Lenins Role In The Revolution example essay topic

The painting was done in the 1920's some time after the actual event making it secondary evidence. To a certain extent it is historically accurate because the storming of the Winter Palace did take place but it is inaccurate as there was not a great struggle between the Bolsheviks and Provisional Government. The only Provisional Government soldiers present that night were a womens battalion because the Russian soldiers were fighting in the war. This is obviously propaganda by the artist who shows a lot of resistance in his painting. This is because the Bolsheviks believed it was their job to create a revolution, and although they respected Karl Marx did not want it to happen as he said.

We can see that the source is quite unreliable because of what it tells us about the Storming of the Winter Palace and how it portrays the Bolsheviks. It was obviously painted by a Bolshevik supporter because of these reasons. Source B was done in 1917. It is Primary evidence.

It is a cartoon that shows a woman representing mother Russian dressed in Greek Orthodox robes about to be sacrificed by Lenin and Trotsky, the tools to make a 1917 revolution. Alexander Kerensky the leader of the provisional government is stood well back doing nothing. He is neutral, not portrayed as being on either side. Also looking on are two of Lenins soldiers, some Red Guards and some Jews shown by their biblical 50 pieces of silver. The cartoon gives the impression that Russia will be destroyed by Lenin and Trotsky Lenin. Kerensky did nothing to ease the situation and he does not really do much - he became more European with his views.

It is him the Red Guards are laughing at - they are made to look nasty by the artist, because they are the enemy. The cartoonist is a supporter of the White because he makes the enemy look evil and bad for Russia and are shown to be very powerful. The peasants who are being ignored in the background are there to have shown the peasants at the time that the Bolsheviks would not have given them what they wanted. However the impression given is purely the artists opinions as the cartoon was drawn in 1917 before any of the events took place. Question 2 Alexander Kerensky was the leader of the Provisional government in 1917 at the time of the Bolshevik revolution.

Source C is an extract of an account written by him in 1932 describing what was happening at that time. Although this evidence is quite reliable as it was written by someone right in the middle of it all and can be classed as historically accurate; I would say it may be slightly distorted because it was written years afterwards and Kerensky did not want to go down in history as the person who failed to stop the Bolsheviks. This means he did not want to look bad so the source is biased. He would want to defend the policies of his provisional government and although he was the leader and knew very well what went wrong I think he is making excuses for his government. For example he says; Only armed forces by the Bolsheviks overcame the Provisional Government. This shows that he was biased because there was hardly any resistance and there was no conflicts with any armed forces.

The Bolsheviks came to power because they had more to offer Russia. Kerensky tell us of slow, but steady success. However the statistics are against him because the number of peasant uprisings since 1915 had quadrupled. In my opinion Kerensky was making the situation seem much less revolutionary or serious that it realistically was. There may have been some success but that really is irrelevant and overpowered by the fact that he still failed to defeat the Bolsheviks and win the war.

I dont think source C is reliable due to the time it was written and Kerensky concerned about his historical status. Also by the time he wrote it, the revolution happened so long ago he thought it probably didnt matter what he wrote because it was indeed history. Kerenskys attitude and Ignorance towards the Bolsheviks also contribute to the reliability of this source. Question 3 In this source Lenin shows the amount of control The Bolsheviks have over Russia and think that they should take over the country. He says they have support from the population and this is reinforced as the army have just given up their weapons to the Red guards. Lenin thinks they should not wait for the Constituent Assembly because it would be too late.

The writers of source E think that the whole future of the revolution and the Bolsheviks could be sacrificed and it could go either way. Their opinions are the exact opposite to Lenins, according to them the street fighting and following the revolution mood does not exist. However they have no evidence to back this up unlike Lenin who did. In source F the author says that the disagreement of Kamenev and Zinoviev angers Lenin because he believes the time is right and they do not.

But the author is objective and unbiased, taking no sides. Question 4 I disagree with this statement because Soskice knew all about the Provisional Government and what they did wrong so is equally to blame regardless of whether he knew of the Bolsheviks plans. He says little effort was given by the government to resist the Bolsheviks, so he is aware of their errors in that area and this is one of the key factors which enabled them to take power. In the evidence, Soskice shows that he knows a lot about how the Bolsheviks came to power and why their plans succeeded. For example he knew that Lenin told the army lies concerning Kerensky and that the army joined with the Bolsheviks. He says he knew all this from military authorities which shows he had access to information.

Therefore I disagree with the statement because as secretary and Special Correspondent of the Provisional Government Soskice was in a position to gather a lot of information. Question 5 In my opinion Reed is saying that the Bolsheviks seized power at the right time. This is shown in the votes because they had the lowest percentage in June then in September the highest. Reed thinks it was the right time because the Bolsheviks were the favourites. He may have been stressing the fact that Karl Marx was right and it was supposed to happen then like Marx said it would. On the other hand Reed may have intentionally chosen those figures and left out any negative results to show his point of view.

Basically it is propaganda whos function was to tilt people into believing in the Marxist theory. Question 6 Lenin is described as a professional revolutionary in source I, and also a key role in the revolution. The author says that Lenin, had no other occupation and that it was his deliberate intention to start a revolution. The author does not show any approval of Lenins methods but says Lenins public image helped him to gain such support. The author of source J credits only Lenin and no one else for the timing of the revolution, he deems him, entirely responsible. This shows the writer thinks Lenin was the man behind it all and he was an important player.

The source shows he does not believe in Marxs writing. The author of source K does not believe that the entire revolution was down to Lenin. He says that Lenin could not have done... everything. He agrees that, yes Lenin was an important factor but we cannot put it all down to one man.

Lenin is not even mentioned in Source L so the writer cannot think too highly of Lenins role in the revolution. He says that the armed forces took most of the action, the Petrograd garrison and the Red Guards took direct Military action to bring about the over - throw of the Provisional Government. The theory that Lenin played a big role in the revolution is agreed by sources I, J and K however they differ as to what extent. I and J believe that it was all Lenin, where as K is slightly more realistic in saying that it could not have all been down to Lenin.

Source L has a completely different view to the others because it does not say that Lenin had any involvement. Question 7 Source Ms view of the Czar is that he is leader of Russian but ignoring the needs of its people. The Czar is represented and a skeleton with an eagle on its shoulder, representing Russia. There is also a man in the picture with a petition in his hand, crushing the bear who also represents Russia. The petition is symbolic of the needs of the people.

The title of the Sketch is The Czar of all Russias which implies that there were all the different classes in Russia at that time all supporting and controlled by the Czar. The peasant who could be Gabon looks dead and the Czar is sitting on the throne, I think this shows the people loyalty to the Czar even when he was not ruling the country efficiently. Many things are shown to the British public in this cartoon. The fact that Russia was way behind the rest of Europe because they were ruled by a king and queen and the other countries were all ruled by politicians and the royal families had no power. The cartoonist is expressing the view that Russias system was old, unsophisticated and un civilised and most of all unfair to its people. The only reason why the Czar survived in 1905 and Kerenskys government did not in 1917 was the peoples loyalty to their countrys monarch.

It was a tradition that had been around for a long time and the provisional government was relatively new in its day so did not have so much support. Also the army had been on hand in 1905 but in 1917 there was very little resistance. The Duma was formed by the Czar to keep the Russian middle classes happy which also helped a lot with the problems at that time. The cause of the 1905 revolution was peasants not receiving their demands however they wanted the Czar to stay. But in 1917 there was not a Czar and the peasants went to whoever gave them what they wanted which was Bolsheviks. No one was Loyal to the Provisional government compared to the loyalty shown to the Czar.

There was no protection in 1917 from the Bolsheviks and the people of Russia wanted the Bolsheviks to seize power. Question 8 In both the sources shown and also throughout recent times there has been much dispute over the role of Lenin in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Source A shows us a great battle of which Lenin was the instigator. It is propaganda used to show the artists views.

Source B shows Lenin as a powerful man who along with Trotsky the author believes is about to destroy Russia. By wielding the dagger he is shown as the person most responsible for the revolution and the one with the biggest influence. Kerensky, the author of source C thinks the armed forces were more effective than Lenin in Bringing about the revolution. He believes it was all about pure strength rather than his government being a failure. Source G does not even mention Lenin when talking about the revolution, Soskice describes mainly the troops. Soskice, like Kerensky believes the armed forces actions were more important than those of Lenin and contributed more towards the revolution.

Source Hs statistics are to show that the timing of the revolution was perfect, Lenin really strived to reach his goal of revolution by warding off Kamenev and Zinoviev as sources D, E and F tell us. It shows that J. Reed believes the role of Lenin was significant. I, J and K all think Lenins role was important because he is described as a professional and that the revolution was entirely down to him. Although they all differ at what extent. A number of causes are given in source L but it does give the impression that the revolution was more Lenins fault. There is a lot of arguments over how, exactly, the revolution was won so that is why there is so much dispute over the role of Lenin in the Revolution.

Many people say he was the driving force and if he had not have returned from Finland it would never have happened however others believe it was inevitable, with or without Lenin because of Marxs Theory. Other sources do not give Lenin any credit whatsoever these are mainly leaders of the Provisional government who are trying to make themselves look better and protect their policies and not get into the question of whether Lenin was a better leader. It is amazing that the opinions differ so greatly for an event which took place less than 100 years ago. Some people say it was all Lenin, others say it was nothing to do with him. There are so many aspects as to why the revolution worked and if the success was down to Lenin or not that people are divided.

That is why there is so much disagreement over the role of Lenin..