Russia under Lenin

 The Bolshevik’s Revolution was successful

 Lenin became the leader of the country;
Trotsky was appointed Commissar of
Foreign Affairs and War; and Stalin was the
commissar of Nationalities
 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
 After setting up a communist government
Lenin concluded the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
with Germany in March 1918
 By the treaty Russia ceded Poland and her
Baltic lands (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania)
to Germany. Finland and the Ukraine
gained independence
 There was a huge reparations to Germany
(6,000,000,000 Deutsche Marks)
According to the Treaty, Russia had to
surrendered:
 25% of her territories;
 44% of her population;
 33% of her agricultural production;
 73 and 75% of her iron and coal production

Nevertheless, Lenin fulfilled his promise of

bring peace to Russia
 The Constituent Assembly
 In the election to the Constituent Assembly
in December, 1917, the Bolsheviks got only
25% of the seats.
 As the Bolsheviks could not control the
Assembly, Lenin dissolved it and
announced that the Soviet would take up
the job of drafting the new constitution
 Russia became a one-party dictatorship
country
 The political organization under
Lenin
 Lenin adopted the Soviet system as the
Russian political structure:
 Workers, peasants and soldiers (the
proletariats) established their soviets and
sent representatives to the all Russian
Congress of Soviets, which elected the
Central Executive Committee
 The Central Executive Committee elected
the Council of Commissars
 In 1922, the socialist republics formed the
Union of Soviet
 As the Bolshevik Party (the Russian
Communist Party after 1918) was the only
legal political party, the Party controlled the
whole Russia
 The Civil War
 After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks
controlled only about 30% of Russian
territory.
 There were still many local governments
and military leaders either loyal to the Czar
or the Provisional government
 With the support of foreign countries, these
oppositions formed the “White” to fight
against the “Red” (the Communist)
 A Civil War broke out in 1917
 Several White Russian governments were
established in different parts of the country
 Foreign countries , such as France, Britain,
the U.S. and Japan intervened into the Civil
War and supported the “Whites”
 Lenin’s government survived because the
“Whites” did not have good co-operation,
and the foreign retreated their support after
WWI
 “War Communism”
 The Bolshevik government under Lenin
carried out an experiment, Moreover, to
ensure that the Red Army had adequate
war supplies:
2. Private property and trade were abolished;
3. Natural resources and land were declared
owned by the government;
4. All manufacturing industries, transports,
banks, public services were made state
operated;
4. Cash economy was replaced by barter
5. Workers were paid with wage-cards
instead of cash
6. Peasants had to surrender all their surplus
grain and live-stocks;
7. People had to ration for food, shelter and
cloth with cards
8. The Red Army was allowed to get their
supplies from the people without any
payment. Any opponent to War
communism would be executed by Cheka
 On one hand , War Communism achieved
its aim of ensuring adequate supplies to the
Red Army
 One the other hand, It met a great
opposition from the people
 The Soviet economy was near total collapse
 Lenin’s NEP
 Lenin introduce the New Economic Policy
(NEP)
 Capitalist measures were taken to revive
agricultural and industrial production
 After paying a fixed tax in grain, peasants
were allowed to keep the surplus or sell it on
the free market
 Small businesses and non strategic
industries were allowed to operate again
 Lenin regarded the NEP as a temporary
measure, or taking “One step backward in
order to take two steps forward”
 The result was that the Soviet Union was on
the road to economic recovery.
 By 1927, the national economy was back to
its 1913 levels.
 Foreign relations under Lenin
 Lenin realized the importance of foreign
recognition of his country, particularly after
the Civil war
 Through diplomatic channels, he first
resumed trade relations with other
countries, followed by diplomatic relations
 Since Russia wanted to promote ‘World
Revolution’, the Third Communist
International was established in Moscow in
1919
 The propaganda of the Comintern
antagonized other countries, which then
became hesitant in establishing diplomatic
relations with Soviet Russia