How did Vladimir Lenin stay in power?

Answer 1

The former Soviet Union under the command of Lenin, would have become a democracy, had he not died prematurely as a result of injuries from a terrorist attack? If the circumstances of the Civil War, had not caused a closure of the political system, there would be chance for a new kind of democracy under the leadership of Lenin? In other words, any chance for the survival of Communist theory of power out of the Stalinist deformations?

Contrary View:

The circumstances of the Russian Civil War had nothing to do with ending chances of democracy under Vladimir Lenin. The Civil War erupted because Lenin and the Bolsheviks had seized the government in a military coup instead of participating in the democratic process. Many Russians were opposed to the Bolsheviks having sole governmental power.

Lenin would never have permitted a democracy in the Soviet Union as long as anyone disagreed with his vision of what a proper socialist society should be. Lenin viewed all thoughts contrary to his own as counter-revolutionary and traitorous. It did not matter if the people of Russia wanted to remove the Bolsheviks from power, Lenin would simply not permit it. In a democracy, even a democratic republic, the people have a right to elect their government officials in a democratic way. Lenin did not permit this. Some actions he took that bear this out are:

• Lenin could have instituted democracy as soon as he took over just as the other revolutionary political parties thought he would do and as he had promised to do. But he didn't.
• Lenin abolished all the other political parties including the Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries, KaDets, anarchists, monarchist and others in order that he not have any opposition to his rule.
• Lenin then forbade all factionalism within the Bolshevik Party itself. No one, not even a Bolshevik, was permitted to propose policies other than ones Lenin wanted.
• The Civil War occurred because the Bolshevik Revolution was not a revolution. It was a military takeover of the then existing Provisional Government. Not a very democratic way to change governments, that.
• Lenin abolished the existing democratically elected Duma and arrested many of its members.
• Immediately after the October Revolution, Lenin created the VeCheKa, the Cheka, (the secret police) to promote his polices by means of state terror. The Cheka was not under the supervision of the Council of Peoples Commissars. It was answerable to Lenin only.
• Lenin abolished all trade unions, because in his opinion, they worked for the benefit of their own members rather than for the good of the country as a whole.

Essentially, Lenin did not care one bit what the majority of the people of Russia wanted. As time went on, most wanted to be rid of Bolshevik terror and oppression and had they had the right to vote for another government (democracy) they would have. Even Lenin knew this. After all, there were only a little over 1 million Bolsheviks in a country of an estimated 147 million.

Answer 2

Answer

This answer is kinda big but I think it is necessary in order to understand even a little what Lenin did at that time.

The information were taken from the book: "Communist Russia under Lenin and Stalin", Chris Corin & Terry Fiehn, HODDER EDUCATION

That wasn't so easy for Lenin but not impossible. It is good to know what problems he faced in order to understand his methods better. As soon as the revolution in October 1917, where the Bolsheviks led by Lenin took over, Lenin and his party had to face multiple problems in order to get the government back to its feet. Although the Bolsheviks were in power their actual power was very limited, first of all because they were not the only socialist party, and the peasants (farmers) were in favor of socialism but not necessarily the Bolsheviks. In many areas in the countryside the Bolsheviks were mostly unknown by the people. So how could they enforce their decisions if their power was not even recognised. Also people who had just got rid of the Tsar, didn't like the idea of having a new autocratic system, but Lenin always planned on ruling Russia alone, without the intervention of other people or political parties (Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries etc.). So the methods Lenin used in order to establish the power of Bolsheviks were called decrees (they were technically laws he passed at the first few months after the October revolution), this is a summary of the decrees he used:

October 1917:

• Maximum 8 hour day for workers. (Increased his popularity.)
• Social insurance. (Step towards communism & increased his popularity.)
• Opposition press baned. (Increased his control.)
• Decree on Peace (Increased his popularity.), he left the war by signing a Treaty with Germany, this caused Lenin other problems.
• Decree on Land (Step away from communism & increased his popularity.), that was a very smart move. The peasants were allowed to divide the land and privately own it, that was against his ideology bu he didn't have the means to stop them so he presented it like he actually gave them the permission.

November 1917:

• Right of self determination granted to all parts of the former Russian empire. (Increased his popularity.)

• Abolition of titles and class distinctions. (Step towards communism.)

• Workers to control factories. (Step towards socialism.)

• Abolition of Justice system. (Step towards socialism.)

• Women declared equal to men and able to own property. (Step towards communism.)

December 1917:

• CHEKA was set up. Soviet secret police that terrorised the people so they wouldn't act against the Bolsheviks without worrying that CHEKA will find out, it also did find some actual "traitors" and usually either killed them or imprisoned them as an example. (Increased his control.)
• Banks were nationalised.
• Democratisation of army - officers were elected, army was controlled by army soviets and soldiers' committees, ranks, saluting and decorations were abolished. (Great step towards communism.)
• Marriage and divorce were now civil maters and the church didn't controlled them anymore. (Step towards communism.)
• The land of the church was now nationalised. (Step towards communism)

January 1918:

• Workers' were allowed to control the railways. (Increased his popularity.)
• Creation of the Red Army. (Increased his control.)
• Church and state were now completely separated. (Step towards communism.)

February 1918:

• Nationalisation of industry. (Step towards communism.)
• Socialisation of land.

So these are the decrees Lenin used in the first 5 months after the Bolshevik revolution in order to establish the power of the Bolsheviks. Of course he used other methods too, he used a lot of Propaganda like posters, films etc. He also denounced and outlawed other political parties who he considered were a threat to him and closed them down taking away all their power.

As we could have expected Lenin did faced more opposition and problems later but that was after he had managed to establish his power.

I hope my answer was helpful to you. (Took me a while to answer it but it was good revision for the upcoming exams ^^)

For more information check the book "Communist Russia under Lenin and Stalin" I mentioned at the beginning of my answer.

Answer 3

Vladimir Lenin formed the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party at the Party's Congress in Brussels in 1903. It was the only Marxist party in Russia at the time. After the February 1917 revolution, he and his Bolsheviks continued to agitate against the new Provisional Government that had assumed power when the Tsar abdicated in March 1917.

The Provisional Government failed to respond to the desires of the Russian people to get them out of World War I, stop the food shortages and give land back to the peasants. Lenin promised to do all these things, so when the PG became unpopular and lost the support of the people and even the military, the Bolsheviks swooped in in a coup now known as the October Revolution and took power from the PG and turned it over to the Soviets (councils of workers and peasants) in various cities. The Soviet councils consisted of Bolsheviks beholden to Lenin.

After the October Revolution, many Russians were dissatisfied with Bolshevik rule and the Russian Civil War broke out. The Bolsheviks created the Red Army and the more conservative dissidents became the so-called White Russians. By 1920, Lenin's Red Army had wiped out all White Army opposition and the Civil War ended with Lenin in full control, except now he was the leader of the party in control of the country instead of the party that wanted to take control of the country.

Lenin was not the typical dictator. He did not dictate terms to his followers as much as simply enthrall his supporters with his thinking, oratory and writings.

Once in control, he stamped out opposition to his Marxist policies by ruthless means using the army, his secret police and other methods. This was actually in line with Marxist principles which called for a "Dictatorship of the proletariat" after the revolution. The difference was that Marx's "dictatorship" was not a dictatorship at all; it was to be a democratic government but with the purpose of never allowing capitalism back. Lenin's purpose was not to allow anyone other Bolsheviks/Communists back into power. He banned all other political parties. Lenin's dictatorship was more autocratic than democratic, so he was able to retain his power.