How and Why Did the Bolsheviks Manage to Gain Control of the Soviet Union by 1922?

The Bolsheviks played a significant role in the Russian revolution of 1917 and clashed with opposition factions until its victory in the end of the civil war and afterwards. While the struggle for power was intensifying during and after the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks steadily expanded and maintained control over the Soviet Union. This essay will discuss few strategies used by the Bolsheviks and reasons for gaining control of the Soviet Union by 1922. Both the strategies and reasons will be discussed together in the following points followed by a summary paragraph as a conclusion.

One of the reasons that enabled the Bolsheviks to gain control of the Soviet Union was organization. The Bolsheviks army was better disciplined and well-organized than the Mensheviks in the civil war. Its political party structure requires strict party discipline which the Bolsheviks army and officials adhered with. According to Lowe, one of the primary reasons for the Bolsheviks victory in the civil war was that their opponents were not centrally organized. In addition, the Bolsheviks had an effective and a popular leadership under Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Unlike the Whites, Lenin developed a stable and centralized administrative apparatus, Trotsky built an organized and transformed the Red army into a powerful fighting force and propped by the support of the leaders of the workers' and peasants' Red Army to their cause. Much of the Bolsheviks successes were attributed to the organizing skills of Lenin and the military stewardship of Trotsky. Those leadership skills and personal talents were decisive elements that propelled the Bolsheviks to victory in the civil war.

The Bolsheviks were also popular in whole of Russia during the revolution and the civil war. The party message was easily understood by the average Russians and the party slogan 'peace, bread, and freedom' and 'all power to the soviets' was met with tremendous support. Moreover, majority of the Russians were fed up with the ongoing war (WW1), lack of land reforms and elections and persisting economic problems of high inflation and falling wages. The people blamed these problems on the Provisional government that was established after the abdication of the Tsar. The frustration of the people on the Provisional government led to insurrection movement spearheaded by Lenin that called for "peace, land for the peasants, worker control, government by the soviets, and self-determination for the different nationalities in the Russian empire" and end of war. The Russians saw the Bolsheviks as their hope of achieving what were not done by the Provisional government.

Furthermore, to the Bolsheviks advantage, the Russian army was reluctant to fight for the provisional government, most left to the countryside and the remaining ones in the cities that were control by Bolsheviks joined the new regime. They also control the railroad networks that crisscross major cities of Russia. This placed the Bolsheviks in a strategic position to mobilize against the Mensheviks army. Together they brought military advantages which were crucial in winning the civil war.

The Bolsheviks popularity was also consolidated by the use and control of the media. They utilized the means of the media to communicate, promote and decimate political and economical goals and objectives to whole of Russia urging the people to join their cause. They suppressed the presses associated to their enemies