What type of government for Russia did Vladimir Lenin want?

Answer 1

Vladimir Lenin wanted a socialist government ruled by the revolutionaries, that would lead to ownership of the country by the working class and peasants. He was a follower of Marxian ideology, and created an ideology that came to be known as Marxist Leninism.

Answer 2

I am not sure he had thought that far according to Marxist theory, once the revolution is over the proletariat class (being the only one supposedly left at that time) will automatically rise to run the government. But when he saw that was not happening he began improvising.

Alternate View:

Lenin had his plans for governing Russia. First of all he discarded Karl Marx's notion that the proletariat would be the ones to revolt. Both 1917 revolutions were political rather than economic first because there was no Marxian proletariat (industrialized workers) and second the governments of Russia rather than the means of production were what was seized.

Russia had no proletariat because it was not industrialized at the time. It was an agrarian economy with mostly peasant farmers rather than factory workers as in Germany and England.

The October Revolution was not even a Revolution of the people. It was a military coup staged by the Bolsheviks against the Russian Provisional Government.

So what were his plans on running the government? First all opposition against the Bolsheviks would be crushed by political or military means. A key element of "Leninism" was that the revolutionary party should be limited to small core of professional revolutionaries. Once in power Lenin planned to ensure that no members of any other political party would have a voice in the new government.

Lenin planned to change the economic system from capitalism to socialism. (Note: NOT communism since according to Marx that could only happen by evolution after generations of socialism.)

Lenin planned to impose socialism by eliminating the private ownership of property and nationalizing all industry, which he did very soon after seizing power.

Lenin intended to end the war with Germany, which he did with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk only months after seizing power.

Lenin intended to redistribute land from present owners to the peasants themselves. This he did not do, but only took the land in the name of the government and did not give it to the peasants.

One only has to understand his slogan in April 1917 of "Peace. Bead. Land." to see that he had plans on what to do after seizing power. Any improvising Lenin did (such as his New Economic Policy) he did because his plans in those areas were not working.

Answer 3

Lenin plan in 1921 was called the New Economic Policy (sometimes called the New Economic Plan). It reinstated limited forms of capitalism temporarily in both agriculture and industry in order to revive the failing Russian economy. Peasant farmers were allowed to keep their crops and sell them on an open market. Small businesses, such as those with about 10 workers, were allowed to be run without controls by the central government.