1. Why did the Bolshevik regime survive 1918-1924?

2. Why did the Bolsheviks survive?
Trotsky’s leadership of the Red Army
NEP led to more grain being grown
The brutal suppression of the Kronstadt Mutiny and Tambov Rising
Closure of Constituent Assembly January 1918
Decree against factionalism in the party 1921
White armies divided in Civil War
Purge of the party members
Bolshevik control of the cities and industrial regions
Cheka – use of terror against opponents
War Communism – seizure of grain
Peasant support for war policy
Foreign intervention in Civil War
Signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
An unshakeable belief in the ultimate victory of Marxism
Expulsion of Mensheviks and SRs from Soviets in 1918
Brutality of the White armies in the Civil War
Party membership meant a job, meant security, they would do what they were told.

3. Organising ideas
The Bolshevik strength of belief and determination to succeed, seen in their use of terror
The divided opposition
The popular support the Bolsheviks had
The Civil War
The concessions that the Bolsheviks made, especially the NEP

4. Interpretations
‘The Bolsheviks displayed a supreme confidence that they knew best… they were motivated by a desire to transform the world…(they had) a ruthless determination to hold on to power at all costs.’ ‘Lenin was a ruthless dictator…however dictatorship and terror alone were not enough to secure Bolshevik success.’
‘It is perhaps a great irony that the Civil War, which was designed to overthrow the Bolsheviks, proved to be their salvation….(it was) a great opportunity for the Bolsheviks to create the authoritarian regime they needed to survive.’
‘A key advantage the Bolsheviks had was the disparate nature of the forces arrayed against them’