Prior to the Russian Revolution, the Bolshevik party was not the most powerful. Lenin’s leadership, and his usage and manipulation of events taking place in Russia after his return, facilitated their ability to seize control. The Bolsheviks came to power at an especially volatile time in Russian history – the Provisional Government was weak-willed, disorganized, and ripe for Bolshevik insurrection.
The Provisional Government
The Mensheviks, the Bolsheviks, and the Socialist Revolutionaries were three that took part in the formation of the Provisional Government, instituted in February 1917. The Provisional Government, democratic in spirit, was loosely organized, internally conflicted, and incapable of making firm decisions. The Bolsheviks held a minority position in the Provisional Government, and this party’s ideology did not differ greatly from that of the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries.
Lenin’s Return to Russia
That spring, with antagonistic motivations, Germany aided Lenin’s return to Russia, who was then residing in Switzerland. Lenin reshaped the Bolshevik party into one with a firm platform that appealed to peasant demands. Lenin promised distribution of land among peasants, socioeconomic reforms, and an end to Russia’s role in WWI. While the peasants felt that Lenin was on their side, he was less concerned with giving peasants what they wanted than he was intent on encouraging them to follow his leadership. Through this conduit, Lenin gained the power he needed in order to render the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries impotent; while Bolshevik efforts to mobilize were not unknown to members of the Provisional Government, little was done to undermine their plans.
Seizure of the Winter Palace and the October Revolution
The Provisional Government convened in the Winter Palace in (what was then called) Petrograd. In October, it was held hostage at the Winter Palace by Bolsheviks, who had undertaken an effort that day to secure all public buildings in the city. This provided the pressure the Bolsheviks needed to seize power and form the Soviet of the People’s Commissars. This came to be known as the October Revolution.
This soviet, or council, was made up entirely of Bolsheviks, including the man who would come to be known as Stalin. The Bolsheviks’ seizure of power in Petrograd resulted in few lives lost. Moscow was more difficult to take and came at the cost of hundreds of lives. In the outlying regions of the Russian Empire, resistance to Bolshevik rule was even stronger, and civil war ensued.
References
Dziewanowski, M.K. A History of Soviet Russia. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989.
Figes, Orlando. A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.
Kenez, Peter. A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Kerry Kubilius - A graduate of Ohio State University, Kerry has a BA in Russian and a BA in History of Art with a focus on Eastern European art. She also ...
