History Case

Following its seizure of power in Russia, the Bolshevik party led by Lenin faced massive political opposition: the Social Revolutionaries - the party of the peasants - had more support in the countryside, and the Bolsheviks, despite being the traditional party of the proletariat, didn't even dominate the Soviets. Nevertheless, despite facing some serious political threats upon coming to power, the Bolsheviks managed to maintain power. Lenin's effective dealing of the problems his party faced can be considered as the main reason why the Bolsheviks triumphed over opposition.

First of all, Lenin had to deal with the threat posed by the lack of popular support. Instead of exercising power through the Soviet, Lenin formed a new body: the Sovnarkom, which was exclusively made up of Bolsheviks. When Lenin allowed the elections to the Constituent Assembly to go ahead in November 1917, the Bolsheviks won only 175 seats against 410 for the Socialist Revolutionaries. As a result, Lenin declared that his form of government represented a higher stage of democracy than an elected assembly. The Assembly was allowed to meet for one day - 5 January 1918 - then it was closed down and the deputies told to go home. Lenin's decision to dissolve the Assembly was effective because his party could have total control of the government. His principle of democratic centralism therefore contributed to consolidate the Bolsheviks' position.

However, there was still enormous pressure on the Bolsheviks to form a democratic government representing all the socialist parties. Hundreds of petitions flooded in from factory committees and army units demanding that there be cooperation between parties to avoid civil war. The railwaymen's union, backed by the post and telegraph union, threatened to cut off communications if the party did not hold talks with other parties. A few of the leading Bolsheviks, including Kamenev and Zinoviev, were even in favour of a coalition with other socialist parties. However, Lenin had no intention of seriously including other parties, since he feared that he may be sidelined in a coalition government. As a result, he deliberately made sure that talks with other socialist parties collapsed: he wanted the Bolsheviks to rule alone. Nonetheless he did show interest in coalition and he effectively made an alliance with th...