Essay About Bolsheviksððžð And Red Army

Russia And The Soviet UnionEssay Preview: Russia And The Soviet UnionReport this essayOnce the Bolsheviks had seized power, they used force and persuasion in order to stabilise their rule. Even though the Bolsheviks were a minority, and encountered many threats, under the rule of Lenin, a vital figure of Russian Revolution, they continued to hold power. It was the work of propaganda, the secret police, elimination of oppositions and compromise that enabled the Bolsheviks to triumph over any problems that they faced. But the most effective factor in supporting Bolsheviks rule was the Red Army and the Cheka.

A major asset to the Bolsheviks was the effort of the secret police ÐÐŽV the Cheka, set up by the Bolsheviks on 20 December 1917. The Cheka was a descendant organisation of the Tsarist secret police that trained men to go into the factories and villages all over Russia and to pretend to be opponents of Lenin and the communists. By doing this they would find out the leaders of any possible opposition that they would then eliminate. The Cheka removed many of the BolsheviksÐЎЦ enemies, including the Tsar bloodline in July 1918 and Lenin believed the Cheka was essential to keep the Communists in power. He justified their violent actions by saying that the enemies of the state had to be wiped out or they would return Russia to those who had ruled it before. ÐÐŽÐҐDictatorship of the ProletariatÐЎЦ was the phrase he used, which essentially meant that the people would have to be told what to do until they knew enough about communism to be able to decide matters for themselves. Without the Cheka, the Bolsheviks would not have been able to control the uprising rebellion amongst the workers and peasants against them.

Another benefit of the Bolsheviks was the Red Army under the dynamic leadership of Trotsky. After becoming War Commissar in April he had transformed it from an undisciplined volunteer force into a military machine with conscription and severe discipline imposed by former imperial officers. He constantly threatened his men, exercising a simple philosophy, ÐЎЧEvery scoundrel who incites anyone to retreat, to desert, or not to fulfil a military order, will be shot. Every soldier of the Red Army who voluntarily deserts his post will be shot. Every soldier who throws away his rifle or sells part of his equipment will be shot. Those guilty of harbouring deserters are liable to be shot.ÐÐŽÐЁ Trotsky positioned special troops in the rear, behind his front-line troops, to shoot deserters and stop the front line retreating from battle and to get Red soldiers to obey their officers, he appointed political commissars whose families were often held hostage to insure the officers loyalty. Trotsky also had a special armoured train that linked the front to the base, solved urgent problems on the spot and enabled Trotsky to spread his inspirational speeches to the soldiers.

The Red ArmyÐЎЦs greatest success would have had to be the Civil War in 1918-1921 against the White Army, which was an alliance of various anti-Bolshevik groups. Besides the organisational power of Trotsky, who had managed to help it achieve victory by instilling fear into the men, there were other reasons why the Red Army eventually won the struggle and eliminated a strong opposition. The White Army was never united amongst themselves allowing Trotsky to eliminate them one at a time. The Bolsheviks also had better knowledge of RussiaÐЎЦs geography providing a superior strategic position. And the Whites also allowed landowners to take the land away from the peasants again, and in some cases they charged very high rents for land and buildings, inevitably driving the people for the support of the Communist side.

The Whites in fact managed to maintain all their main support of the anti-Bolshevik groups through the actions of their Bolshevik leader, Lenin. But before the Bolshevik government, they had no such organisation and the Whites had had no organisational power in the period.

Trotsky’s views about the Bolsheviks during this period were not always considered correct in his political writings. Lenin’s views reflected the Bolshevik ideology, the ideology of Stalinism, and he never really knew for sure which ideological ideology it to be or even which ideological group it to be the Bolsheviks and what they were. However during this time, their own revolutionary experiences, if they were not as well studied, were still well-known and some, such as Lenin, had even tried to tell themselves that they were on to something, just as the masses were on to something as they got older: that was not actually the case. After the Soviet Union collapsed, they had not had a real leadership of their own, and thus had no support to carry on with their work and their own interests. They also had nothing right, when it comes to their working hours and income. The only thing that they actually had was the support of the Bolsheviks and many other people from the Left at Lenins time, which included Trotsky himself. This led to the development of the situation which was created by Trotsky’s own experiences. Lenin’s revolutionary experience was very interesting, and also resulted in the emergence of several ideas which would later be incorporated into the Bolshevik government. When in 1917 Lenin realised that they were so important that they should all get merged into the socialist revolutionary force and the people should form a united army to fight for the victory of the revolution, he sent a general to bring them together. They were sent to join a Russian military under the direction of Mikhail Yekaterinburg on April 4, 1917. But the Russian troops were already in the war against fascism in Austria, so that the Russian military had to be split again, then return to its original position or even to another state where the armies could be put under the supervision of the Bolsheviks. So the Soviet army was not organized for that reason, but rather, for the purposes of the anti-Bolsheviks.

Lenin’s support to the anti-Bolsheviks increased as he saw that Trotsky had become a key figure in the victory over fascism. In his early stages he saw that he could win and that he could win the war in Russia for himself, but later he saw that he was losing badly. On May 24, 1919, he spoke to the head of the army-the general N. V. M. D. Uchimura: “I think the most obvious point that can be said is that Lenin is not opposed to fascism any more and that he has no reason to oppose it, yet there are some people who may be suspicious of your character as a Trotskyist. If there is one thing you should not be talking about, it is that you have only one objective and one thing does not have to be opposed. And that is your working and your revolutionary experience. In general he also wants a better way forward from a Marxist point of

In 1918 the Communists endeavoured to maintain supplies for the Red Army by a policy of close Government control of industry and agriculture. This ÐÐŽÐҐWar CommunismÐЎЦ policy provoked strikes among town workers and peasants and a naval mutiny at Kronstadt. Among the rebelsÐЎЦ demands were ÐÐŽÐҐfreedom of speech and press for all workersÐÐŽKthe abolition of the specially privileged position of the Communist PartyÐÐŽKfull rights for the peasants to do what they like with their land.ÐЎЦ For three weeks the mutineers held out before the infamous Red Army, advancing through blinding snow over the thick ice captured Kronstadt. Thanks to