Assess the effectiveness of the Bolshevik government in creating
changes in society in the period 1917-1928.
In the decade following the November Revolution, the Bolsheviks made significant
changes to Russian society – in the social, political and economic spheres.
Nevertheless, they had only truly transformed Russia politically by 1929. Social and
economic transformation would only be achieved during the decade that followed.
The Bolsheviks introduced many reforms in the years following the Revolution.
Factories were put under the control of workers’ committees, and working hours were
reduced. In addition, insurance was introduced for workers to give them protection in
event of industrial accidents. At a social level, divorce and abortion were legalized
and women were given greater rights – particularly the right to work. Finally,
education levels were boosted. The children of workers and peasants now had access
to university, if their abilities warranted it.
Unfortunately, many of the social gains achieved after the Revolution were
counterbalanced by the political changes that accompanied them.
Almost from the outset, the Bolsheviks began to eliminate all vestiges of democracy
from Russia’s political system. They closed the Constituent Assembly, which they
found they could not control, and replaced it with the All Russian Congress of
Soviets, in which they had a majority of delegates. They closed opposition
newspapers and arrested rival political leaders. One by one, they banned all other
parties. By the middle of 1918, Russia had become a one party state, with the
Bolsheviks dominating all areas of political and social life. Nowhere was this more
apparent than in the bureaucracy, where Party membership was a prerequisite for
promotion.
Political repression became political terror with the outbreak of the Russian Civil
War. The Bolsheviks unleashed the Red Terror on their enemies, all but wiping them
out. It is estimated that the secret police (the Cheka) killed as many as 250,000 people
during this period. Terror remained an important instrument of the Party’s rule for the
next seventy years.
Economically, the Bolsheviks also achieved significant change in the 1920s.
Immediately following the revolution, all land owned by the church, the Tsar and
the nobles was handed over to the peasants. This reform remained in place until the
end of the 1920s. Many industries were nationalized, while others were put under
worker control, introducing elements of socialism to the country. During the Civil
War, War Communism was introduced, to give the government control over the
nation’s resources, but this was abandoned when it proved deleterious to the
economy. In 1921, Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP), in order to
restore prosperity to the countryside. NEP proved highly successful, returning Russia
to its pre-war agricultural and industrial output levels.
Despite all these changes, however, the Bolsheviks had not succeeded in
transforming Russian society by 1929. The nation was not industrialised, as they had
hoped it would be; indeed, the industrialisation process had barely begun. In addition,
the country was not much closer to achieving socialism than it had been in 1917. Both
these tasks were left to Joseph Stalin to complete, during the 1930s.