Cooke - Radical Groups Using Smoke and Mirrors

The true aims and goals of Lenin and the Bolsheviks were carefully concealed beneath a layer of what the people wanted to hear. A communist state, with power focused on one person (Lenin), along with the oppression of the people by said person, was not what Russia needed but it was what Lenin wanted to sell. And as every good salesman can tell you, you tell the customer what they want to hear.

The first of Lenin's three part mantra was peace (1). Lenin preached "Peace, land and bread" in every message (1), because he knew that this is what the people wanted. Peace was a primary goal because he believed the war was a war among capitalists (2) and one that a communist Russia would not need to be involved in. He wanted to negotiate a peace with Germany to focus on other things. He realized several things. One, that the people were tired of the war as it put strain on the industries of the country, and it drained valuable manpower away to the front lines, where the military was being shot to pieces as the country experienced leadership changes. Because of this turmoil, peace was easy enough to sell. This required no falsifying, but underneath were undertones that everything should be done the communist way, associating the end of the war with communism (Lenin's ideology) made people begin to associate communism with good things. After all, if it meant an end to the war it could mean other good things too!

The second was land. This was more of a political bribe, which was oriented at the lower class, who had the most power at the time. While the upper class had the wealth, the lower class had the numbers (and the weapons) to do pretty much what they liked, as shown by the previous rebellions. So, if you want to catch flies, use some honey. The honey offered was free land. To the poor peasants, this was a -very- radical offer, as it would give them wealth for the first time. So of course, many were willing to listen and put up with his other radical ideas in order to get the free land. The supporters would also tend to be more die-hard than other peasants, as they had some promised wealth to fight for. By essentially bribing peasants, he was able to artificially inflate his ranks, which meant new soldiers dedicated to the cause, which helped prepare the way for an uprising.

The final was bread. This was perhaps the most important of all of his offers, as bread is needed for every day life. By associating communism with wealth, food, and peace, he psychologically conditioned people to associate good things (money, no war, and food) with his group while bad things were associated with the Provisional Government (war, being poor, and being hungry). This meant that people were more likely to work with him, which was what he needed. As with most radical uprisings, he needed people that were willing to fight beside him. By offering food and money, he was able to recruit a large enough following to think of making a political gambit.

This is clearly a radical uprising. Because he did not possess the majority of power, and because of the different tactics he used (Such as locking the officials out when they did not agree with him)(1), and the violence that he maintained his power. He did not want elections because he knew that he could not win (1) and he had the military force to stop the army when it began to rebel (1). These are trademarks of a radical group (strong army, strict, and beliefs that are against the current). Because he did not achieve power democratically, we know that had it been an election he would not have achieved power, and instead he stepped into the power vacuum via force. If he was not a radical group leader, getting what he wanted under the guise of getting what the people wanted, why bother with all of the smoke and mirrors?