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To What Extent Did Lenin's Consolidation of Power 1917-1924

This was clearly seen as an example of class struggle and in Lenin's mind was completely justified. Lenin firmly believed that revolution was imminent in Germany and thus when he was required to sign the dictat in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk he did not have a single problem. In his eyes Germany was at the brinks of imminent collapse and therefore he was quite happy to give them what ever they wanted. This treaty was seen as a pragmatic compromise but to Lenin it was a feature of survival. Furthermore his country was in turmoil and the Nazi's could and would have crushed them with easy had Lenin not acted quickly to ensure safety - again self preservation. .
             The civil war, to Lenin, was inevitable and another example of class struggle. It can be seen that he engineered the civil war through various well calculated antagonistic policies. For the "dictatorship of the proletariat" to prevail, opposition must be crushed through civil war. Lenin represented the proletariat cause hence he has now became the dictator of this cause. .
             In 1917 Lenin introduced "State Capitalism" and this can also be seen as a compromising measure. This was largely due to the lack of authority over the Russian economy. Russia was in turmoil, there was serious social unrest and due to Lenin's lack of planning he had not devised a serious economic plan. Industrial production had slumped to exceptionally low levels and it was clear that something had to be done. State Capitalism was introduced as a mediation point by which to transfer the current economic system into a fully fledged westernised productive economy. People were becoming more and more unhappy and this pragmatic policy was introduced to silence the unhappy starving workers who had the potential to cause even greater problems for Lenin. Lynch makes this point when he says "all Lenin's economic policies from 1917 until his death in 1924 can be seen as a response to the basic question: how could Russia feed itself?" This is without doubt true in relation to his War Communism policy.


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