The Russian Communist Party first emerged under the Bolsheviks in 1905 when general strikes were organised in St. Petersburg and Moscow. At this time the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, were a minority group and increasingly divided from the Mensheviks over pace of reform and ideology. It was due to the Tsar’s ignorance throughout World War One that the Bolshevik saw an inadvertent increase in influence of opposing groups. Although, the Bolsheviks were not in power by 1917 their membership was increasing and it was Lenin’s simple slogans, such as ‘Peace, Bread, Land’ that attracted the Russian population, increasing Bolshevik influence. The fact that the Bolsheviks were the only party to promise an end to the war won the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Russian people, which could be argued that Lenin was the most significant individual in the changing influence of the Russian Communist Party. However, it was both the leadership from Lenin and military organisation from Trotsky that meant the October revolution of 1917 was, to a certain extent, a success. Darby argues that ‘Without [Lenin] it is unlikely that the Bolsheviks would have taken power in October’ whilst Figes claims ‘Trotsky became its principal source of public inspiration’. Post the October revolution, the Bolsheviks were a majority in the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, proving that they had managed to exert a large amount of influence on the Russian population. After this it is more difficult to assess whether it was certain individuals that played a part in the changing influence of the Russian Communist Party as in the summer of 1918 Lenin set up a one-party state and ended the Constituent Assembly. The introduction of the NEP, in 1921, increased party influence as the peasants were allowed a little capitalism back, ending grain requisitioning and armed resistance in the countryside. It is hard to evaluate…