The Period of Lenin’s Rule (1917-24)
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Lenin’s long term aims:

• Create a communist state w/ state control of industry & trade.
• Nationalization of land
• Ending of class barriers and the establishment of a republic of workers, peasants, and soldiers deputies with a gradual transition to socialism and the ‘withering away of the state’

He was willing to adapt these goals b/c:

• Inside Russia the Bolsheviks had only minority support
• Outside Russia revolution in advanced industrial states had not undergone revolution and the transition w/in Russia from revolution to socialism would therefore be hard and long.

The establishment of a single party rule:

• Lenin dissolved the Constituent Assembly (which did not have a Bolshevik majority).
• Dictatorial methods before this had included: suppression of newspapers, banning of the Cadet Party, setting up a secret police (Cheka).
• The communist aimed to "suppress all attempts of the bourgeoisie to return to power: and this is what is meant by the dictatorship of the proletariat."
• Lenin drew up a new constitution after dissolving the assembly.

Lenin’s Constitution:

• Drawn up in 1918 but only accepted w/ adjustments in 1922 & 1924.
• See notes for further info on basic rights, voting rights, etc.

The ending of the war:

Lenin wanted to obtain peace and signed in March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk:

• Russia lost Poland, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, the Ukraine, part of Belorussia and Transcaucasia. (1,3 million sq. miles of territory, a pop. of 62 million people, 1/3 of all her railways, _ of her coal and iron resources.)

Advantages:

• Bolsheviks did not have to deal w/ discontented minorities.
• Bolsheviks could concentrate on control of Russia itself
• End of war meant Lenin could concentrate on internal difficulties.

Other Notes in this Category

1. Czar Alexander II (1855-1881)
2. Czar Alexander III (1881-1894)
3. Czar Nicholas II (1894-1917)
4. End of the Tsars according to Orland Figes
5. Foreign Policy 1919 to 1934
6. Russia Time-Line
7. The Civil War 1918-1921:
8. The New Economic Policy (NEP)
9. The Period of Lenin’s Rule (1917-24)
10. The Period of Stalin’s Rule (1924-53)
11. The Russian Revolutions of 1917

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