Essay, Research Paper

Lenin and Problems After the October Revolution

What were the jobs confronting Lenin after the October Revolution and how

successfully did he cover with them?

The initial troubles faced by the new Soviet Union were so terrible

that its endurance seemed about marvelous? . The remains of the czarist government

left Lenin to confront a state wrought with war, devastated economically.

Russia & # 8217 ; s engagement in World War I, followed by its Civil War, broad spread

dearth and a alteration in political and societal political orientation were the jobs

facing Lenin after the October Revolution. Lenin did win in stoping

both the war with Germany and the Civil War for Russia. Yet, the economic and

societal facets of the revolution can be more critically assessed.

Lenin knew the importance of stoping Russian engagement in World War I.

On March 3, 1918 Russia lost 1/3 of its fertile farm lands, 1/3 of its

population, 2/3 of its coal mines and oil Fieldss and 1/2 of its heavy industry

to German peace footings. Though the pact of Brest-Litovsk was rough, the footings

were annulled one time the Allied powers defeated Germany. Lenin managed to stop the

war that had for so long down Russia & # 8217 ; s resources and morale. He succeeded

in concentrating on the terrible internal jobs of the new authorities, and in?

salvaging the socialist democracy? . One of the largest jobs that Russia faced

prior to the October Revolution was eventually ended, though its effects were still

to be felt.

About instantly afterwards, in 1918, Civil War begins. The battling

White Army divided amongst different leaders and involvements left the Red Army,

led by Trotsky winning. Vladimir ilyich ulyanov does win in extinguishing resistance to the

Soviet Union in November of 1920. As in the instance of the World War, a simple terminal

to the contending did non mean an terminal to the desolation that had been left as

a effect.

The economic and societal jobs that arose from the terminal of the czarist

government were dealt with by Lenin ab initio unsuccessfully. War communism, a

forced socialised economic policy began with the arrogation of excess grain.

It so extended to all other merchandises. Abusive withdrawals fought provincial

opposition with the panic of the Red Army, and in 1919 when they gained

control, with the Extraordinary Commission ( Cheka ) . What Lenin had thought would

conveying the victory

of communism rendered merely wretchedness and upset. The Kronstadt

Revolt in February, 1921 is an illustration of the outrage felt by those that saw

the Bolshevik & # 8217 ; s policies as excessively oppressive. Finally, Lenin sees that a

passage period is necessary, and denounces war communism for its impractical

badness. Up until this point the black economic and societal jobs of

the state were non dealt with successfully.

Both World War I and the Civil War left rampant devastation in Russia & # 8217 ; s

agricultural production. Drought every bit good as the failure of war communism led to

broad spread dearth. At this point Lenin introduced gradual economic steps

that began as agricultural policies. Harmonizing to British historian E.H. Carr,

Lenin & # 8217 ; s New Economic Policy increased from nutrient production to merchandise, to the most

? profound immorality? : industrial policy. He states that the indispensable nature of the

NEP was the negation and reversal of war communism policy.

Lenin described the NEP as a retreat in order to assail once more. After

seven old ages the NEP succeeded in returning agribusiness and industrial production

to 1913 degrees. Yet in his book From Lenin to Stalin ( 1930s ) , Victor Serge a

former Communist criticizes the NEP. He points out that the NEP simply restored

the visual aspect of prosperity to Russia. This prosperity was for many?

unsavory and frequently perturbing? . It meant a reversal to capitalist

corruptness, confounding those that had learned to accept the rough footings implied

by revolution. Yet, I can non hold wholly with Serge. Lenin knew how

indispensable a transitional period was for a Russia in ruin. The NEP, though non

wholly successful in work outing all the jobs that came after the October

Revolution, did pull off to convey a better criterion of life for many, as is

affirmed by historiographers Strayer and Gatzke.

Lenin faced complex jobs after the initial victory of the October

Revolution subsided. He was left with a foreign war to stop, and a domestic 1

to squelch. Both terminated victoriously merely on an ideological degree. The

monolithic desolation that the new authorities confronted was aggravated by harsh

war communism policy. With the gradual addition of Lenin & # 8217 ; s New Economic Policy

came contention and some exigency alleviation. Ultimately at the clip of Lenin & # 8217 ; s

decease the Soviet Union was still plagued, though possibly non as badly, by

economic and societal hurt.