Lenin was able to consolidate Bolshevik Rule by combining popular policies and repression. Discuss.

It is indeed fair to say that Lenin consolidated Bolshevik rule by combining popular policy with repression, and this can be explored by looking at how Lenin tackled his April Theses promise of “peace, land and bread.” Peace: Leaving WWI was a popular demand: many popular anti-war demonstrations throughout 1917.Popular policy:Lenin made “peace at any price” a priorityRepression:Repression of fellow leaders in Bolshevik partyImpact on the Russian people was huge: “32% of arable land, 26% of railway systems (...)" Historiography/discussionNegative result meant that a formerly popular policy was seen as treacherous to the Russian people "Russia's November Criminals" (Chomsky)Opinions against this were stifled using the secret police, or "Cheka", which increased its numbers from 120 in 1917 to 143,000 after the Bresk-Litovsk peace treatyLand: The right for people to own the land they worked on had been fought for since the mid 19th century.Popular policy: Land Reform Legislation (authorising peasant land-seizures) appeased the peasantryControl of factories given back to workersRepression:Repression of Bolshevik political class (opinions were stifled, Lenin's personal rule was consolidated alongside Bolshevik rule of Russia)Historiographical discussionEarly days of Bolshevism considered "most democratic” (Figes)Fact that this happened in early days suggests that Lenin was only trying to win popular favour (Derby)Bread: Drought in 1920-21 reduced harvests. Demand for food especially big in cities.Popular policy:Using ideas like “class warfare” Lenin played into the proletarian conscience of kulaks as “bourgeois enemies of the people” War Communism’s requisitioning squads seized grain from peasants and transported it to cities, satisfying the proletariat.NEP introduced a combination between taxes and permitting peasants to sell surplus grainRepression:War Communism was brutal and violent towards the peasants, who put up much resistanceNEP went against proletarian, Bolshevik idealsHistoriographical discussion (much potential on this point!)Proletariat: war communism necessary to defend the revolution Peasantry: war communism repressive and cruel. "Food dictatorship" NEP a “surrender to the peasantry” (Figes)Conclusion:Lenin used popular policy as a smokescreen behind which he personally seized absolute control of the state.