ticizing the Bolshevik actions, Lenin wrote:“As the State is only a transitional institution which we are obliged to use in the revolutionary struggle in order to crush our opponents forcibly, it is pure absurdity to speak of a Free People’s State. During the period when the proletariat still needs the State, it does not require it in the interests of freedom, but in the interests of crushing its antagonists.” One of the most defining characteristics of Lenin’s political practice was the use of violence. The ultimate expression of this was the formation of the Red Army that would conduct a ruthless Civil War against all opposition from 1918 to 1921. In terms of the political structuring, the new state used the various town and country Soviets as the organs of government. Each local Soviet elected delegates to the next level of Soviets – district, provincial, or republican. Supreme power was held by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which elected a central executive committee to exercise power between meetings. The executive committee in turn appointed a cabinet, the Politburo which was headed by Lenin. In the early days, a number of sources tell us that although the Party was dictatorial, Lenin was not a dictator in the Party and allowed some freedom of opinion and dissent within it. Laver states: “His practice was to allow free debate amongst colleagues, although he disliked bowing to a majority if he demurred on any particular issue.” Likewise Christian notes that:“In the early months after the revolution, the Party was loosely organized, debate and controversy were endless. Contacts between the center and the local Party cells were sporadic. And local Party officials frequently rejected, criticized or ignored orders from the center. At the center itself, the crucial decisions – especially over Brest-Litovsk – provoked bitter controversy and debate”. This ̶...
