Question Everything

Two major problems with the standard "difficult conditions made them do it" Leninist defense of Bolshevik authoritarianism are:

1. The Bolsheviks were already becoming increasing dictatorial by the time the civil war, imperialist invasions, etc. happened. The civil war started on May 25, 1918 with the revolt of the Czech legion. In spring 1918 the Bolsheviks lost the soviet elections. Their response was to disband all the soviets that voted the wrong way. This is what caused party dictatorship to come about, not the civil war. They also started disbanding factory committees in March 1918 and in April launched raids against anarchists. Anarchists were jailed and newspapers shut down, all before the civil war started.

2. If these things caused Bolshevism to degenerate and become authoritarian then Bolshevism will always degenerate and become authoritarian. Lenin claimed that civil war was inevitable in the course of revolution, and it's pretty unrealistic to think that you can have a revolution without resistence from the capitalists. If Bolshevism cannot overcome that resistence without turning into a totalitarian nightmare then Bolshevism is to be avoided because it will always turn into a totalitarian nightmare.