How did communism begin in the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

Prior to the rise of communism, Russia was a czarist nation that held absolute power over its people. Russia's lower class had been suffering from a long state of poverty, and most of the world was shifting into the democratic gear, and rocketing forward because of it. The combination of the two, as well as the people's need for the basics, led to the start of the first communist state.

Also to be noted - by early 1917, Russia had suffered a serious blow from the world war, amounting to a loss of not only daily lives, with a new nation-wide famine, price inflation, crop failure, and the stress that comes with war, but also a loss of human lives as well. People were in financial pandemonium. Fights, strikes and protests broke out. Russia was in a state of confusion. (This led to the February Revolution.)

So the people needed some form of government, for some control. At first after the February Revolution the Provisional Government stepped in and shared governmental power with the St. Petersburg Soviet. Eight months later, with the Russian people still dissatisfied with their government, Vladimir Lenin stepped in and overthrew the Provisional Government taking full power in the name of the Soviet councils.

Lenin encouraged his philosophy of 'Marxism-Leninism' which was a bit too much for the struggling nation and sparked the Russian Civil War which lasted until about the end of 1920. When Lenin died, Joseph Stalin took over and began a reign of terror and fear. Stalin's rule was marked by one period of time in the 1930's which history calls "The Great Terror." (Over Five million were killed at Stalin's hand. He even staged "show trials", which falsely convicted thousands of treason. Virtually all were executed.) People had no control over their lives, and everyone was supposed to be equal but they weren't, while the leader basked in his glory.

Answer 2

Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik followers seized control of the government in the October Revolution, arrested and deposed the members of the existing Provisional Government and imposed a socialist, not communist, form of government upon the country. Not everyone wanted the Bolsheviks in charge, so the Russian Civil War broke out, but the Bolsheviks, or Reds as they styled themselves, won and became the sole political power in the country. They then solidified their grip on the country's government and economy and kept the socialist government in place.

They called themselves "communists" so the government was referred to a "communist" but it was not and never was a true communist society.