The birth of Soviet Russia

Having changed the course of Russian society Lenin now needed to secure his Bolshevik survival. Unlike his predecessor he saw no need to continue with the Imperialist policies of a war in Europe. Territory could be sacrificed for control, but would promises and rhetoric be enough to govern amongst people not used to governance without hierarchy and by people with no experience of governing?

In this film Dr Lara Douds (Northumbria University) discusses the central debate amongst historians as to whether Lenin and the Bolsheviks always intended to rule from the centre, or if he/they genuinely attempted to construct a representative government based on the bodies of delegates representing the working classes. Dr Douds reflects on the many threats that beset the early state and how Lenin and his colleagues were forced to improvise and compromise in order to survive.

Lenin was determined to avoid reproducing what he saw as the ‘scam’ of western liberal parliamentary democracy but was initially open to a government structure based around the elected Soviets. This openness would gradually give way as the struggle for survival in the Russian Civil War called for new approaches and the emergence of a Monolithic party state and the politburo.