October Revolution 2 A Lenin example essay topic

'1) a) The provisional government was devised from revolutionary duma members who refused to disband at the Tsar request. It was not an elected body, and therefore did not necessarily have the support of the people. The provisional government would be judged purely on the performance of national matters. The provisional government also lacked an official partnership with the Petrograd soviets, which were one of the big parties in Russia.

The soviet order number 1 states that: The orders of the military commission of the state duma Are to be obeyed only in such instances when they do not Contradict the orders and decrees of the soviet. This order from the soviets left the provisional government in a very precarious position. Basically this order meant that the provisional government did not have the support of the army. At the time the soviets were working with the provisional government and did not undermine their power, this was probably due to the whole euphoria surrounding the revolution. No one wanted to end the initial national contentment so at first this wasnt a problem for the provisional government.

Military affairs were only binding if approved by the Petrograd soviets, this eventually cause animosity between the two groups. Originally the soviets had only wanted to make sure that the workers and military personnel were treated fairly by the government, but the provisional government moved further to the right while the soviets moved further to the left, until the communication broke down totally. With out a non-conflicting leadership over the army the provisional government could not enforce power, which meant that its fall was inevitable. The October Revolution 2) a) Lenin, when he returned to Russia in 1917, regarded a second revolution a necessity.

Th base for this action was to assert the proletariat into a position of power. Lenin believed that the first revolution had been a political bourgeois revolution, and because of his Marxist ideologies this wasnt good enough and there had to be a proletariat revolution because they fitted in with his political beliefs, and the revolution would give him ample opportunity to take over Russia. At first Lenin used the help of the Petrograd soviets, but he had no intention of letting them rule with him, as he thought that only his party alone stood for the proletariat and ruling with other parties would only undermine the Bolshevik party. The revolution would help him to stick to his political opinions, while wiping out all the other opposition. b) It seems that in comparison Lenin had a very different conclusion to the 1917 revolution to his comrade Trotsky. Trotsky says that it was down to three factors 1) Refusal of Petrograd garrison to side with government 2) Creation of MRC 3) Infiltration by Bolshevik members of key divisions of the army The three factors, which Trotsky listed, are in fact not a proletarian revolution.

All that had happened is another bourgeois revolution. None of the three factors mention the proletariat being involved at all with the revolution. The revolution was another re-enactment of the 1905 revolution. This obviously shows that Lenin was not that bothered about Marxism. All Lenin seemed to be worried about was whether he could gain power from this revolt. c) From Trotsky account it obviously seems that the revolution had not gone to Lenin plan. The revolution in October 1917 highlighted the fact that the Mensheviks made about how there was just not enough proletariat for a full-blown Marxist revolution.

Lenin wanted power as soon as possible, basically he staged a proletariat revolution for his party. I think this shows that Lenin was not that politically strong in his ideas, he seems to just want the power, he obviously doesnt care that he was already breaking his own idealism's.