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Russia Booklet 1 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Lenin eventually got his way due to his skills of persuasion, tactful retreat and compromise, threats of resignation and appeals to the rank and file.
        He abandoned his call for immediate removal of the PG (winning over those who feared civil war)
        He claimed personal credit for much that was already happening in Russia, including the massive anti-war effort in Petrograd.
        By the end of April, Lenin had won over the majority of the central committee (leading group that determined bolsheviks' broad policy objectives) by sheer force of personality
        However winning wider support required persistence
    - - Lenin and CC
        Lenin had begun bombarding the 12 man CC of the Bolsheviks party with letters demanding they prepare for revolution and seizure of power. The CC voted against a coup and even Lenin's threat of resignation from the CC failed to move them.
        Kamenev and Zinoviev, two prominent members, feared that Russia was not economically ready for revolution.
        Trotsky suggested they should work through the Petrograd Soviet ad wait for the congress of Soviets which was due to be convened on Oct 26th.
        An increasingly frustrated Lenin slipped back into Russia in disguise and on Oct 10th harangued the CC of the Bolshevik party all night.
        Lenin finally succeeded in persuading the committee that "an armed rising is the order of the day". Trotsky supported this but Zinoviev and Kamenev did not.
        
        Trotsky and preparation for revolution
        Once the vote for action had been carried, it was largely left to Trotsky to organise the revolution. He sent Bolshevik speakers to factories to gain support and a Military Revolutionary Committee was set up
- - - - Consolidation of Bolshevik authority
        The Bolshevik position was far from secure. Initially civil servants refused to serve and bankers refused to provide finance. Since many soldiers from the Petrograd garrison returned to their homes in the countryside immediately after the revolution, and Lenin had no direct contact with troops at the front, his forces were smaller in number than those of his opponents, and the bolshevik position appeared weak.
        Oct 31st - Bolsheviks take control in Baku and in 17 provincial capitals.
        Nov 2nd - Kerensky's opposition forces defeated.
        Nov 3rd - Kremlin in Moscow taken
        Nov 4th - Lenin proclaimed victory of the revolution.
        By the end of 1917, Bolsheviks dominated the major towns and railways but it would still take four more years of bitter civil war before the communists could claim full control. Lenin reluctantly agreed to allow seven left-wing Social Revolutionaries to join Sovnarkom.
      - Timeline
        Oct 24th - 5000 soldiers and sailors moved into the city and Bolsheviks red guards began to take over key government buildings and positions in Petrograd.
        Oct 25th - Red guard soldiers and sailors surrounded the winter palace, blank shot was the signal to begin the attack.
        Oct 26th - In the early hours of the morning congress greeted the announcement of the capture of the winter palace by arresting the remaining members of the PG. The day was spent mopping up operations on the street, congress opened and Lenin's Decree on Peace to end the war was adopted unanimously.
        Oct 27th - Decree on Land was agreed and the Bolshevik faction put forward their proposals for the reorganisation of the government. These were opposed by the mensheviks and SRs
        A soviet of people's commissars (Sovnarkom) was created to run government, which included only Bolsheviks because the left-wing SRs refused to join - Lenin was elected chairman