THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER Lenin proclaims power in the name of the Soviets

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER The First Steps  “Land, Bread, and Peace”  Peace = top priority Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Feb. 1918

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER The First Steps  “Land, Bread, & Peace” Redistributed land to peasants Soviets eventually to control land  Land workers given control of factories improved working conditions

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER The First Steps  “Land, Bread, and Peace”  Bread State to distribute food

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER The First Steps  Set out to transform society  restructured national & local government  overturned social order  attacked Church  changed alphabet & calendar Council of People’s Commissars  “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER Growing Opposition  Social Revolutionaries = biggest challenge  win majority in Constituent Assembly  Bolsheviks disband it  Assassination attempt on Lenin

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER Combating Opposition  Establish political police= CHEKA (Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter- revolution, sabotage, and speculation)  fought “class enemies”  beginning of “Red Terror” Felix Dzerzhinskii & Cheka members

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOVIET POWER Combating Opposition  Create Red Army  to fight internal & external enemies  included political commissars Trotsky inspects Red Army