TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > The Period of Lenin's Rule (1917-24)
Lenin's long term aims
- Create a communist state w/ state control of industry and 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 because:
- 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 and 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, 27% of farmland)
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.
The treaty was unpopular, the German ambassador was assassinated, and attempts to assassinate Lenin were made.
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