What did Lenin do when he took control of Russia?

Answer 1

When campaigning for support, Lenin promised "Peace, Land, Bread". He would end the war, divide farmland amongst the peasants and make sure they had food. He also instated a Communist government.

Lenin failed to make good on any of his promises except getting Russia out of World War 1. And even there he did so only because he was forced to because the Germans were marching on St. Petersburg and he was afraid that either the German army or the people of Russia would overthrow him.

Lenin tried to make peace with Germany without giving any concessions to it, but Germany insisted on concessions. Lenin was forced to negotiate a peace at the town of Brest-Litovsk. He would not consent to the initial German demands, so he stalled until Germany got fed up with him and Leon Trotsky's delaying methods. The Germans resumed hostilities and began moving on St. Petersburg. Lenin at first wanted to resume the fighting calling it "revolutionary defensism." It wasn't imperialistic war, but it would still have been war to protect his personal place in power and to retain the lands that were already part of the Russian Empire.

When the Germans were getting close to St. Petersburg, Lenin gave in and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk except that Germany's demands were more than they had been at the start of the negotiations. In the end, Lenin's stalling cost Russia the Ukraine, the various Baltic states, Finland and Belorussia. Many Russians, even Bolsheviks, regarded the treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a national disgrace and referred to it as "the obscene peace."

Lenin's seizure of power touched off the Russian Civil War. His Red forces fought against the various

Lenin failed to give any land to the peasants as he promised. Land was kept under the control of the government. Peasants were not free to farm their lands as they saw fit. Lenin's government controlled the agricultural system.

Lenin failed to provide food for the ordinary Russian citizen, because he was confiscating as much as he needed during the ensuing Russian Civil War. The Bolsheviks used famine as a weapon to suppress dissent from their policies.

The Russian cities and towns and the army needed a certain amount of grain to survive. Peasants were forced to sell their crops to the government at artificially low prices. The government took what it wanted without regard to leaving the peasants enough to live on. Tens of thousands of peasants starved to death because of Lenin's policies.

Vladimir Lenin betrayed his revolution. His regime and that of Joseph Stalin's after his became more oppressive than any regime of any Tsar had ever been.

Answer 2

He took Russia out of the war