In April 1920, the Bolsheviks held a party to celebrate Lenin's fiftieth birthday, with widespread celebrations taking place across Russia and poems and biographies dedicated to him being published. The decisions made by these three party bodies were considered mandatory for the state apparatus of the Sovnarkom and Council of Labor and Defense to adopt. [170], In the summer of 1919, Denikin's armies were forced back into Ukraine, and from there into Crimea, with Denikin himself fleeing to Europe. [42] Independent communist parties were established in each of these countries with the support of Sovnarkom,[43] which held a Conference of Communist Organisations of the Occupied Territories in Moscow in Moscow 1918. [125] Although Lenin was impressed by the architecture of the Kremlin,[126] he had always disliked Moscow, a traditional Russian city which differed from the Europeanised style of Petrograd. [58] Conversely, Lenin believed that this was impractical at that stage, arguing that the government should only nationalise Russia's large-scale capitalist enterprises, such as the banks, railways, larger landed estates, and larger factories and mines. April 14, 2019 Bloomsbury Press, Communism, History, Podcasts, Russian Revolution, Soviet Union; Share on facebook. Democracy means rule of the people by the people. : Narodny komissar, or Narkom) functioned as government ministers. Lenin’s Government. [15] "[39] When suggestions were made that the government should abolish capital punishment, he strongly opposed the idea,[85] declaring "Never! [140] In South Russia, a Volunteer Army was established by the anti-Bolshevik generals Lavr Kornilov and Mikhail Alekseyev in December 1917. In the past, education had been reserved for the nobility and a few members of the middle class. [138] As such, he failed to anticipate the intensity of the violent opposition to Bolshevik rule in Russia. [298], During December 1922 and January 1923 Lenin dictated a Postscript, "Lenin's Testament", in which he discussed the personal qualities of his comrades, particularly Trotsky and Stalin. [12] This resulted in what Lenin biographer Dmitri Volkogonov termed "a rare moment of socialist pluralism" in Soviet history. [122] On 10 March, the government members travelled to Moscow by night train, with most of them settling in the city's Hotel National on Okhotny Road, 300 yards from the Moscow Kremlin; here, Lenin shared a small two-room apartment with his wife and sister Maria. [17] Sources differ regarding who was to blame, with some identifying the culprits as disaffected Social-Revolutionaries,[18] and others as monarchists. [148] Japan saw this as an opportunity for territorial expansion, desiring to bring Russia's Far Eastern Maritime Province under its own imperial control. [154] With Lenin's support, in September 1918 Trotsky organised a Revolutionary Military Council, remaining its chairman until 1925. [311], However, the most significant political division between the two emerged during the Georgian Affair. [14] The stress of this position exacerbated Lenin's health problems, in particular his headaches and insomnia. There Lenin joined with other leaders, including Leon Trotsky, in an open campaign to upset the moderate government. Its inauguration was proposed by Lenin to replace the Bolshevik journal Mysl (Thought), a Moscow publication banned by the tsarist government. [265] There, he encouraged foreign delegates to emulate the Bolsheviks' seizure of power,[266] and abandoned his longstanding viewpoint that capitalism was a necessary stage in societal development, instead encouraging those nations under colonial occupation to transform their pre-capitalist societies straight into socialist ones. [49] [119], After the Treaty was signed, Lenin's Sovnarkom focused its attentions on attempting to foment proletarian revolution in Germany, issuing an array of anti-war and anti-government publications in the country, many of which were distributed to German troops fighting at the front. [79] Realising that the Committees of Poor Peasants had turned upon the 'Middle Peasants' who were not kulaks and that they had contributed to the peasantry's increased alienation from the government, in December 1918 Lenin declared their abolition. [84] Speaking to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets in November 1917, he declared that "The state is an institution built up for the sake of exercising violence. Leninism comprises socialist political and economic theories. The Executive Branch of government is headed by the President of the United States. [253] Lenin saw this as a revival of the Second International which he had despised and decided to offset its impact by formulating his own rival conference of international socialists. The Sovnarkom. He served as the head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. [227] Lenin sent Mikhail Kalinin to talk to the rebelling sailors, but they rejected his arguments and denounced the Bolshevik administration, calling for a return to rule by the soviets. [62] The new government also signed a commercial and diplomatic treaty with Germany, the Treaty of Rapallo,[244] as well as the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom in March 1921,[245] seeking to encourage the Russo-Asiatic Corporation of Great Britain to revive its copper mining operations within Russia. [181] After forcing the Polish army back, Lenin urged the Russian Army to push into Poland itself, believing that the Polish proletariat would rise up to support the Russian troops and thus spark European revolution. [327] On Saturday 26 January, the eleventh All-Union Congress of Soviets met to pay respects to the deceased leader, with speeches being made by Kalinin, Zinoviev and Stalin, but notably not Trotsky, who had been convalescing in the Caucasus. [109] Growing impatient, on 10 February the Central Powers issued a second ultimatum, and while Lenin again urged acceptance, the Bolshevik Central Committee retained its original position, hoping to call Germany's bluff. Under him was the Politburo (Political Bureau) of the CPSU. Canadians elect representatives to the House of Commons. "Soviet Repression Statistics: Some Comments", The Consul General at Moscow (Summers) to the Secretary of State. As a result, the realities of early Bolshevik Russia conflicted with the ideals of a socialist society without oppression, terror or police rule which had been promulgated by Lenin as late as 1917. Before this, the Bolsheviks and their Left SRallies held only a slender voting majority in the Congress. Lenin born to a wealthy middle … [52] In November 1918 he decreed the establishment of state orphanages. The NEP had four main features. All of this embarrassed and horrified Lenin himself. [211] Although the Russian Orthodox Church – the largest religious organisation in Russia – was worst affected, the government's anti-religious policies also impacted on Roman Catholic churches, Jewish synagogues, and Islamic mosques. He provided them with a strategy. [285] There, he was cared for by his wife and sister, Maria Ilinichna, who visited on weekends. The prototype of this future economic parliament already exists in Russia. [182] Lenin had also sent a note to E. M. Sulyanski, in which he called on the Red Army to hang kulaks, clergy, and landed gentry, before blaming these attacks on Green armies. [160] The Left SR launched a coup in Moscow, shelling the Kremlin and seizing the city's central post office, however their uprising was soon put down by Trotsky and two Latvian battalions. In March 1923, while Lenin was ill, the Politburo ordered the expulsion of any Mensheviks from state institutions and enterprises, and their banishment to labor camps in Narym; their children were to be sent to a camp in Pechera, ultimately resulting in the virtual eradication of Menshevism in Russia. [254], On 2 March 1919, the First Congress of the Communist International ("Comintern") opened in Moscow. Front. [177] For Lenin, the execution was axiomatic, and he highlighted the precedent set by the execution of Louis XVI in the French Revolution. T.H. [27], Lenin was the most significant figure in this governance structure; as well as being the Chairman of Sovnarkom and sitting on the Council of Labor and Defense, he was on the Central Committee and Politburo of the Communist Party. [108] On 7 January 1918, Trotsky returned from Brest Litovsk to St. Petersburg, informing the government that the Central Powers had presented them with an ultimatum: either they accept Germany's territorial demands or the war would resume. The people exercise government power in elections and have the last word in monitoring the activities of key government institutions. 2. Industry. [185] This decree called for perceived class enemies of the proletariat to be isolated in concentration camps, and for those aiding the White Armies or rebellions to be shot; it decreed that the names of those executed should then be published. ", "The International World Revolution is near, although revolutions are never made to order. ", Constitutional and Governmental Organization, Red Terror, Famine, and the New Economic Policy, Lenin's Declining Health and the Soviet Union, sfnm error: no target: CITEREFWhite2002 (, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Basic Law on the Socialisation of the Land, August 1918 telegram that he sent to the Bolsheviks of Penza, Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, Russo-Asiatic Corporation of Great Britain, "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Government_of_Vladimir_Lenin&oldid=1010608356, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 6 March 2021, at 10:33. Lenin urged for their execution, although other Bolsheviks cautioned against this, suggesting that they be kept imprisoned indefinitely under the threat of execution if any further SR attempts against the government were made. Share on google. [81], Privately influenced by Niccolò Machiavelli's writings on the application of state force to ensure control,[82] Lenin repeatedly emphasised the need for terror and violence to be used in order for the old order to be overthrown and for the revolution to succeed,[83] describing such violence as "revolutionary justice".