Lenin and the Establishment of Bolshevik Power, 1903 - 1924

This option is concerned with interpreting the emergence and rise of the Bolsheviks. Within that, there is a special focus on interpreting Lenin (his aims and achievements) and understanding the controversies which have characterised studies of him.

Key Issues for Study and Examination

• What direction did Bolshevik ideology and tactics take between 1903 and February 1917?
• How and why were the Bolsheviks able to seize power in Russia in 1917?
• How and why were the Bolsheviks able to secure their hold on power between 1917 and 1921?
• Was Lenin a dictator by inclination: a 'Red Tsar'?

Content

• Lenin and creation of the Bolsheviks: the Bolshevik-Menshevik split, the lessons of 1905, the development of the party in exile, the evolution of Leninist ideology.
• Lenin and the events of 1917: the April Theses, Bolshevik relations with the Provisional Government and the Soviets, the October Revolution.
• Lenin and early Bolshevik reforms, War Communism, the Civil War, the NEP.
• Lenin's methods from 1917, the 'Red Terror', the Kronstadt Rising.

Lenin Internet Archive

Marx and Engels Internet Archive

Works by Trotsky 

Leon Trotsky 

Russian Revolution Posters 

Russia and the Soviet Union 1917 - 1945 

Internet Modern History Sourcebook - Russian Revolution 

Russia interactive diagrams (scroll down the page and look in the left column)

Russia links