How the Bolsheviks stayed in Power

In this podcast Dr Beryl Williams examines Lenin's aims in coming to power and how the Bolsheviks were able to stay in power through the civil war.

1. Introduction. Lenin's 'transition stage' the dictatorship of the proletariat.
2. The struggle against the enemies of proletarian power through the application of coercion.
3. May 1918: civil war breaks out.
4. Defeat of the Whites by the Red Army.
5. Peasant revolts against the Bolsheviks. Lenin's New Economic Policy: an economic retreat. Clamp down on religion, show trials and exile
6. The new Soviet Union: economic devastation but the survival of one party rule.

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