The Bolshevik Revolution

On the 8th of October 1917, an armed insurrection in Petrograd toppled the Russian Provisional Government—which had come about due to the February Revolution a few months earlier—and the political power in Russia shifted from the nobility and aristocrats to various local soviets who were dominated by the Bolsheviks of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. The Bolsheviks, led by the charismatic Vladimir Lenin, established a Communist government named the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (or Russian Federation). One of the major pretexts for the October Revolution was the Tsar’s adamancy to keep Russia in the First World War. When the Bolshevik’s came to power, Lenin immediately took Russia out of the war, signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This treaty made the Russian Federation renounce all its claims on the Baltic States and Ukraine, as well as ceding territory to the Ottomans and six million marks to the Germans. This caused the newly formed Bolshevik government to lose one third of its population, one third of its arable land, 54% of its industry, 73% of its iron deposits, 75% of its coalmines and 85% of its cash crop production (sugar). Though this treaty destabilized the Russian Federations’ economy, it allowed the Bolshevik’s to consolidate power—by fulfilling their promise of peace to the people—and focus on internal issues. In the summer of 1923, Vladimir Lenin was dying, and the Bolshevik party was in need of leadership; four candidates emerged as possible successors: Leon Trotsky, and the triumvirate of Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev. Eventually Stalin gained power, and ridded himself of the Old Bolsheviks from the party in the infamous “Great Purge”. Stalin assumed his role as dictat...

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...empted to solidify their own form of government by instilling religion into their own people. The United States Pledge of Allegiance was a form of political and social (nationalism) expression, and every weekday, children in schools were required to stand up, place their right hand over their hearts, and repeat an expression of fealty to the flag of the United States. Prior to 1954, one line read, “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all”. Subsequently, the Pledge was amended to include “under God”, so that it now read, “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”. This is still the official Pledge of Allegiance.