The Bolshevik Leadership and The Road to the Seizure of Power
Abstract:
The Bolsheviks in October 1917 seized power away from the Provisional Government and would eventually establish the first ever socialist state. This Senior Project investigates the chaotic year of 1917 within Russia as well as how the Bolsheviks operated within this larger context. More specifically, this project utilizes the writings of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin to investigate how the fear of the counter-revolution, which may have deepened as a result of the Kornilov affair, impacted the conditions that allowed the Bolsheviks to seize power. The writings of Lenin and Stalin will also be used to study the Bolshevik Party leadership when it came to the decision to seize power in October 1917. Ultimately, the project will argue that Stalin did not fully align himself with Lenin’s views during the period of August up until October 1917. This project further illustrates the Bolshevik leadership had different visions of how to achieve Soviet power, which reaffirms the notion that the Bolshevik Party is non-monolithic, and also the Bolshevik decision to seize power was deeply impacted by the shared understanding of a perceived of a counter revolution.