Is the Bolsheviks Brutality the Reason They Held Onto Power from 1917-1924?

Is the Bolsheviks brutality the reason they held onto power from 1917-1924?

The Bolsheviks finally had what they wanted- control of Russia. But now that they had the power they had to keep it, whilst trying to gain public support. But during this period of time several hardships were encountered by Russia; the First World War, solved with the treaty of Brest Litovsk; a civil war and one of the worst famines in modern history. The way these were countered did not gain the Bolsheviks any favours, with war communism and severe oppression, public moral hit rock bottom.
One brutal method used was that the Bolsheviks were deceiving the entire population of Russia. They all thought that the soviet state had power and control of the government. The Russian people voted for the local soviets to be put into the All Russian Congress of Soviets and then the best people of the ARCS to go into the Sovnarkom to report to Lenin. However the real situation was that the Communist party had total control. The Communist members were in their local parties, several of the party members were picked to join the party congress; the best of the party congress would join the central committee and they reported to the Politburo, made up of seven members of the Bolshevik party under Lenin’s control.   This was Lenin’s way of keeping his control over everything and he thought the ruse was a perfect way to manage the government. The repression of the people was quite severe and the deception is not the ideal start to have a long rule.
One of the most brutal and terrifying aspects of the Bolshevik rule was the Cheka. This was the secret police force under Lenin and Trotsky - officially the Soviet State Security – created in December of 1917. They arrested anyone who was anti-Bolshevik. If you were lucky that’s all you would get, as many also got tortured for counter- revolutionary plans or just killed to keep them and others quiet. Those who they didn’t kill were sent to the gulags - labour...