MANUFACTURING LEGITIMACY: BOLSHEVIK MEASURES TO SEIZE POWER

Abstract

The Bolsheviks ousted the Provisional Government in a sudden ascension to power before the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. At the beginning of the year, the Bolsheviks were a fringe political party. They grew rapidly through deception and by shifting their policy to draw in the revolutionary population and gained significant support. By November, they controlled the Petrograd Soviet, the Second Congress of Soviets, and became the ruling party. They did not gain power peacefully or through representative means. The Bolsheviks employed subversive measures to seize and consolidate power because they lacked sufficient support to do it legitimately.