When the Bolsheviks took power in 1924, Lenin immediatley became the overall leader. His position was not however safe and Lenin knew to survive he needed to consolidate his position. However the party were not inexperienced in 1917, with only Lenin and Trotsky possessing any real political qualities. Therefore the political party needed to develop its skills to enable it to rule efficiently. Lenin too needed to ensure that the fate of the previous leaders did not happen to him.
Three outstanding issues needed to be dealt with namely, Land rights, Food supplies and an end to war. The war was the easiest of these problems for Lenin; Russian troops were on the verge of collapse and the war could not realisitically last much longer anyway so a peace settlement needed to be reached. The infamous Treaty of Brest-Litovskwas the result. Lenin realised that ending the war now and accepting any terms could be an easy escape that could be rectified at a later date. Should Germany win the war then Russia would have lost all her territories - by surrending they only lost some, and if the Germans were beaten then the allies would give back the Russian land to the Bolsheviks. Lenin and Trotsky working on this believe, negotiated a settlement that brought serious uprisings.
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The Treaty itself meant Russia lost over 1/3 of her land including the prosperous Ukraine Grain areas and she was forced to pay 3 billion roubles. The Central Committee of the party, the CCCP, only passed the treaty by one vote. Many believed that this would have ended the Bolshevik control in Russia had it not been for the events of the __/__/1918; the collapse of the German western border. The advancing allies into Europe were pushing the Germans back to their own border. The German forces on the Eastern front were forced back into Germany in order to defend the country. The occupied land from the Treaty returned to Russia and Lenin had won the biggest political gamble of his life.
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