Lee- successful attempt by an extremist group (took me forever to figure out how to paste my article from word doc onto here)

The October Revolution was a successful attempt by an extremist group for several reasons. The actions taken by Lenin and the Bolsheviks would prove to be a successful attempt by an extremist group due to the techniques and ideals that were developed in order to gain and maintain the power.

Lenin proves that this was a successful attempt by an extremist in his April Thesis. It’s second stage which is to place power in the hands of the proletariat and the poorest strata of the peasantry (4 A.T). Lenin tells the people, No support to the provisional government (4 A.T). This shows that it is an extremist group because Lenin is appealing to the peoples unwillingness to wait and drives them to overthrow the government. The people grew impatient and Lenin would use this to fuel his revolt. Lenin says in his thesis, Abolition of the police, the army, the bureaucracy (4 A.T). This furthers the idea that this take over is by an extremist group because Lenin is trying to rid all of the oppositions forces so that anyone who opposes his rule will have be weak. The October Revolution also shows that it was a successful take over by an extremist group because Lenin tells the people that there are no longer political parties that the Soviet Union was now a single party state. He discusses this in his thesis when he says they need to demand the commune state and when he said that they wouldn’t hold elections that he would pick who would rule with him (4 A.T). This proves it was an extremist group because he is turning the rule in of the Soviet Union into a dictatorship and he denies them the right to vote because he knew that he would never win the elections. In Lenin’s thesis it proves a successful take over by an extremist group mainly focusing on the political side and denying his opposition to go against him. It also shows how they would get rid of the government that was in place and establish their own.

In the reading on Lenin it shows Lenin’s ideals of how he would enforce his rule and establish his power. He would use the Cheka, concentration camps, and the Red Army to do this. The Cheka were Lenin’s secret police (3 L.R). The Cheka was used to protect Lenin by striking fear into anyone who questioned his authority. The secret police was a big part of keeping the opposition under control because everyone one was afraid to speak out against the government. The secret police would basically do the dirty work of ridding the Soviet Union of people against Lenin. This shows the success of the extremist because they were able to gain control within the public using the Cheka. Lenin’s concentration camps were called permanent concentration camps (3 L.R). These camps held prisoners from the war and the previous revolution, but also anyone that spoke out against Lenin’s rise to power. The people in these camps were beaten and tortured and often shipped far away. This was another way of destroying the opposition groups, because Lenin would just ship them out of the Soviet Union to these camps where they were then tortured. And one of Lenin’s most successful ideals was the creation of the Red Army (3 L.R) The Red Army was Lenin’s personal military which was used to prove his power. In his April Thesis he said he wanted to abolish the army that was in place and in doing that his Red Army faced little challenge. Lenin would use the Red Army in order to establish both his military and political superiority. Not only was Lenin using these forces in order to establish his extremist ideals but he also took away the civil liberties of the people. (3 L.R) Any paper that was represent by the upper class or spoke out against the revolution was shutdown. Lenin used the secret police in order to keep the people from speaking out against the government. And he destroyed the political class leaving him to rule the single party.

These represent a successful attempt by an extremist group because Lenin took control using force, fear, and destroying people’s rights. He convinced the people to help overthrow the provisional government instead of giving it time to work. Then he used force by using the Cheka, concentration camps, and the Red Army in order to prove his power and gain control. This was an extremist success because in doing this the people’s civil liberties were taken and in order for Lenin to gain this control he had to use thing such as the secret police and his personal army to scare people. This is why the October Revolution was a successful attempt by an extremist group.