Essay On Ronald Suny

There is no doubt that the Bolshevik Revolution was in many ways influenced by World War I. Ronald Suny gives many examples of this in his book The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor State. Even so, Suny takes the stance that the war ultimately was responsible for hindering the Revolution because of the various events that it brought about in its path.

At the start of their reign, Bolshevik’s used their power to hinder and overwhelm their rivals. Eventually they began to employ methods of terror to reach their goals, going as far as promoting the death penalty as a way to achieve the successful revolutions that they were hoping for. Nonetheless, the war was still going on and preventing the Bolshevik’s from reaching this success.

Around the same time as the October insurrection, Russia was thinking about backing out of the war. This ended up being the final blow to the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, …show more content…
Even though they did not have many political allies, the Bolshevik’s never thought about giving up power. At one point, they had a base of loyal supporters -- the Petrograd workers -- but eventually even these people began to question whether or not their best interests were at hand and they gave up their support. This was a huge loss, as the Bolshevik’s (in many cities) stood for the workers government.
Realizing that they were no longer the power that they once were, but at the same time unwilling to give up their position or authority, the Bolshevik’s began to rely on workers who organized the Red Guards units, soldiers, and party members. This was obviously not what they had initially imagined, but it did help the Bolshevik’s to retain what little power and influence they had left. Even so, this led to more fighting and the Bolshevik’s were slowly losing sight of the revolution that they wanted for