Bolshevik Revolution
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The Bolshevik revolution occurred in November of 1917, its aim was to create a workers paradise and a dictatorship of the proletariat. However, by 1930, the Bolsheviks had imposed a totalitarian rule over Russia. This period can be divided into two separate eras. Firstly, there was the period from 1917-21, which included the decision to seize power, and the civil war. The second had a consolidation of power under the new economic policy from 1921-29.
Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik party returned from exile in April 1917, while a member of the intelligentsia, he also appeared to read the general mood of the people acknowledging that they were more interested in food rather than the decrees of the Provisional Government such as freedom of speech. He developed simplistic slogans such as, “Peace, bread, land,” and “All power to the Soviets” to appeal to the Russian proletariat. His brilliance consisted of his ability to say what these people want to say but dont know how to say. Lenins genius combined with the harsh conditions suffered in the cities during the First World War, and the failure of the provisional government meant that the Bolsheviks were able to gain a majority of in both Petrograd and Moscow by October 1917. The Provisional Government became increasingly separate from mainstream society because it continued the war and misread the mood of the people. Lenin knew the time had come to take control as he stated in his Letter to Central Committee Members, “We must not wait, we risk losing everythingÐ. History will not forgive revolutionaries for procrastinating when they could be victorious today, while they risk losing much tomorrow, in fact, they risk losing everything.”
While the civil war allowed the Bolsheviks to consolidate their power, it also meant harsh economic conditions under war communism whose main aim was to maintain order, organize food and ensure food supplies. The main concept of war communism and the civil war was the centralization of power, which meant that the governments role was paramount in the economic decision-making of the state. War communism had two major policies of importance. First, the nationalization of industry under control of the Supreme Economic Council, and secondly the Governments program of grain requisitioning. In December of 1917 banks were nationalized and foreign and internal loans made by the tsarist and provisional governments were voided. Lenin knew that many capitalists and plant managers were hostile to the Bolsheviks and wished to create for it economic difficulties. However, he saw in workers factory committees, which observed management and actively participated in the determining of basic factory policies, as a means of controlling management. As he stated in “State and Revolution,” Lenin had great faith in what could be accomplished through workers control and the revolutionary keenness of the masses.
The nationalization of industries was supposed to increase industrial production. However the opposite occurred. Between 1917 and 1920 over half the urban working class actually disappeared, either through death in the Civil War, as a result of famine, or by returning to their villages. The economic chaos produced by the unrestrained and arbitrary nationalization of factories soon alarmed Lenin and caused him to return to the instinctive distrust of all spontaneous mass movements he had displayed earlier in “What Is To Be Done.” Things were going down hill for the Bolsheviks during this time. Under the governments program, peasants had to surrender their crops to the state. This led to resistance, where peasants destroyed crops and livestock in protest. In 1921 there was a widespread famine, which affected 30 million people, resulting armed uprisings all over Russia. Many people such as Gleb found themselves home without work and little hope of making a decent living. Famine, cold weather and disease killed 7 million Russians. Such was the case for those like Glebs daughter Nurka.
A turning point for the Civil War policies took place in March 1921 at the Kronstadt naval base that had been traditionally a communist stronghold mutinied. The sailors at this naval base Kronstadt had had enough and demanded changes or they would retaliate against the state. Their demands among other things were to have fair elections, freedom of speech and press and to take away the food commissariat.
Fearing counter-revolution, Lenin introduced a New Economic Policy at the Tenth Party Congress, not only did it abolish the forced requisition of food from peasants, it allowed for some freedom of enterprise. Obviously this was a movement towards capitalism, but in doing so Lenin ensured that the threat to Bolshevik party subsided. The Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party also address issues on party unity and addressed the situation that occurred at Kronstadt. “The Congress calls the attention of all members of the Party to the fact that the unity and solidarity of the ranks of the Party, ensuring complete mutual confidence among party members and genuine team work, genuinely embodying the unanimity of will of the vanguard of the proletariat, are particularly essential at the present juncture when a number of circumstances are increasing the vacillation among the petty bourgeois population of the country.”
NEP restored some prosperity to Russia. Not all people liked NEP though as Mekhova called it “nonsense” in the “On Guard” chapter of Cement. A new class of Nepmen or private traders grew and money was once again used as a medium of exchange after the barter system, which developed during war communism. The new economic policy strengthened the alliance between workers and peasants.
Confiscation of farm produce ceased; instead a grain tax was imposed that was set at a fixed percentage. In addition, small factories and shops operated under private ownership. Trade Unions were free of government control and strikes were permitted. Furthermore, foreign companies were encouraged to trade and invest in Russia.
These new reforms settled the public opinion down and took pressure off the Bolshevik party. From the major slump in 1921, Coal rose from 6.9 million tons to 27.6 million tons by 1926 Steel rose from 0.2 million tons to 3.1 million tons. Pig iron rose from 0.1 million tons to 2.4 million tons. Electricity rose from 520 million kWh to 3508 million kWh. Industry was