3. Authorities & decisions: The Russian revolutions and Bolshevik one-party rule

Decision-makers, laws and consequences

Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in March 1917. Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized key institutions in November 1917 (October in the old Russian calendar). The Bolshevik government dissolved the Constituent Assembly in January 1918.

The Cheka, founded in December 1917 under Felix Dzerzhinsky, enforced political repression. Civil war, war communism and the 1921 New Economic Policy reflected shifting policies under Lenin’s leadership.

Institutional consequences

The authorities identified above acted within institutions that determined who could govern, enforce decisions and challenge official power. The resulting changes to political participation, legal status, military control or property administration are part of the historical record of this specific event, rather than evidence that every later government followed the same path.

Legal restrictions, rights & enforcement

Compare who exercised authority, whether opponents could organize independently, how the government handled economic and social demands, and whether neighboring populations were exposed to invasion or coercion. The record above describes this particular case rather than treating every movement with a similar label as identical.