How accurate is it to say that Lenin’s leadership was the most important reason for the Bolsheviks’ success in the revolution of October 1917? (20 Mark)
It is accurate to say that Lenin’s leadership was one of the most important reasons for the Bolsheviks’ success in the revolution of October 1917, due to Lenin taking control over the Bolsheviks and beginning to make preparations for seizing power. The whole idea of the revolution only came about because of Lenin returning to the Bolsheviks. However, it cannot be ignored that there were other factors that contributed to the success of the October revolution such as the failings of the Bolsheviks political opponents.
Lenin contributed to the Bolsheviks’ success in October 1917 mainly in three different ways. The first contribution Lenin had made in the success of the October Revolution was on the return from exile in April 1917 where he persuaded and took control over the Bolshevik party and made them adopt the idea of seizing power. This was a difficult task as many of the members of the Bolshevik party shared the Menshevik view which predicted that the overthrow of capitalism was far off. Lenin had to work hard to persuade the Bolshevik party to understand his interpretation. Lenin’s success was largely based on his force of personality, but it also owed something to the support he received from new entrants in the Bolshevik party. Secondly, Lenin raised the Bolsheviks’ political profile as he recognised that the Bolsheviks were too weak to mount a serious challenge for power. The Bolsheviks had around 25,000 members in February 1917, however by April this figure had risen to 75,000. This was done through the April Theses which were policies designed to appeal to leftwing opinion in Petrograd. These policies focused on opposition to the war, immediate transfer of the nobility’s estates to the peasantry and insistence that the soviets should be the basis of the future government of Russia. Lenin had tough competition as these policies were at odds with the Provisional Governments and they did not bring overnight success. But by the summer of 1917 they became increasingly popular and attractive to workers and soldiers in Petrograd who were starting to loose patience with the Provisional Government due to its failure to make radical changes. Support for the Bolsheviks grew, which meant their popularity increased, creating a suitable political profile for the revolution. Lastly, Lenin guided his party to launch a bid for power after the impact of the Kornilov affair. In the Kornilov affair, Bolshevik armed factory workers who were known as Red Guards played a key role in preventing a counter-revolution. Due to this the Bolsheviks popularity rose which meant they could seize power with a realistic chance of success. Lenin succeeded in getting his way due to his strong arguments and the strength of his personality. If Lenin wasn’t able to do so there would have been no October Revolution.
This shows that Lenin’s actions in 1917 portray how much of a successful leader Lenin was. He was forceful and decisive, who made the October revolution possible. However, Lenin is not solely responsible for the success of the October Revolution as his actions would have counted for little if it wasn’t for the failings of the Bolshevik’s opponents.
The Bolsheviks were helped strongly through the failing of the opponent’s policy on the Land issue. The Provisional Government insisted that major issues such as land reform had to be resolved after the Constituent assembly had done its work. This gave an impression of indecision and delay to the peasants which Lenin exploited to the full. He offered a mocking summary of the Provisional Government policy ‘As to land, wait until the Constituent assembly. As to Constituent assembly, wait until the end of the war, wait until complete victory. The Bolsheviks also exploited the hesitancy of the nobility’s estates to the peasantry. This won over quite a bit of support for the Bolshevik party from industrial workers.
Another important failing of the opponents of the Bolsheviks was the opponent’s attitudes’ toward war. By 1917, war was extremely unpopular with the public of Russia. However, the demand for peace wasn’t met by the opponents of the Bolsheviks party. The liberals of the 1st provisional government wanted to fight until victory had been won- a policy which lead Milyukov to be forced out of the government in May 1917. Kerensky had lost a huge amount of popularity after launching the June offensive, which ruined his representation of being a peacemaker. The Bolshevik were however most committed to being opposed to war in Russia in 1917 which helped raise their popularity and increased their chances of seizing power.
The Kornilov affair was another reason which contributed to the success of the October revolution. Before the Kornilov affair, the Bolsheviks were given an opportunity to seize power in the July days, but had failed to do so. This was a dark time for the Bolsheviks as this made the popularity for the provisional government rise, and Lenin was soon forced to flee to Finland. The Bolsheviks were a key opponent in defeating Kornilov’s attempted counter-revolution, by turning Kornilov’s forces against their officers, which led them to presenting themselves as saviours of the revolution. Lenin urged the Bolsheviks to start a insurrection while Trotsky, carefully planned the insurrection, which made the October revolution look like a seizure of power by the Soviets. This was not the case as behind the scenes the Bolsheviks were solely responsible.
Overall, it is clear that Lenin’s leadership was not the most important reason for the success of the October revolution as though Lenin’s leadership was bold, decisive and strong it was not the main reason behind the success. The weakness of Provisional Government losing control of the country, opened a opportunity for the Bolshevik seizure of power, which the Bolsheviks took advantage of.