time regain political power (p. 92). These miscalculations of the Allies helped contribute to the Bolsheviks winning the Civil War in 1921, but the intervention of the allies on Russian soil widened the gap between the west and Russia.With the failure of the West to intervene and successfully defeat the Bolshevik government, Lenin felt the democratic countries would “compose their differences and attack [The Soviet Union]” (Ulam, p. 78). As a result, Lenin attempted to thwart further intervention by retracting his comment that communists could not coexist with capitalists (Harris). He also agreed to allow the French to take positions as they pleased and enacted plans for trading between Russia and Britain that would allow “people in the business community to have a stake in Russia free of Communists” (Ulam, p. 99). Lenin’s rather suave actions may have saved the Bolshevik regime by giving the Soviets time to establish themselves free of potent intervention by the West.From 1917 to 1920, as Russia found itself torn between entrenching a new government, dealing with negative sentiments from Europe, fighting a massive world war, and suppressing counter-revolutionary movements, Lenin knew that the opportunity to expand communism into Europe did not exist at the time (Harris). However, as the Bolsheviks gained more stability in Russia in the early 1920’s, Lenin chose to push for the expansion of the Communist ideology on a nationwide scale (Harris). He knew that Bolshevism was fast becoming a political force in the international arena. Communists were gathering support around the world in all countries through the sympathetic ear of the proletariat, and the ideological curiosity of the intellectual. The success of the Bolshevik uprising and 1917 set an example to Communists everywhere that they could also create their own Communist state through a well organized revolutionary movement. Communism was inj...
