Our teacher assigned us an essay about Russia and I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me some corrections or point me in the right direction about what I should write
Lenin was simply a Tsar by another name. He reacted to opposition the same way the Tsar did. Discuss
Lenin did not rule Russia after the October Revolution, he merely controlled Petrograd and would face overwhelming obstacles as he attempted to consolidate Bolshevik control – and it would be these obstacles that would mould the Bolshevik government into an alternate Tsarist government. If the Bolsheviks alone were to rule Russia they would need to gain the support of the peasants and army, end the war with Germany and solve Russia’s disabling economic problems. If the Bolsheviks could overcome these challenges they alone would rule Russia. But as Lenin solved the troubles of Russia and consolidated his rule with an iron fist, he himself transformed into the Tsar.
The Bolsheviks were formed on the idea of centralised leadership – an idea not unknown during the Tsarist regime – and it was this idea that drove Lenin and the Bolsheviks to seize control of Russia and instigate their ‘Communist’ society. Tsar Nicholas II, during his day, also favoured the idea of single party dictatorship, which was evident in his refusal to establish a constitutional monarchy, and the issue of his Fundamental State Laws.
Through his issue of the Fundamental State Laws, Russia remained an autocracy “To the emperor of all the Russias belongs supreme autocratic power” and when the Duma demanded a share in power Nicholas merely surrounded the meeting place with troops and had the Duma disbanded; with the First Duma lasting just 75 days, then changing election laws so his conservative supporters would be elected. Lenin operated in much the same manner. His call for “All power to the Soviets!” was unmistakeably a call for “All power to the Bolsheviks!” and as the Bolsheviks had not gained a majority of elections for the Constituent Assembly, on January 18, 1918 , Lenin had the meeting place of the CA guarded by the Red Guard, preventing the elected members from entering and the Red Guard killed civilian’s demonstrating in support of the Assembly. This was not merely a display of Lenin’s brutality, but his stubbornness and irreconcilable desire for the Bolsheviks to have sole control of Russia.
Lenin’s brutality extended beyond banning the Constituent Assembly and having its supporters gunned down. The Cheka was a ruthless organisation formed by Lenin on the 27th of December 1917 and was headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, whose duty was to deal with opponents and enemies of the Bolsheviks. The Cheka was the political police force of the Bolshevik party who were promptly given the power to investigate, arrest and execute suspected counter-revolutionaries . The Cheka can be likened to a far more brutal and ruthless version of the Tsar’s Okhrana. Not only did the Cheka spy on political groups and arrest critics of the government, they often tortured prisoners before executing them and during three years of Civil War; killed 280,000 of the governments opponents, compared to the Okhrana executing a mere 14,000 in its 50 years of operation.
While the establishment of the Cheka likened the Bolsheviks to the Tsar, its violent tendencies set them apart from the Tsar’s Okhrana. The Cheka’s horrific and often unnecessary actions – such as torturing prisoners before burying them alive , contrasted the somewhat necessary actions of the Okhrana and demonstrated Lenin’s far more brutal, violent and cruel pseudo-Tsarist regime.
While the Cheka exposed political opponents of the Bolsheviks Lenin took a more direct approach to open opposition. During March 1921 sailors at Kronstadt naval base presented a petition to the Bolsheviks . 16 years earlier; on January 22, 1905 a crowd of 200,000 workers marched through the streets of St Petersburg to present a petition to the Tsar describing their grievances. Both the workers and sailors met with violence from the leaders, with the workers in 1905 being cut down by the Cossack’s, and Lenin marching 60,000 Red Army soldiers to Kronstadt to kill the sailors. Once again the Bolshevik response to opposition was violent and unforgiving, and the counter-revolutionaries’ at Kronstadt who had supported the Bolsheviks since they seized power in 1917 were crushed in battle.
The Kronstadt uprising began because the sailors believed War Communism was not what the Bolsheviks had promised in 1917 and while War Communism established a communist economy that could be sustained during war time, the Bolsheviks had not distinguished themselves from the Tsarist system of undemocratic, centralised leadership.
To consolidate their governing position the Bolsheviks, much like the Tsar, took strict actions to safeguard their place. The actions carried out by the Bolsheviks, such as the Red Terror and murder of the Kulaks, who were blamed for the economic crises during the Civil War demonstrate the pro-violence mentality of the party and its leaders.
Under the guise of a communist, socialist society the Bolsheviks were able to take leadership of Russia. However communism was little more than a name and faced with the same challenges of Tsarism, the Bolsheviks promptly reacted with the rash and all too familiar actions of Tsar Nicholas II which tainted communism in Russia and re-formed Russia into a dictatorship. And besides a series of violent policies, there was nothing to distinguish it from the traditional Tsarist regime.
any help would be much appreciated, thank you in advance
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