THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER Lenin proclaims power in the name of the Soviets

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER

Lenin proclaims power in the name of the Soviets

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER

The First Steps

“Land, Bread, and Peace”

Peace = top priority

• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Feb. 1918

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER

The First Steps

“Land, Bread, & Peace”

• Redistributed land to peasants

• Soviets eventually to control land

Land

• workers given control of factories

• improved working conditions

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER

The First Steps

“Land, Bread, and Peace”

Bread

• State to distribute food

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER

The First Steps

Set out to transform society

restructured national & local government

overturned social order

attacked Church

changed alphabet & calendar

Council of People’s Commissars

“Dictatorship of the Proletariat”

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER

Growing Opposition

Social Revolutionaries = biggest challenge

win majority in Constituent Assembly

Bolsheviks disband it

Assassination attempt on Lenin

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER

Combating Opposition

Establish political police= CHEKA (Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-revolution, sabotage, and speculation)

fought “class enemies”

beginning of “Red Terror”

Felix Dzerzhinskii & Cheka members

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER

Combating Opposition

Create Red Army

to fight internal & external enemies

included political commissars

Trotsky inspects Red Army