How have revolutionary leaders used the discontent of the masses to further their aims?
...st the current society’s views. This was one area where Lenin started to be recognized as a figurehead. He appealed to and supported the women’s movement using their discontent to get him support. Lenin was very good at using the discontent of the people to become a highly regarded revolutionary. His slogan “Peace, bread and land” was everything that the ordinary people of Russia wanted to hear. He also wanted to get rid of their capitalist society. Lenin and another figure, Kerensky, both wanted a classless society where there were no rich or poor people. Lenin’s idea was of redistribution, while Kerensky wanted the lower classes to work and earn their wealth. Around this time, World War I was going badly for Russia and many Russians wanted their soldiers out. In the summer of 1916, Tsar Nicholas II dismissed his popular military leader and placed himself in charge. This made him held (or thought as held) responsible for every failure that happened to the Russian military. There was much discontent about the way WW1 was going. Lenin demanded that the soldiers be brought home and that Russia be withdrawn from the war. This was another way he won support. He tapped the feelings of the common people and exploited this. Soon, after a chain of events, the Tsar was forced to resign after 300 years of his family’s rule. While this was a small win for Lenin there was still much work to be done as Kerensky and the Provisional Government took power. They kept Russia involved in the war, which suited Lenin's plans because it added to the discontent that he was able to continue to exploit. Russia could not sustain the losses and Lenin’s wish to free the soldiers and the workers back in Russia appealed greatly to the angry masses. Lenin even made tours to frontlines to emotionally appeal to the soldiers. It was not long before Kerensky and his Government were the new focus for Russia’s revolutionary anger. Lenin had been exiled from Russia becau...