Building the Soviet State: War Communism, NEP and the Rise of Stalin (1917–1927)

What this note covers

1. The Bolshevik Seizure of Power and the Architecture of a New State
2. War Communism (1918–1921): Economic Coercion and Social Transformation
3. The Cheka and the Red Terror: Revolutionary Violence as State Policy
4. The Civil War (1918–1921): Forging the Soviet State in Violence
5. The New Economic Policy (1921): Tactical Retreat or Structural Revolution?
6. Lenin's Illness and the Succession Struggle: Early Stalinist Consolidation (1922–1924)
7. Evaluating the New Order: Continuity, Change, and the Limits of Revolution
8. The 1927 endpoint: evaluating the NEP and consolidation beyond Lenin’s death

8 sections · 14 key terms & formulas · 6 common mistakes