After the October Revolution in 1917, Lenin's Bolshevik government took control of Russia and immediately began implementing radical reforms. This included giving land to peasants and transferring control of factories to workers. However, the new government soon faced opposition which sparked a civil war. Lenin established a communist dictatorship and imposed war communism policies like food rationing to support the Red Army during the conflict. After winning the civil war in 1921, the New Economic Policy was introduced to help recover Russia's devastated economy through limited private enterprise.

1. Aftermath of the October
Revolution
1917 TO 1920/21

2. Background on Lenin
 Leader of the Bolsheviks
 Exiled to Europe during the Tsars reing
 Got back to Russi with the help of Germans in 1917
 His April theses:
 All power to the Soviets
 Peace, Land and Bread

3. The October Revolution 1917: Background
 The Provisional Government had lost support:
 Failures in the War, dessertions increased
 The Bolsheviks obtained support after Lenin‟s April
theses
 October 1917, Red Guard under the leadership of
Leon Trotsky overthrew the government

4. Lenin's Government
 Bread and Land
 Peace, Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk

Peasant obtained the
Tsar‟s and the Churches
land



Factories were put into the
hands of the workers


Russia lost 32% of
agricultural land and 54 %
of its industry
Fine of 300 million Gold
Roubles
The left SRs left the
coalition and many of
other Bolsheviks did not
approve
Lenin threatened to resign

5. Initial Decrees
 Ranks in the army abolished
 Workers controlled the factories
 Gave peasants and workers what they wanted
 Peasants received land

6. Elections to the Constituent Assembly
 Free Elections in late 1917
 Bolsheviks did not gain a majority (supported by
workers)
 The Social Revolutionaries (SRs) became the biggest
party in the Assembly (supported by peasants)
 Lenin closed down the Assembly
 The Bolsheviks Dictatorship: led by Lenin

7. The Civil War: Politics
 Government in the hands of the Congress of Soviets
(mainly Bolsheviks)
 Civil War:


The Whites (a coalition of the opposition of the Revolution)
The Reds

8. The Civil War‟s Economy: War Communism
 Nationalisation of all sectors of industry
 State control over trade and requisitioning of food
 Government trying to establish firm direction over
economy

To help with the Civil War effort
 Early reform proved too idealistic

9. The Government
Controls
productive
means and
organizes labour
Large factories
are controlled by
the government
An autarkic
policy is
developed to
avoid the
external blockade
Large faries are
controlled by the
government
War
Communism
Food is rationed
and agricultural
production has to
be taken to the
cities so that the
government can
distribute it
Production is
planned and
organized by the
Government
Free enterprise is
illegal and all
production and
trade is
controlled by the
government
No Strikes
Allowed

10. The Red Army
 Supported by peasantry
 Unity
 Single, unified command
 Trotsky organised the red army
 Geological Advantage
 Controlled central populated areas
 Access to the main armament factories
 Trotsky
 Ability to inspire men
 Introduced tough discipline and traditional hierarchy was
restablished

11. The End of the Civil War
 The Bolsheviks won the war
 Peasants did not want to produce more as the
government just took it away from them
 Food Shortages + Bad Weather = Famines
 1920-21 Famines: 7 million dead

12. Rebellions
 Greens -> Peasantry



Used Gorilla Warfare
Lenin thought that they
were more dangerous than
the Whites
Tambov Raising

Central Russia
 Kronstadt Mutiny


Supported the Oct.
Revolution
Make Lenin see that
something has to change

“lit up reality like a flash of
lightning”

13. The New Economic Policy (NEP)
 Necessary step backwards in order to ensure the





Revolution survival
Economy gradually started to recover
Led to the introduction of the Bourgeois: the NEP
men, kulaks and the „bourgeois experts‟
Heavy industry and the banks kept under the
government control
Compromised ideology in short term to ensure long
term gain
Ended grain requisitioning

15. The Role of Women
 Polices aimed at women and families can be seen as
driven by ideological consideration
 Things done to give women more freedom:



Relaxation of divorce law
Legalisation of abortion
Opening of Creches
 Encouraged to work during the Civil War
 Many of these changes were reversed back after the
war

16. Religion and the Orthodox Church
 Orthodox Church seen as one of the “pillars of





Tsarism”
Reduced power and influence radically
During the Civil War harsh measures were taken to
makes sure a counter-revolution would not take
place
After, a softer approach was taken
Did not act on Islamic traditions
Bolsheviks decided to tolerate rather than abolish
religion

17. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
 The use of violence
 Expansion of the Cheka
 Lenin justified the use of terror by the need to ensure the
Revolution did not fall to hostile forces
 The Growth of Bureaucracy
 Party and state bureaucracy
 Criticised by Trotsky and Lenin

18. The media
 All of the media was controlled
 Propaganda used to:
 Win hearts
 And minds
 Showed Bolsheviks as patriots
 Showed the Whites as not patriotic and wanting to
give back land to the nobility