The February Revolution and the October Revolution of 1917 were important to Russian politics because they meant that the nation was being led towards socialism. The February Revolution meant that the Romanov dynasty ended, and that a Provisional Government was established. While Provisional Government meant that the government was temporary, some people were eager to place a new leader in charge of the nation. The Bolsheviks, who were later called Communists, seized control of the Soviet Union during the second revolution in October in 1917. A major influence on the Bolshevik rise to power was leader of the socialist party Vladimir Lenin who took over after the end of tsar Nicholas II’s reign. Lenin was a successful leader because he told the masses what they wanted to hear, although he did not always follow through with his promises to help the poor peasants. The single most important goal he had was to further his political goals. The poor that he convinced to be on his side enabled him to reach his political goals because there were a multitude of them whose support was beneficial to him. The tactics he utilized to get them on his side included promising them food and land, although the land came with stipulations that they were not aware of when they took it. The promises he gave the poor were methods to help him get to where he had major influence over the Bolsheviks because he had the people’s support. Another of Lenin’s tactics was to take Marxist ideology and alter it to fit his purposes. For instance, he believed that the intelligent elite (intelligentsia) should dominate the country, which Marxism did not advise. Lenin made clear the Marxist points that he agreed with and the ones that he changed in his speech when he arrived from exile to Finland Station in St. Petersburg and spoke to his supporters. The speech he made was then published in the Bolshevik paper three days after he wrote it by April 20, 1917.
The April Theses by Lenin was important to the political history of the Soviet Union because it demonstrated his tactic to appeal to the masses. For instance, he declared, “that the power pass to the proletariat and the poorest sections of the peasants aligned with the proletariat.” He utilizes his theses to rally the poor working class to his side. According to Moss, eighty percent of the population consisted of peasants by 1914, which was a large amount of people who could help Lenin gain political control of the nation. Lenin made clear in his theses that the demands of the poor would be heard to get them to advocate his rule. Another purpose significant part of the April Theses was that Lenin chose certain Marxist ideals to embrace and decided not to follow others. While he adhered to the Marxist notion of appealing to the worker, he rejected the idea that the bourgeoisie or some other group should not have influence over the proletariat’s lives. He thought that he and other intelligentsia should have a major role in controlling the lives of the poor working class. Although he did not plan to follow through with his promises, he issued the April Theses with the statement that the poor and working class were going to make gains from the new government. For instance, he said that Russia was transitioning from the first stage where the bourgeoisie had power to the second stage where the poor working class could gain control. He did not make clear to them that he would be in charge and would give them terms that would be disapproved by them.
Author Jonathan Frankel wrote the article “Lenin’s Doctrinal Revolution of April 1917” to analyze what Lenin’s April Theses means. The thesis Frankel utilizes is that Lenin made strategic moves to end the Provisional Government and to help the Bolsheviks take over the Russian government. As an illustration, Lenin stated that he thought the Marxists could have a successful coalition by representing the interests of the peasants. Lenin was successful in representing the interests of the peasants because he knew their wants and needs. For instance, he advocated that the soldiers who were going hungry should have inexpensive bread given to them. The goals that Lenin had were ultimately beneficial not to the peasants but to the Marxists. As an example, Frankel examined that “the stability of the village-town alliance depended not on the peasant (he would be given what he wanted) but on the proletariat and their Marxist leaders (who eventually would seek to deprive the peasant of his gains).” Lenin wanted a select group of Marxist intellectuals to lead the peasants in what was later called the dictatorship of the proletariat. Before his April Theses, he wanted a broad coalition of Soviets to have some control over events in the Soviet Union. After his April Theses, he advocated socialists to seize power. He did not want the peasants to have the ability to become self-sufficient. He needed them to be easily controlled by his Marxist regime. Lenin’s goals were to not only influence Russian politics but also all of Europe by being the first European nation to have a unique socialist revolution. He believed that he could manipulate the poor and the working classes into helping him start a political revolt across the continent.
The April Theses had monumental influence on the politics of Russia. The Communist party continued to encourage the working class to resent the upper classes, which kept the Communists ruling the government after Lenin’s death in 1924. Lenin’s successors, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev utilized the tactics that Lenin expressed in his April Theses to divide enemies. They also were able to attract people to their cause and sustain their regimes. They took liberty with Marxist ideology to adapt to changing events by explaining their actions what they termed Leninism.
Frankel, Jonathan. “Lenin’s Doctrinal Revolution of April 1917.” Journal of Contemporary History Volume 4, Number 2 (April 1969). Accessed in JSTOR… (September 30, 2010).
Moss, Walter G. A History of Russia, Since 1855, Second Edition. London: Anthem Press, 2005.
“Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution.” Marxists. In http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/apr/04.htm (accessed October 1, 2010).
