As the 21st century enters its second decade, the global scene seems to be dominated by two very different nations. The first, being the United States of America, is traditionally based on broad personal freedoms for its citizens. While the other nation in question, Russia, is a society that keeps a close watch on its citizens with less personal freedoms. These two very different governmental philosophies have created friction as recently as this year in the Ukraine with both trying to sway that nation to its policies. But the real question for both of these nations is how they came to these conclusions on personal liberties. Another question to be answered is how these ideas on security shaped the geopolitical politics between them. For both nations’ histories cannot be more different on historical analysis of events that shaped the opposing views on personal freedoms. However to confuse matters even more, a new century and its challenges has brought them closer on these issues than ever before. For the question of security for Russia and the USA will determine the future of both nations.
The Russian Example:
Russian history traces its tight watch on its citizens to one event, the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in the 19th century. The beginnings of this change in Russian society started in the 1850s with the outbreak of the Crimean War. (Dukes 1990) Russian serfs responded to the war in massive numbers of recruits for the Russian army. So many, in fact, that there was an excess of recruits that were not needed at all. (Dukes 1990) Worst of all, these recruits had no idea of what they were fighting for, most joined because it was what they thought was expected of them by their masters. Despite the huge turnout for the Russi...
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Civil liberties can be defined as the basic rights and freedoms of an individual granted to citizens in the United States and the entire world through the national common law or the statute law. The liberties include freedom of association, speech, movement, religious worship, and that from arbitrary arrest. The liberties get to form the roots of democracy in a society. In a dictatorial from of administration, the citizens are denied the rights and freedoms. However, liberties can be described as universal rights and freedoms. During the cold war in 1945 to 1953, the civil liberties got faced by many challenges as the citizens of the US faced and lived in a lot of terror.
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While most of Europe had develop strong central governments and weakened the power of the nobles, Russia had lagged behind the times and still had serfs as late as 1861. The economic development that followed the emancipation of peasants in the rest of Europe created strong industrial and tax bases in those nations. Russian monarchs had attempted some level of reforms to address this inequality for almost a century before, and were indeed on their way to “economic maturity” (32) on par with the rest of Europe. But they overextended themselves and the crushing defeats of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and the First World War in 1917 lost them the necessary support from their subjects and created “high prices and scarcity” which were by far “the most obvious factors in the general tension”
The famine in Russia alone led the peasants to become angry and fed up with the Russian government, suggesting a future revolution. Because of the peasants’ unrest, they began to break the law by as stealing food for their families and shouting in the streets. Russia had attempted revolution before, and a fear of an uprising was feared again. Their everyday routi...
This story may seem solely comedic, but within it is a darker tale of a Russia where, in the current times and those prior to it, social rank and position were key. ...
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Citizens feeling protected in their own nation is a crucial factor for the development and advancement of that nation. The United States’ government has been able to provide this service for a small tax and for the most part it is money well spent. Due to events leading up to the terrifying attacks on September 11, 2001 and following these attacks, the Unites States’ government has begun enacting certain laws and regulations that ensure the safety of its citizens. From the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 to the most recent National Security Agency scandal, the government has attempted and for the most part succeeded in keeping domestic safety under control. Making sure that the balance between obtaining enough intelligence to protect the safety of the nation and the preservation of basic human rights is not extremely skewed, Congress has set forth requisites in FISA which aim to balance the conflicting goals of privacy and security; but the timeline preceding this act has been anything but honorable for the United States government.
Riasanovsky, Nicholas V., and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford, 2005. Print.
Russia had been defeated in all except the war with Turkey and its government and economy had the scars to prove it. A severe lack of food and poor living conditions amongst the peasant population led firstly to strikes and quickly escalated to violent riots. Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with an iron hand while much of Europe was moving away from the monarchical system of rule. All lands were owned by the Tsar’s family and Nobel land lords, while the factories and industrial complexes were owned by the capitalists’. There were no unions or labour laws and the justice system had made almost all other laws in favour of the ruling elite.