⭐ Seizing power
In October 1917 Lenin pushed his party to act. The Military Revolutionary Committee took the key buildings of Petrograd, the Provisional Government fell, and Lenin became head of the new government.
War Communism and the New Economic Policy (NEP) » Lenin's Achievements to 1924
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section A, Investigation A2, Key topic 5
- Lenin's big achievements to 1924
- The dictatorship, terror and suffering that came with them
- How to weigh the achievements against the costs
- How to answer a 16-mark interpretation question
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Unlock This CourseLenin's achievements
When Lenin died in January 1924, the Bolsheviks had held power for over six years. Historians ask what he achieved, and what it cost. Five achievements stand out. Four are below, and the fifth follows.
🔒 Keeping power
He issued the Decrees on Peace and Land, then closed the Constituent Assembly in January 1918 when the Bolsheviks did not win its election. He also persuaded his party to accept the harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 to end the war with Germany.
⚔️ Winning the Civil War
By 1920 the Reds had beaten the Whites and their foreign backers. Lenin led the party, while Trotsky built the Red Army.
🌾 Rescuing the economy
In 1921 Lenin accepted the New Economic Policy. Harvests improved from 1922, and trade and small businesses began to recover.
A fifth achievement came in December 1922. Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia and Transcaucasia joined together as the USSR, with Moscow as its capital.
Key terms:
- USSR: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, formed on 30 December 1922.
- One-party state: a country where only one party is allowed to rule.
- Dictatorship: rule by one person or group, with no free choice for the people.
The costs
These achievements came with a heavy price. Lenin's government was a dictatorship and Russia became a one-party state. Other parties were banned, the Cheka arrested opponents, and the Red Terror frightened people into obedience. At Kronstadt in 1921 the Red Army crushed sailors who had once backed the Bolsheviks, and that same month the party banned factions inside itself.
The suffering was huge. War Communism and the Civil War brought the famine of 1921-22, in which about five million people died. The NEP also looked like a defeat to many Communists, who felt it betrayed their beliefs.
Weighing it up
Strong answers do not just list good and bad points. They ask which mattered more and why. Here are three ways to judge Lenin.
- Survival: the Bolsheviks held power against enemies on every side, and that was a real achievement.
- The people's lives: millions suffered or died, and ordinary Russians had no say in how they were ruled.
- Long-term: Lenin left a strong one-party state, and the Terror and the lack of freedom were part of it.
Remember that Lenin's own words are evidence too. Ask who the audience was, and why he said it.
Common mistakes
- Writing only a list of achievements. The exam wants both sides and a judgement.
- Treating the Bolsheviks' own claims as proof. A declaration shows what they wanted people to believe.
- Forgetting the source and extract. Name and quote them, then add facts of your own.
Exam-style question
This is a Paper 2 Section A (c) question. You must use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge. Give evidence that supports the view and evidence that challenges it, then reach a judgement.
Source A: From the Declaration on the formation of the USSR, adopted by the First Congress of Soviets of the USSR, 30 December 1922 (translated).
Thanks solely to this fact were the Soviet Republics able to beat off the internal and external attacks of world imperialism, to bring the civil war to a successful conclusion ... and to proceed to the work of peaceful economic construction ... the Union is a voluntary union of equal peoples ... it will form a firm bulwark against world capitalism.
Source B: From a telegram by Lenin to Communists in Penza, 11 August 1918 (translated).
The uprising by the five kulak volosts must be mercilessly suppressed ... We need to set an example. You need to hang (hang without fail, so that the people see) no fewer than 100 of the notorious kulaks, the rich and the bloodsuckers. Publish their names. Take all their grain from them.
Extract C (a practice extract written for this lesson, in the style of a modern history book)
Lenin's record to 1924 was a success. He seized power, won the Civil War, saved the economy with the NEP and created the USSR. His methods were harsh, but he left a state that had survived and was ready to grow.
Study Extract C. Extract C suggests that Lenin was a successful leader by 1924. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer. [16 marks]
Model answer
Extract C says Lenin 'seized power, won the Civil War, saved the economy with the NEP and created the USSR', and there is strong evidence for this. Lenin led the party in October 1917, when the Military Revolutionary Committee took Petrograd, and the Bolsheviks then held power against the Whites and foreign armies until 1920. Source A, the Declaration of December 1922, says the Republics were able 'to bring the civil war to a successful conclusion' and that the Union would be 'a firm bulwark against world capitalism'. The NEP, introduced in 1921, also helped, because the tax in kind encouraged peasants to grow more and harvests improved from 1922.
However, Source A has to be treated with care. It was written by the Bolsheviks to celebrate the new state, so it stresses success and calls the Union 'voluntary' and 'equal'. In practice the Communist Party controlled the whole Union, so the claim is not the full picture.
Extract C also plays down the costs when it says the methods were only 'harsh'. Source B shows Lenin ordering Communists in Penza to 'hang ... no fewer than 100' kulaks 'so that the people see', because he wanted an example to frighten others. This was part of a wider pattern of dictatorship: the Cheka, the Red Terror, the closure of the Constituent Assembly and, in 1921, the crushing of the Kronstadt sailors and the ban on factions in the party. The suffering was also huge, since about five million people died in the famine of 1921-22.
The extract's idea that the state was 'ready to grow' is also doubtful. The NEP worried many Communists, who thought it was a betrayal, and Lenin himself called it a retreat. The country was still poor and shattered in 1924.
Overall, I agree only in part. Lenin was successful in the sense that he gained and kept power, which many thought impossible in 1917. But that success was built on terror and suffering, so 'successful leader' is too simple. His achievements were real, but judged by what they cost ordinary people, the extract's view is too generous.
What lifts this to the top level: it tests the extract's claims with both sources and precise own knowledge, questions what Source A is for, and reaches a judgement based on a stated criterion, the cost to ordinary people.
Exam tip
Pick a clear criterion, such as survival or human cost, and use it in your last paragraph to decide how far you agree. A judgement with a reason is worth far more than 'it depends'.