The years following the Revolution were filled with difficulty, poverty, and famine.  They were also filled with hope and idealism.  Lenin and the Bolsheviks struggled to bring the country back under control,  but soon found differences between Marxist theory and the national reality.  As shortages increased, Lenin introduced the NEP (New Economic Plan) marking a partial return to free enterprise.  This produced small commercial collectives and helped to alleviate the suffering of the Russian people.  It produced wealth and introduced a new class Bourgeoisie - the so-called NEP men.

The NEP proved too successful for some in government and party infighting grew worse.  With Lenin's death 1924, the party had a new leader and a new direction.  The man was Joseph Stalin and his leadership marked a move back to centralized authority and forced collectivization.  This led to the confiscation of crops and livestock from the country farmers to relieve the famines of the cities.  When farmers rebelled, the Cheka and Red Army brutally suppressed them.  

This resulted in mass deportations, starvation, and in some cases open rebellion.  Individual freedoms quickly vanished as the State assumed greater control.  Laws became more and more repressive.  For example, firearms laws were consolidated in a Criminal Code, which provided that unauthorized possession of a firearm would be punishable by hard labor. A 1925 law made unauthorized possession of a firearm punishable by three months of hard labor, plus a fine of 300 rubles (equal to about four months' wages for a highly-paid construction worker).  In other cases showing up late for work could result in a prison sentence for 'sabotage'.

In the midst of this crisis, Stalin continued to play one group against another while consolidating this own power.  This resulted in more people being sent to the Gulag or simply being shot.  The last of these groups were the independent property owning farmers in 1929 - the Kulaks.  Some people thought that these measures were temporary and required to bring the nation out of turmoil.  They were wrong.  The repression would only get worse in the years ahead.

Militarily the nation was faced with many external problems.  These were conflicts along its borders.