The desperation of the People of Russia and how it led to Russian Leader Vladimir
Lenin creating a dictatorship.
Brooke
Toth
Dictators, typically exploit large scale events that
disrupt society to leverage their way into power. The Covid pandemic is one of
many events that leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have used
to consolidate power[i].
The Russian Revolution was no different. At the time prior to Vladimir Lenin’s
ascent to power, Russia was in an extreme state of poverty. Everyone looked for
someone that could help with the horrendous economic situation that Russia was
in from prior leaders. Vladimir Lenin used the promise of a communist utopia
and the desperation of the people of Russia to leverage his way into a
dictatorship.
The people of Russia were desperate
and extremely vulnerable after several centuries of failed leadership. A
crucial point in the revolution was how horrific living conditions were at the
start of the 20th century. Peasants took up an estimate of “82%”[1] of
the Russian population. What worsened life for the peasantry is how dated and
inefficient farming was. Russia is a large land mass but without proper
industry, the mass collections of natural resources could not be extracted.
When industrialization was attempted, due to the high percent of peasants and
the inefficient farming, people starved. Less people could grow food, food was
not being grown with modern tools and to top it all off, none of the attempted
industrialization was planned. Members of the “mir” were not motivated to
change how farming was done. Peasants were also required to pay significant
redemption payments after the abolishment of serfdom in 1861. The people who left
to work in industrialized towns were also in a tricky situation. Because of the
lack of planning on the Tsar’s part, rooms were crammed to the brim with
industry workers. They were famished due to less peasants working in the fields.
12-hour days were common, and it was made clear that industry workers were
easily replaceable. People were miserable on both ends of the attempt to
modernize Russia. Education was a privilege many could not afford. This is key
to understanding why ideas spread so vapidly. As of 1881, an estimate of only 10
percent of the population could read or write and only 2 percent had some sort
of education. Simple ideas could be spread like wildfire through the dense mod
of peasants, whereas detailed ideas quickly stifled. Censorship was difficult
for the Tsar since most ideas spread work to mouth. Thanks to the densely
packed housing and the lack of respect towards the workers, revolts began
popping up. The intense hunger and poor living conditions finally made people
realize that they couldn’t live under the Tsar much longer. After several
revolts, the Tsar released the October Manifesto, which promised a people’s
parliament called the Duma which was a type of government that the Tsar was
able to veto any unliked ideas thus muting its power. This calmed revolts until
1917, when the Tsar was forced to abdicate due to poor decisions during World
War One. World War One was the tipping point for the Russian economy with high
fatality rates and less farmers, once again leaving the people of Russia hungry,
mad, poor, and relatively vulnerable to anyone with a solution.
After the departure of the Tsar, a temporary
government called the “Provisional Government” was put into power. This
government was mainly former Duma members and therefor had many vulnerabilities,
ultimately resulting on the takeover of the
“Bolsheviks”; communist party. The Bolsheviks used the starvation and
frustration of the working class to their advantage. Their leader, Vladimir
Lenin was able to gain support for his party due to his ability “to change his ideas and the situation
in Russia into Communist like ideas[2]”
This helped build trust and empathy between the Bolsheviks and the people of
Russia while additionally proving how inoperative the Provisional Government
was. Vladimir Lenin was a charismatic individual with exciting new ideas. One
article suggests that he was the type of person that was “inspirational and
could help others find their voices[3]”.
Instead of being an ignorant leader that would not listen to ideas like the
Tsar had been, he encouraged others to stand up for themselves. Of course, this was prior to the
Bolsheviks winning the civil war, but that is what made others want to stand
with him. Later, during War Communism, he did end up banning revolts, so this
was all just a ploy, but people did not know it at the time. They had
this person, after centuries of being silenced by the Tsar, that listened and encouraged
them to take what was theirs and not to take any sort of abuse. People were
revolting finally believing that this was good. The communist utopia that Lenin
had begun promising finally meant that mothers and fathers wouldn’t have to
watch their kids slowly starve. It meant work life would become better and more
people would have jobs. The desperation that worsened with the 20th
Century and Vladimir Lenin’s charm finally rubbed off on people. Unfortunately,
Lenin’s charm did not cover up his brutality which is shown in The Red Terror
during the Russian Civil War prior to the Bolsheviks taking over the
government. While Lenin did encourage revolutions, he only wanted them if they
would aid the Bolsheviks. Victims ranged from people with opposing views or
political enemies to very poor peasants and those not meeting work quotas,
similarly to how Stalin would run things years later. Punishments would include
labor camps or execution. An estimate of 100,000[4]
people died from the Red Terror which showed how ruthless Lenin was. Vladimir
Lenin needed full control and removing enemies was just the way to do it, even
if it made people question his methods.
There is no doubt that Vladimir Lenin not only had the
desperation of the Russian population but also the motivational factors to get
into power. But why is he a dictator and not a communist? Communism is the idea
that the people share in wealth and power, that it is shared by state, and the
state is the people and everything, wealth and resources, are shared amongst
those who need it most. An economic policy instituted by Vladimir Lenin named
“War Communism” called for all industries with more than 10 workers to be
controlled by the government, private trade was banned, and most importantly it
became illegal to go on strike. Any who disobeyed these new laws, would be
eradicated by the “Cheka.”
Cheka were the first variation of secret police that Lenin had established back
in December of 1917, after the October Revolution. At first glance, War
Communism did follow Karl Marx’s idea of communism. Private trade was banned,
and the industries were being taken control of by the government which made it
seem like Lenin was starting to follow up with his promise of a communist
utopia, though it could have been viewed as the economy taking complete control
of the economy. When threatened, Lenin readily abandoned his principals,
keeping his power, when a group of sailors began rebelling. In “March of 1921” a
group of formerly loyal sailors and civilians in “The naval base of Kronstadt[ii]”
quickly became frustrated with material shortages and some of the other things
enacted with “War Communism” Those revolting came up with a list of demands for
a more “fair” nation. An army was organized by Lev Trotsky by the request of
Vladimir Lenin, slowly but brutally eradicated any sort of rebel. Lenin did
follow up on the final act of the policy. Every member of the sailor rebellion
was quickly killed by the Red Army. When the civil war ended, Lenin revised his
plan to the, “The New Economic Policy”. This new policy began to undo aspects
of War Communism. This policy allowed for some privatized trade between
peasants and industries, and industries with less than 20 people were returned
to their original owners. This would encourage peasants to grow more grain and
industries to produce more. When this policy was questioned by the Bolsheviks, Lenin
stated, “Let the peasants have their little bit of profit as long as we keep
power.”[5] This
is a clear indication that Vladimir Lenin’s true intentions, were not in fact,
communism. The New Economic Policy was used to reaffirm Lenin’s power and to
encourage economic growth. Communism follows the base idea that the people have
power. Prior to Lenin obtaining the power he had at this time, He had given a
rather infamous speech before the “Second All Russian Congress of Soviets of
Workers and Soldiers Deputies.” The speech discussed similar ideas to Karl Marx
such as removing the “Bourgeois” authority and making the state ran by the
“Proletarian.” “Bourgeois” was a term for the middle class that own industries
whereas the “Proletarian” was a term for the working class or lowest class. This
portion of his speech does follow Karl’s idea of communism however as discussed
previously; Lenin took a completely new direction. The proletarian had no
power, they were still peasants who had no control over anything like where
their food went. Of course, strikes and protests were forbidden because of War
Communism. Some of the bourgeois were given their property back so they had
some control, not much but some, nonetheless. Vladimir Lenin had used War
Communism and the New Economic Policy to establish and reaffirm his control
over the Russian people and neither of those ideas closely resembled Marx’s
idea of communism.
Vladimir Lenin used the promise of a
communist utopia and the desperation of the people of Russia to leverage his
way into a dictatorship. By the end of his reign in power, Lenin had completely
changed his promises to Russia to accommodate his dictatorship. He used the
desperation and hunger of the Russian workers and peasants only to quickly turn
against them if they remotely joked about him. He was a ruthless adaptable
leader who’s only goal was to maintain power. History books appear to avoid how
terrible he was due to his successor being much worse.
Bibliography
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