Bolshevik Consolidation of Power
How successful were the Bolsheviks in consolidating their power from 1917-1924? Was Communist ideology compromised during this period?
On 24-26 October, the Bolshevik Party seized power from Kerensky’s Provisional Government. This was achieved with surprising ease. Retaining their newly acquired power, however, was to prove difficult. Nonetheless, the Bolsheviks proved successful in consolidating their power from 1917-1924, achieving this through a combination of pragmatic reforms and ruthless terror. This ultimately led the Bolsheviks far from their original goals and ideologies, and by 1924, the Soviet Union was a highly centralised one-party state.
Immediately after the October revolution, the Bolsheviks consolidated their power using a number of ideologically progressive pragmatic reforms that placated the masses. Soviet power rested almost entirely on popular support. Lenin implemented a number of political and social reforms attempting to create a government of the people. A new government, the Soviet of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) was created, with Lenin as chairman. The Land Decree turned the administration of the land over to village Soviets; the Workers’ Control Decree (14 November) granted committees of workers control of the running of factories and enterprises; and the Rights of the People of Russia Decree offered self-determination to the national minorities of the empire.
The government continued to stop the force of authority, abolishing the old legal system, the police, bureaucracy, conscription and discipline in the Red Army. The Bolsheviks also carried out the long-established socialist commitment to the emancipation of women, eradicating all forms of legal discrimination based on sex, legalising abortion and making divorce easier. The Marriage Code of 1918 gave married women complete legal equality with their partners, and a Special Woman’s Department was set up in 1919 under the direction of active Bolshevik feminist, Alexandra
On 24-26 October, the Bolshevik Party seized power from Kerensky’s Provisional Government. This was achieved with surprising ease. Retaining their newly acquired power, however, was to prove difficult. Nonetheless, the Bolsheviks proved successful in consolidating their power from 1917-1924, achieving this through a combination of pragmatic reforms and ruthless terror. This ultimately led the Bolsheviks far from their original goals and ideologies, and by 1924, the Soviet Union was a highly centralised one-party state.
Immediately after the October revolution, the Bolsheviks consolidated their power using a number of ideologically progressive pragmatic reforms that placated the masses. Soviet power rested almost entirely on popular support. Lenin implemented a number of political and social reforms attempting to create a government of the people. A new government, the Soviet of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) was created, with Lenin as chairman. The Land Decree turned the administration of the land over to village Soviets; the Workers’ Control Decree (14 November) granted committees of workers control of the running of factories and enterprises; and the Rights of the People of Russia Decree offered self-determination to the national minorities of the empire.
The government continued to stop the force of authority, abolishing the old legal system, the police, bureaucracy, conscription and discipline in the Red Army. The Bolsheviks also carried out the long-established socialist commitment to the emancipation of women, eradicating all forms of legal discrimination based on sex, legalising abortion and making divorce easier. The Marriage Code of 1918 gave married women complete legal equality with their partners, and a Special Woman’s Department was set up in 1919 under the direction of active Bolshevik feminist, Alexandra