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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
