Consolidation and maintenance: Lenin's nature and extent of the opposition Notes

Lenin: Nature and Extent of the Opposition

1. The October Revolution gave the Bolsheviks power, but not legitimacy across society.
2. Opposition came from a wide range of groups: rival socialists, monarchists, peasants, national minorities, workers, and foreign powers.
3. Lenin’s survival depended on neutralizing these threats.

Types of Opposition

1. Political Parties
   1. Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs):
      1. Wanted peasant socialism, opposed Bolshevik centralization.
      2. Briefly had a majority in the Constituent Assembly (1918).
      3. Banned and suppressed after it was dissolved.
   2. Mensheviks (“minority”): wanted a broad, mass party that worked more gradually toward socialism through cooperation with liberals.
      1. Advocated gradual reform, condemned Bolshevik dictatorship.
      2. Outlawed, leaders arrested or exiled.
   3. Cadets and Monarchists:
      1. Favored liberal democracy or Tsarist restoration.
      2. Crushed early.
2. Constituent Assembly (Jan 1918)
   1. Elected body won by SRs with ~53% of vote.
   2. Dissolved by Bolsheviks after one day.
   3. Showed Lenin’s unwillingness to tolerate pluralism.
3. Civil War Opposition (1918–1921)
   1. White Armies: Former Tsarist officers, monarchists, liberals, SRs, foreign interventionists. Supported by Britain, France, USA, Japan.
   2. Controlled large areas at times but disunited and lacked popular support.
   3. Defeated by the Red Army by 1921.
4. Peasants
   1. Resented grain requisitioning under War Communism.
   2. Major uprisings like the Tambov Rebellion (1920–21): tens of thousands rose against Bolshevik policy. Brutally crushed with poison gas and mass executions.
5. Workers
   1. Faced food shortages, militarization of labor, and wage cuts.
   2. Strikes in Petrograd and Moscow in 1920–21 were suppressed by the Cheka.
6. Kronstadt Uprising (1921)
   1. Led by sailors who had once supported Bolsheviks.
   2. Demanded “Soviets without Bolsheviks.”
   3. Brutally crushed by Red Army.
   4. Lenin admitted it was a “tragic necessity.”
7. National Minorities
   1. Some regions sought autonomy (Ukraine, Georgia).
   2. Red Army reimposed control, though limited concessions made in form of the USSR (1922).

Extent of Opposition

1. Widespread and multi-class: peasants, workers, soldiers, nationalists, rival socialists, and foreign powers.
2. Often fragmented, lacked unity or clear leadership.
3. Defeated through Red Army superiority, use of terror (Cheka), and Bolshevik control of resources and propaganda.