Bolshevik Consolidation of Power 1917–1921

Seizing power in October 1917 was the easy part. Holding power against a host of enemies — political opponents, White armies, foreign interventionists, peasant insurgents, and even internal dissent — was the supreme challenge. Between 1917 and 1921, the Bolsheviks created the institutions and adopted the methods that would define the Soviet state: the secret police, one-party rule, censorship, terror, and centralised economic control. Understanding how and why these choices were made is essential for evaluating the nature of the Soviet system.

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Initial Decrees and Consolidation

Creating the New State

Institution	Detail
Sovnarkom (Council of People's Commissars)	The new government, with Lenin as chairman; initially included Left SRs as junior partners
Cheka (December 1917)	The secret police, under Felix Dzerzhinsky; tasked with 'combating counter-revolution and sabotage'
Red Guards	Armed workers who served as the regime's initial military force
Soviet structure	Local soviets were initially elected but increasingly came under Bolshevik party control
Press controls	Opposition newspapers were closed within days of the revolution

The Constituent Assembly (5–6 January 1918)

The Constituent Assembly election results were a blow to the Bolsheviks:

Party	Seats
Socialist Revolutionaries	370
Bolsheviks	175
Left SRs	40
Kadets	17
Mensheviks	16
Others	89

The Assembly met for a single day on 5 January 1918. When it refused to ratify Bolshevik decrees, it was dissolved by armed sailors on Lenin's orders. Lenin justified the closure by arguing that the Assembly represented 'bourgeois democracy', which was inferior to 'soviet democracy' — the direct rule of workers through their councils.

The historian Orlando Figes describes the dissolution as 'the point of no return' — the moment when the Bolsheviks chose dictatorship over democracy.

Key Definition: Cheka (Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage) — the Bolshevik secret police, established in December 1917 under Felix Dzerzhinsky. It conducted arrests, interrogations, and executions without judicial oversight, becoming the instrument of the Red Terror.

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The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)

The Decision

Lenin insisted on peace with Germany at any price, arguing that the revolution's survival depended on ending the war. The debate was fierce:

Position	Advocates
Accept German terms	Lenin — 'We must sign. We must buy time.'
Revolutionary war	Bukharin and the Left Communists — continue fighting to spread revolution
'Neither war nor peace'	Trotsky — refuse to sign but also refuse to fight (this strategy failed when Germany resumed its advance)

The Terms

The treaty was extraordinarily harsh:

• Loss of one-third of European Russia — Poland, Finland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, parts of the Caucasus
• Loss of 62 million people (one-quarter of the population)
• Loss of one-third of agricultural land and over half of industrial capacity
• 6 billion marks in gold reparations

The Left SRs withdrew from the government in protest, and the treaty nearly split the Bolshevik party itself.

The historian Evan Mawdsley notes that Brest-Litovsk 'saved the revolution but at a terrible price' — it demonstrated Lenin's ruthless pragmatism and his willingness to sacrifice everything for the survival of Bolshevik power.

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The Russian Civil War 1918–1921

The Combatants

Force	Composition	Strengths	Weaknesses
Reds	Bolsheviks; Red Army (created by Trotsky from January 1918)	Held the centre; unified command; clear ideology; ruthless discipline	Initially poorly trained and equipped
Whites	Monarchists, liberals, moderate socialists, Cossacks, national minorities	Military experience; foreign support	Geographically scattered; no unified command; no common political programme; often brutal to civilians
Greens	Peasant armies (notably Makhno's anarchist forces in Ukraine)	Local knowledge; guerrilla tactics	Localised; no national strategy
Foreign intervention	British, French, American, Japanese, and others	Military capability	Half-hearted; war-weary populations at home; unclear objectives

Trotsky and the Red Army

Trotsky's creation of the Red Army was one of the most remarkable military achievements of the twentieth century:

• He imposed universal conscription, building a force that reached 5 million by 1920
• He recruited former Tsarist officers (approximately 50,000) to provide professional military expertise
• Political commissars were attached to every unit to ensure loyalty
• Discipline was brutal — deserters and their families faced severe punishment
• Trotsky personally travelled to the front in his famous armoured train, rallying troops

Why the Reds Won

Factor	Explanation
Geography	The Reds held the centre of Russia, including Moscow, Petrograd, and the main railway network, allowing rapid movement of troops
Unity	The Reds had a single command structure and a clear ideology; the Whites were fatally divided
White weaknesses	White generals (Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich, Wrangel) could not coordinate their attacks and alienated potential supporters through brutality and forced conscription
Foreign intervention failed	Allied forces were small, war-weary, and lacked political support at home for a sustained campaign
Propaganda	The Reds effectively portrayed the Whites as agents of foreign imperialism and the old regime
War Communism	However brutal, War Communism ensured the Red Army was fed and supplied

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War Communism