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Developments between revolutions in 1917 - Coggle Diagram
Developments between revolutions in 1917
Lenin and the April Theses
Lenin returned on 3rd Arpil
at this time, the Bolshevik party only had 23,000 members and 40 representatives in the Soviet (out of 1500)
permenant revolution
Lenin believed the whole of Europe was on the brink of a socialist revolution and that the bourgeois were holding back the proletariat revolution and the middle classes would continue to hold power
he previously believed this wouldn't happen in his lifetime so he wanted to push to a Bolshevik revolution led by the working class, rather than a bourgeoise revolution
wanted the Party to lead the people to a second revolution
April Thesis
promised to seize land from the aristocracy and return it to the peasants who worked the land
promised people would no longer go hungry
promised to end WWI or withdraw Russia's involvement
all power should be transfered to the soviets
Kornilov Coup
anti-war sentiment was growing as offensive in Galacia led by Brusilov failed - Kerensky appointed Kornilov as Commander in Chief to rally the troops and restore discipline
death penalty was also reintroduced
at the end of August, Kornilov sent troops to Petrograd to crush the soviet and establish a military dictatorship
Kerensky ordered Kornilov to end the coup but he didn't, so Kerensky released imprisoned Bolsheviks and gave weapons to the workers to protect the city - coup ultimately failed
positive for the Bolsheviks
propaganda opportunities
organised Petrograd Red Guard - 10,000 by October
the people now had weapons, which allowed them to revolt later
Bolshevik membership increased from 23,000 to 200,000 in October
July Days
sailors and Kronstadt naval base held armed demonstrations using Bolshevik slogans
Lenin could not fully support or condemn their actions - tried to turn them into peaceful protests but riots ensued
Bolsheviks were blamed for the bloodshed depite them helping talk the sailors down - Lenin and Stalin fled and Trotsky and Kamenev were imprisoned
it seemed that the time for a Bolshevik revolution had passed - Keresnky replaced Prince Lvov as PM on July 8th
Trotsky
military revolutionary committee
massed troops
200,000 red guard, 150,000 soldiers from Petrograd garrisons, 60,000 Baltic sailors
sent speakers round to factories to drum up support
Lenin and Central Committee of Bolshevik Party
key figures
Trotsky
Lenin
Bukharin
Zinoviev
Kamenev
Lenin
driving force pushing for a Bolshevik revolution/the Bolsheviks to claim power
attitudes to Lenin
Committee voted against the Coup at first and even Lenin's threats to resign did not motivate them to agree
Kamenev and Zinoviev in particular warned against forcing the revolution to come too soon (not economically ready), didn't want to act before Constituent Assembly election - continued to oppose the October revolution
Trotsky suggested they should work through the Petrograd Soviet - eventually took Lenin's side