In what ways were the communist able to turn russia into a centralized state dominated by a single party ?

The Communists were able to centralize the Soviet
government by the leadership of Vladimir I. Lenin, who took situations he could not
control and turned them to his advantage. Lenin and to a greater extent Joseph Stalin
firmly believed that revolution needed to be imposed on the people from above; they were
incapable of a stable revolution by themselves.

At the time
of the communist takeover, the Russian government was in a state of complete anarchy,
simply waiting for a strong leader. Lenin provided that leadership. Lenin also possessed
an unwavering determination to succeed which had not been present under the Czarist
regime or the provisional government under Kerensky. On November 6,1917, a group headed
by Leon Trotsky, Lenin's second in command, seized all government buildings and declared
Lenin the head of a new government.

Lenin's speeches and
promises appealed to the poor and to soldiers who were war weary. He promised land to
the peasants (even though they had already rebelled and taken it from the landlords) and
abandoned Russia's effort in World War I, accepting peace terms which were quite harsh.
His charisma did a great deal to solidify leadership.

When
his charisma and speeches were not enough, Lenin took further steps to tighten his
control on power. He ordered Czar Nicholas II and his entire family shot so that there
could be no pretenders to power. He also instituted a harsh police state. The Soviet
secret state police, the Cheka, hunted down and executed thousands
of people suspected of disloyalty or criticism of the
government.

In the latter regard, the Soviet government was
very similar to other communist governments. They cannot succeed by virtue of the will
of the people alone; so they force government on them by means of terrorism and state
police. Lenin himself once said "without terrorism there can be no
revolution.