Leonard- successful attempt by an extremist group to seize power through use of the lower class

The October Revolution was a successful attempt by an extremist group to seize power by the use of strong armed tactics that appeared to be working in the favor of the lower class citizens of Russia.
In the beginning stages of the October Revolution Lenin and his government began to seize the land of the rich and redistribute the land to the peasant workers. Many lower class Russians believed that, “the land has to belong to those who work it.”(3) This action was a method of Lenin’s government to gain support for their revolution; even though this method angered the rich population, the government hoped to make the majority of Russia the lower class happy, by disregarding those who would be opposed. Disregarding the desires of the different parties in Russia was an extreme action that was made more out of an effort to gain support, than to represent the desires and aims of the repressed Russian proletariat. Lenin took advantage of the fact that Russia was a “poor country where so many possessed so little” which allowed for “sweeping changes to be seriously contemplated.”(3) By giving people who had very little something of their own, he was able to side track them from focusing on his other plans for them.
“In a third party decree proclaiming one-party rule, Lenin followed his own pan to establish a dictatorship.”(3) Lenin as a dictator was not what the people wanted. Under the Provisional Government, the people were told that they were going to be a democracy and hold elections, but the PG never got the chance to make that happen(). Being a democracy was obviously something the people for Russia wanted, if they did not they would not have overthrown the Czarist rule in the first place. Being ruled by a dictator was clearly not something the people of Russia wanted. Lenin declaration that he was going to be their dictator was an extreme method of seizing power.
When citizen became unhappy with the new government and tried to rise up against Lenin, he had several methods for repressing them and keeping their “counterrevolutionary” voice from being heard. One of his methods was establishing a group called the Cheka, secret police.(3) It was the job to “deal with the counterrevolution and with strikes and unrest.”(3) If any of this arose the Cheka was to use all mean to stop it. On January 9, the “Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly”, who was angry with the government, decide to march to the Tauride Palace. (3) It was the job of the Cheka to shut down the demonstration, “as the marcher approached, troops opened fire, and about 20 people were killed.” (3) The Cheka was shooting at “unarmed civilians and even some supporters were quick to point to the uncanny resemblance to the tsarist atrocities on the infamous Bloody Sunday of 1905.” Under Lenin’s rule the government was looking very similar to the Czar’s government, which the people had already over turned. If Lenin was truly representing the desires of the people his government would have no similarities to the previously overturned governments.
The actions of Lenin’s “new” government were not that different from the events that took place under the Czarist rule. Lenin was able to accomplish his extremist goals by gaining the support of the people in the beginning and appearing to be working for the good to the majority of Russia. He provided the people with distractions that allowed him to keep the people from truly knowing the extent of the goals he had set for Russia.