The Bolsheviks came to power after the October Revolution in 1917, using the slogans of ‘Peace, Bread, Land’. Within five months they had negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and withdrawn from world War One. The ‘Decree on Land’ abolished private ownership of land by the landlords and redistributed it to the peasants. Women were given the vote and guaranteed equality and a major program to combat adult illiteracy was launched. However, not everyone supported the Bolshevik’s reforms and the White Army with the support of Western powers attempted to overthrow the Bolshevik regime during the Russian Civil War. In order to preserve the Revolution during the Civil War, Lenin launched a policy of War Communism. Industry was nationalized and private trade was banned. Grain was requisitioned from the peasants to feed the Red Army and strikes were banned. The Cheka secret police launched the Red Terror to remove political opponents of the Bolsheviks. However, by the end of the Civil War the Russian economy was in tatters and Lenin proposed the New Economic Policy (NEP). Stalin came to power following the death of Lenin and continued with the NEP. Rapid increases occurred in in agricultural and industrial output and the NEP saw the emergence of rich peasants, the Kulaks, and the Nepmen businessmen. Stalin consolidated his power by making alliances with different sections of the Communist Party at different times and initially encouraged the activities of the Kulaks and Nepmen. However, by 1928 Russian agriculture was still backward in comparison to western countries and Stalin was becoming worried that the Kulaks could threaten his power in the USSR. As a result Stalin proposed the collectivisation of Russian agriculture. Russian cities were facing grain shortages as agriculture could not keep up with the pace of urbanisation. The NEP was no longer able to increase agricultural production. Stalin also wanted to sell grain abro