Rule of Lenin vs the Tsar

Rule of Lenin vs the Tsar

The beginning of the 20th century saw a great change in the political

structure of Russia. A country once lead under an autocracy leadership

was suddenly changed into a communist state over night. Dictatorship

and communism are at separate ends of the political spectrum but as

this study so clearly shows both involve the oppression of society and

a strict regime in which people are unable to voice there opinions

without vicious threats and action from the government.

In 1894 the Tsar Nicholas 2nd was crowned. He was to start an

autocracy leadership in which he ruled alone. The Tsar had great

support from the Catholics because he declared he had divine right

therefore meaning he was put on earth by God to rule the people.

Consequently they were not susceptible to some of the Tsars

discriminations. Also the Nobility who made up just one 1% of the 128

million population owned 25% of the land therefore meaning they had a

large amount of power within the country. To try and console his power

the Tsar banned all political parties thus allowing him to do what

ever he wanted. Similarly Lenin also destroyed all political

opponents. At the start of the revolution Lenin aimed to get into

power through democratic procedures although when elections were held

in 1917 and he did not win he closed down the Assembly and called in

his army (red army) to destroy political opposition. He believed this

was necessary in order for communism to work and promised that in time

there would be no need to have any leader at all. It is clear that

under the rule of both Lenin and the Tsar the people were unable to

have any political ...

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...leadership (people getting shot for opening up

there own business and the destruction of democracy) he did want to

turn the country around and he saw that in order to make gains, at the

start there would have to be losses. In affect he was trying to repair

the damage that the Tsar had done to the country. This was a huge task

and I think that before Lenin came to power he had not considered what

a huge task it would be. Therefore I see Lenin as someone who was

trying to resolve and trying to help a country through a time of

crisis and although he made many mistakes I feel he did have the

interest of the people at heart. Quite different from the Tsar who

caused the problems and made no real attempts to put things right. In

conclusion Lenin was a better leader than the Tsar despite not making

many improvements to Russia.