Question 2

What part did Lenin play in the establishment of the Soviet Union?

Paragraph One

• The importance of his leadership
• Determined leadership
• Developed the ideas of Karl Marx
• Led the Party through the split of 1903
• Held them together in exile

Paragraph Two

• Lenin and the Revolution
• Led Bolshevik opposition to Provisional Government
• Knew the right policies to win support
• Judged the optimum moment to seize power
• Ruthless with opposition:
  • disbanded Constituent assembly
  • banned opposition parties
  • Tsar’s family murdered
  • Secret police

Paragraph Three

• 1918-21 Civil War
• Treaty of Brest Litovsk
• Led government (War Communism)
• Trotsky and Red Army versus Whites

Paragraph Four

• NEP 1921-4
• NEP vital to keep Bolsheviks in power
• Kronstadt Mutiny made him realise compromise with Marxist principles essential
• Some private enterprise allowed

Paragraph Five

• Government structure
• Leading member of governing committees (not dictator)
• Government organisation – the Soviets from local soviets to the National Congress of Soviets and the Communist Party (only party allowed)
• December 1922 USSR came into being – Lenin’s achievement
• Lenin’s health failing (died 1924)