Why did the Bolsheviks appeal to the people of Russia in 1917?

Essay by nattiev July 2004

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The Bolsheviks appealed to the people of Russia in 1917 mainly because Russian society craved change. The tsar was now a part of the past and Russian society wanted to try something new. This is mainly why the Bolshevik party appealed to the people of Russia in 1917.

The initial triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution at the end of October, 1917 did not mean that the entire population of Russia had been converted to Bolshevism. Leninwas aware of this. To gather national support, Lenin resorted to slogans for the masses. The most important of them was "Bread, Land, Peace and All Power to the Soviets." Was this enough? The Russian people were more anti-Bolshevik than Lenin would have liked. The tsar was gone and a revolution had taken the nation by storm. Were the Bolsheviks now in control?

October symbolized a Bolshevik triumph. But what this also meant was that any hope for a liberal democratic order was now impossible.

Late in November of 1917, an agreement was reached with the left wing SRs and peace negotiations were conducted with the Germans. Keep in mind, all the events surrounding 1917 must be seen within the context of the Great War. As far as the Bolsheviks were concerned, the revolution was over. As far as Lenin was concerned, he was in power. The Russian state, however, was in a state of decomposition.. Lenin had no use for a parliament, regardless of whether it was elected democratically or not. He considered it "inferior" to the Soviets of which the Petrograd Soviet under the leadership of Trotsky was the model. But now, immediately after the October Revolution, Lenin was compelled to hold elections.

The popular slogans of "Bread, Land and Peace" were what Russian society wanted to hear. How could such basic demands...