Bolshevik consolidation of power

-5 key areas of the Bolshevik consolidation of power

- Bolshevik Party
-the government
-the economy
-the USSR
foreign policy

-The period of the consolidation of power had a profound impact on the Bolshevik Party.
● Military Struggle
● Military Structures
● Military solution

-Lenin laid the foundations for centralised power in the hands of the Bolsheviks

-the period of consolidation also allowed the Bolsheviks to eliminate the most organised opposition
-Former Russian empire loyalist (white army)
-Internal culture/structure
-Social Democratic labour party (Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries)
-“Peace! Bread! Land!” Was a slogan used by the Bolshevik Party to gather support
-The Secret Police CHEKA used to suppress any opposition and install fear into the citizens and ensure the

The impact of the Bolshevik consolidation of power

-the impact of the Bolshevik consolidation:
-Became the Dominant Political power
-formation of the USSR
-Also created instabilities and ideologies clash with the social revolutionaries and Mensheviks

• Bolshevik ideology in theory and practice

• Competing visions for the Bolshevik Party and the USSR
• The Bolshevik consolidation of power
• Political and economic transformation
• Aims, nature and effectiveness of Soviet foreign policy
- was that it made the Party the dominant political power in the USSR while also creating serious practical instabilities and
ideological contradictions within their government.

The reasons for the emergence of Stalin as leader of the USSR

-Joseph Stalin's success in the invasion of georgia propelled his rank and popularity
-Adopted a hardline approach to Opposition
-Surviving Lenin's will and testament
-Travelling around the USSR
-Stalins position of General Secratary of the USSR let him appoint loyalist to him into powerful pisitions allowing him to
raise to power after the death of stalin
-Most of stalins oppistion were either killed off or just suddenly disappeared
-

Economic transformation under Stalin and its impact on Soviet society

● The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk caused Russia to lose
30% of its population (sixty-two million people)
32% of its agricultural land
54% of its industrial undertakings
89% of its coal mines.

● New Economic Policy vs War communism

● Industrialisation and 5-year plans
● Policy seemed to resemble the begnnings of a new revolution/Civil War, militant approach to politics, strong
political pressure to be more ambitious, set on accomplishing mythical targets and completly impractical
● First 5 year plan 1928-1932
● Set industrial targets based on Western models including funding for government projects, wanted reduce
the threat of Western invasion by building up armaments
● A list of dem&s to impossibly increase production, when outlook quickly reached, target was increased,
reflected politicisation/militarisation of economies, call to heroic struggle to inspire people to do more,
shock troops sent in to “help” mobilise workers
-War communism was the political/economic policies used during the Russian civil war 1917-1922)

-Collectivisation became very unpopular for the soviet peasantry

● Argriculture under the new collectivsation policy decreased drastically as peasantry/farmers held dtrikes and killed
their own cattle and animals
● Shortage of grain supply
● Peasants/farmers forced to cultivate on collective farms
● Those who resisted where punished harshly

Quotes:
Martin McCauley “the backbone of Bolshevik Support” is references to the workers/peasants and farmers of USSR (
essential to the survival of the USSR and the bolshevik consolidation of power)