The main issue seemed to be that since the Socialist Revolutionary Party seemed to be handling things well in the early 1900s, the government did not seem to realize the severity of the issue. In 1906, Sakhno, a peasant representative to the Duma, expressed the hardships not having rights which led to many other problems in peasant society (Doc 10). He expressed that paying the landlords their compensation money was becoming too much because that meant they could not afford food for themselves. In that same year, a peasant petition was signed by 41 literate peasants and 599 illiterate peasants’ names which were listed. Education, land allotment and laws, among many other things, were asked for (Doc 11). Serge Witte, who was Minister of Finance from 1892 to 1903 wrote to Tsar Nicholas II in a private letter suggesting that to abolish serfdom was not enough. In order to have a harmonious country, the now free serfs were to be given an education, a legal system and to free him/her from despotism (Doc 8). There many reasons to fight for rights; one being that occasionally the land owners would take all the good land and give the serfs all of the bad land, as a petition from the peasants to Tsar Alexander II in 1863 stated (Doc 2). This made it impossible for the serfs to grow anything, which contributed to the famines and poor economy in these peasants infested areas. The fight for the rights was extremely successful because many peasants petitioned very
From 1928, when the plan started, to 1932 to its end, many factories, dams, power stations and even cities were being built. Despite there being harsh penalties implemented to workers for failure to meet their targets, there was still a significant increase in Russia’s industrial growth in a very short period of time. Just like the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, under Tsar Alexander II, in protest of Stalin’s policies, the peasants, in protest, refused to work harder than they needed too, causing them to destroy livestock and crops, which eventually lead to their unnecessary death. Stalin, just like the Tsarist autocratic regime, was not committed to collectivism but preferred capitalism in his ruling of the Soviet Union. This caused a lot of rebellion from the Kulaks who opposed collectivism.
In a repressive regime, many people cannot conclude whether it was the fault of the people or the fault of the ruler. Without taking the people into consideration, new rulers come into the government, knowing how they want things to go, regardless of how the people feel. Stalin used his power, and fear to be sure that they were going to do what he wanted. Although while Stalin was getting power, the people were not aware of what was going on. The people were at fault because they sat back and watched the events unfold.
The Revolution was able to solidify the power of the middle class diluting the power of the aristocracy. The struggle was that the middle class had the financial means without any power because they were not able to vote. The middle class is able to do this by pushing democracy and finally getting the vote in 1832. They then go further to get the vote for all men even if they don’t own property in 1884. Women will push to get the vote in 1918. The politics of the Industrial Revolution also revolved around nationalism especially in some German and Italian Provinces. The nationalism that is developed in the Industrial Revolution plays a role in starting the new imperialism in the 1880’s and then again in World War I. In response to the Industrial Revolution socialism and communism gain traction in Europe. Socialism appealed to the workers because it was a commitment to community and the wealth was shared. There were many people who supported socialism such as Robert Owen (1771-1858) and Charles Fourier (1772-1837). There was also communism and the more radical version of it, Marxism. Marxism, which was created by Carl Marx and Fredrich Engels when they wrote the communist manifesto in 1848. Marxism was a direct response to the industrial revolution and capitalism. It was a form of government that would give power to the working people and abolish private property. Communism plays a huge role in World War II which
Many encounter the beneficial effects of communism encouraged within world-wide governments; however, its negative outcomes are also revealed to the members in these societies.
Over history, many nations have had political leaders that have impacted the world. A Political leader is a leader who is heavily affiliated with their political party in pushing their ideologies and policies. They will change the course of history with their policies and influence their society. Many political leaders use methods such as force, promises, and deception to gain power. Two examples of political leaders who attained power and made a huge impact in their societies are Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.
In a news article published during the Red Scare, the author describes the Communist red flag as symbolizing “defiance of law, order, and constitutional government. It is an insult to the stars and stripes.” It also states, “There is no room in this country for any flag but our own.” (source) The article goes on to say that the federal government must do whatever it takes to eradicate any forms of communism. The author says that perhaps many citizens may be drawn to Communist ideology if the social injustices become more prevalent, and urges the readers to look into the problems of Communist civilizations. This article is an example of how many felt during the Red Scare and Cold War in regards to communism. It shows that people felt a collapse
In 1922, Stalin was appointed to the newly created office of general secretary of the Communist Party. Though not a significant post at the time, it gave Stalin control over all party member appointments, which allowed him to build his base. He made shrewd appointments and consolidated his power so that eventually nearly all members of the central command owed their position to him. By the time anyone realized what he had done, it was too late. Even Lenin, who was gravely ill, was helpless to regain control from Stalin.After Lenin's death, in 1924, Stalin set out to destroy the old party leadership and take total control. At first, he had people removed from power through bureaucratic shuffling and denunciations. Many were exiled abroad to Europe and the Americas, including presumed Lenin successor Leon Trotsky. However, further paranoia set in and Stalin soon conducted a vast reign of terror, having people arrested in the night and put before spectacular show trials. Potential rivals were accused of aligning with capitalist nations, convicted of being "enemies of the people" and summarily executed. The purges eventually extended beyond the party elite to local officials suspected of counterrevolutionary activities.In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin reversed the Bolshevik agrarian policy by seizing land given earlier to the peasants and organizing collective farms. This essentially reduced the peasants back to serfs, as they had been during the monarchy. Stalin believed that collectivism would accelerate food production, but the peasants resented losing their land and working for the state. Millions were killed in forced labor or starved during the ensuing famine. Stalin also set in motion rapid industrialization that initially achieved huge successes, but over time cost millions of lives and vast damage to the environment.
Communism, an ideology developed by Karl Marx, was a key component in the revolution of USSR. Marx envisioned a society where the lower and upper classes were equal in regards to property and rights. During the Russian Revolution, an extensive amount of propaganda was used to promote communism. Although propaganda was used in various forms, the posters made a huge impact in convincing the population of Soviet Union to support the communist cause. The posters contained several healthy messages about the effects of the revolution in Soviet Union. The propaganda posters used in USSR contained numerous propaganda techniques to motivate the russian society to support the communist principles.
In 1919, Benito Mussolini described fascism as “A movement that would strike against the backwardness of the right and the destructiveness of the left.” That “Fascism sitting on the right, could also have sat on the mountain of the center… These words in any case do not have a fixed and unchanged: they do have a variable subject to location, time and spirit. We don’t give a damn about these empty terminologies and we despise those who are terrorized by these words.”
It is always difficult to write about and discuss Karl Marx, or more importantly the applications of Marx’s theories, due to the fact that he inspired and gave rise to many movements and revolutionaries, not all of which follow his theories to the point. Although Marx tends to be equated with Communism, it might not seem righteous to blame him for whatever shortcomings occurred when his theories were put to the test; Marx passed away well before the revolution in Russia, and he played no role in the emergence of the totalitarian regime at the time.
Furthermore, they wanted to start revolution against decisions made by their tragic excuse of a czar, Nicholas II. These transactions proposed as the idea of a revolution gained followers and grew greatly in hopes to create change. These transactions were right because they opposed what the people needed, which was equal treatment and protection for not only people of higher authority, but yet for everyone. Once Lenin gained control of Russia as new czar, great changes were created. As proposed, Lenin followed through with his wanted changes and made them present in Russian society. In some circumstances, Lenin made accusations, won wars greatly, and was treated as a threat in fear that he might start a World War III. Although he was treated like a great and dangerous person of higher power, Lenin had also gave improvement to life in Russia since his revolution in
Karl Marx talks about the role of communism and his conjecture of underlying this type of revolution. He speaks of two different class struggles, the "Bourgeoisie and Proletarians". Bourgeoisie are the people with authority, the ones who own production and are bosses of wage labor while the proletariat are the individuals with no authority, no ownership and are giving up their own power to the Bourgeoisie in order to survive. Societies began to separate and became hostile and aggressive classes. It all became about social ranking because of the increase and need of production. The bourgeoisie society has created new classes and ranks, new conditions of domination and new struggles. It was not about family relationships anymore but about money relations. Bourgeoisie cannot exist without it constantly
“Is what you want? A miserable little bourgeois republic? In the name of the great Soviet republic of labour we declare war to the death on such a government!” (Bukharin, 1917) . The Russians were fed up of being poorly treated by their own country, so they decided to take a stance. By doing this, they overthrown the poorly run government as the Russian people were in favour of a new system that would work in their favour. The Russian Revolution was triggered by the social, political and economic problems, that combined caused the Russian people to rebel. This Revolution was triggered by the poverty of the Russian people, the loss from the wars, the sneakiness of Rasputin and the failure of the Tsar, Nicholas II.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) considered himself not to be a sociologist but a political activist. However, many would disagree and in the view of Hughes (1986), he was ‘both – and a philosopher, historian, economist, and a political scientist as well.’ Much of the work of Marx was political and economic but his main focus was on class conflict and how this led to the rise of capitalism. While nowadays, when people hear the word “communism”, they think of the dictatorial rule of Stalin and the horrific stories of life in a communist state such as the Soviet Union, it is important not to accuse Marx of the deeds carried out in his name.