How did Vladimir Lenin come to power?

Answer 1

My understanding is that Germany wanted turmoil in Russia to ease their war burden and paid for a special train to take Lenin to Russia. Germany allowed Lenin to cross German territory in a diplomatically sealed train from Germany to Sweden, Finland to Russia.

Once in Russia, Lenin's willingness to lower his standards of behavior, his personal charisma and the unwillingness of the other socialist political parties and the Russian army to use violence allowed him and his Bolsheviks to gain more and more influence in the Soviet Councils, army garrisons and even other socialist political parties to seize power and remove his opponents.

Lenin gained the support of the workers and soldiers by promising an end to Russia's involvement in World War 1, a redistribution of land among the peasants and an end to shortages of food and other goods. The Provisional Government (PG) under Kerensky did not promise to end the war or redistribute land and could not end the shortages.

It became clear that the Provisional Government was going to fail, so Lenin and the Bolsheviks staged what amounted to a military coup, rather than a true revolution on October 25, 1917 (Julian calendar date). Lenin had created Military Revolutionary Committees within various army garrisons and not only neutralized them as a force the Provisional Government could count on to stay in power, but in many cases, a force the Bolsheviks used to take power from the PG.

Several other socialist political parties objected to the Bolshevik power grab, but they acquiesced feeling that it was better than risking civil war. They also felt the Bolsheviks would not be able to retain the power they had taken by force.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks Lenin's continued the use of violence to consolidate and hold his power, leading to the murder and starvation of millions of workers through his reign and Stalin's.

If I remember correctly, Raul Hilberg, the noted Holocaust expert estimated the number at 40-60 million. Hilberg knew exactly how many the Germans had killed; they kept records and he had been a researcher for the US Army, so he used the population numbers from 1920, the population numbers in 1946, the live birth rates and an expected Death Rate based on economic data available. The rest was a simple calculation.

I did not research this, attended Hilberg's lectures in 1973-1974 and cannot remember details from either of the Lenin biographies I read, but I wanted to answer anyway.

Answer 2

Lenin and his followers overthrew the Russian czar and began the Russian Revolution.

Answer 3

Lenin was the leader of the radical socialist Bolshevik party, which seized power in October of the Russian Revolution of 1917