading up to the formation of the Soviet Union. There is no doubt that Trotsky’s book, among others, has played a pivotal role in shaping our understanding of the events of The Revolution; but have his personal predilections altered how he portrayed such paramount

once this was a very silly idea as they would not be able to pull it

Drafted in 1848 by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” outlines the views, tendencies, and aims of the communist party through the so-called philosophy of historical materialism (Distante). These views were expressed throughout four distinct sections of the “Manifesto of the Communist Party.” The first section describes the relationship between the bourgeois and the proletarians. The next section depicts the relationship between the proletarians and the communists. The third section of the document presents socialist and communist literature. The “Manifesto…” is ended with a section stating the position of the communists in relation to opposition

There are many of sociology's founding figures that have extremely well-built ideas, practices and studies that I could explore, but one renowned philosopher stands out amongst the crowd, and that person is named Karl Marx (1818-1883). In this essay I aim to explore and critically assess his ideas, theories, and studies in his contribution to sociology, and if his ideas, theories and studies are useful to this contribution to sociology.

Account For the Success of the Bolsheviks in October 1917 At the beginning of 1917 most of the Bolsheviks were in exile but by the end of 1917 the Bolshevik party had not only consolidated control of Moscow and Petrograd, but they were also advancing on the rest of the country. This success was due to several linked factors; the Bolshevik policy of non-cooperation, weakness of the Provisional Government, division of alternative opposition, Lenin's leadership skills, the power of the Petrograd Soviet and Trotsky as its leader, failure on deliver of land reform and the oppressed, armed workers in Petrograd. Bolshevik success is dictated by whether they met their aims; these included the