The Creation of a Revolutionary in Russia

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Edward Dunes’ life as a revolutionary during Russia’s transition from a Tsarist state to that of a Marxist-Socialist regime, was propagated by many situational influences/factors stemming from his families relocation from Riga to Moscow. As a young boy in Riga, Dunes’ thirst for books along with a good educational elevated his potential to be a highly skilled worker. Dune’s childhood education coupled with factory life in Moscow along with a subsequent influential individual in his life with his father’s heavy labor socialist views, molded Dune into the Bolshevik revolutionary he became. Apart from his character as a child, Dune developed crucial competency outside of his formal education in Riga that prompted great potential for his future. As a young boy and all throughout Dune’s early teen years, his love of books was insatiable. While the books that Dune read weren’t political in nature, they provided a foundation for Dune’s interest in all things intellectual. There was one instance, however when Dune was reading at a park near his house when an older gentlemen offered him the book Diary of a Socialist to read. This book would raise new questions that Dune wanted answers to. That moment would represent a shift to reading books of a political and social nature. Individuals able to read and who were better education on the political/social issues often played bigger roles during the Russian Revolution in organizing movements and educating the masses. Aside from his love of books as a child, Dune would listen to stories about factory life and hear the leaflets printed by the Latvian Social Democratic Organization that his father would read aloud at night. Hearing these stories, as a child and seeing the very area around hi... ... middle of paper ... ...bconscious hysteria among Dune. While it seemed that Dune maintained his composure throughout the recollection, I speculate that his true feelings towards Sapronov were more acute. As an influential member in the community, Sapronov was viewed as a legitimate source of knowledge to which Dune was attracted to. This Mentor represented a crucial link in Dune becoming a Bolshevik and fighting as a member of the Red Guard. Dune had all the necessary requirements that individuals joining a cause needed in order to successful. He had the drive, education, appropriate atmosphere, and ultimately someone experienced to foster the revolutionary inside of him. The circumstances in which Dune portrayed himself in his book, demonstrates his change ideologically, from someone young and intuitive with free forming thoughts to someone ultimately with concrete values and actions.

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