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The fall of communism in russia
The fall of communism in russia
Fall of the Czarist regime in russia
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Tsarist Rule vs. Communist Regime in Russia
From 1856-1917, up until a communist takeover, the USSR had three
Tsarist rulers, Alexander II (the Reformer 1855-1881), Alexander III
(the reactionary Tsar 1881-1894) and Nicholas (1894-1917). After the
February Revolution of 1917, Lenin took control forcibly through the
Civil War, but died in 1924. After several years of fighting
opposition, Stalin took power in the late 1920's after antagonism from
Leon Trotsky. His murderous regime however ended in 1953 in a peaceful
death.
Throughout the period of time that Russia was under the rule of the
Romanov dynasty, [C-300] the Tsars ruled by divine right. This made
them respectable and looked at as god like figures by the empire; it
was therefore the Church and religion of Russia which consolidated the
Tsars position as the 'father' of Russia. The autocratic monarchy of
Russia was unfair and unrepresentative of the Russian people, as the
majority did not have the right to vote, let alone its peasant class
accounting for almost eighty five percent of the total population.
This class lived in poverty, and were answerable to their landlords
and the Mirs, who would often use brutal measures to stabilise them.
Nicholas II introduced the October Manifesto, which labelled Russia as
a constitution, and the Tsar no longer had absolute power.
Contradicting the Manifesto, the Fundamental Laws would reinstate the
Tsar with absolute power. Nicholas II abdicated during World War One
in 1917 and his life was brought to an end in 1918.
After Nicholas' death, the Bolsheviks took control of Russia with
their Communist views. Following the Marxist view tha...
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...Stalin also used propaganda in order to gain control the USSR. Through
the newspapers, 'Pravda' and 'Izvestia', Stalin had full censorship
over what was and what was not to be published in his Empire.
Extensive measures were taken such as the re-publication of textbooks
throughout schools in an act of Russification. This would enable
Stalin to have only his message put across to the people who were to
be the future of the USSR.
From examining the question and looking into information providing
examples of acts carried out by the Romanov Tsars and communists from
the death of Lenin to that of Stalin, it is apparent that both forms
of government used central control by the state to an extent. This
makes the similarities between the two forms of government greater
than the differences, but once again, only to an extent.
In 1900, Russia was an autocracy led by a Tsar who had a total control over the country. The Tsar was Nicholas II. Along with his family and all other nobles, he was very wealthy and lived in luxury. Other wealthy groups of people were: Ÿ Upper class- Church leaders and lesser nobles. Ÿ Commercial class- Bankers, factory workers all known as capitalists.
Russia's industries were beginning to develop and the number of people living in towns was increasing. These people were the urban working class of Russia and they were not as eager to accept the poor wages and conditions as the peasants were.
Joseph Stalin became leader of the USSR after Lenin’s death in 1924. Lenin had a government of abstemious communist government. When Stalin came into government he moved to a radical communist society. He moved away from the somewhat capitalist/communist economy of Lenin time to “modernize” the USSR. He wanted to industrialize and modernize USSR. He had overworked his workers, his people were dying, and most of them in slave labor camps. In fact by doing this Stalin had hindered the USSR and put them even farther back in time.
The First Five-Year Plan. The first five-year plan, approved in 1929, proposed that state and collective farms provide 15 percent of agriculture output. The predominance of private farming seemed assured, as many farmers resisted collectivization. By late 1929, Stalin moved abruptly to break peasant resistance and secure the resources required for industrialization. He saw that voluntary collectivism had failed, and many “Soviet economists doubted that the first plan could even be implemented.
In 1917, Russia was rocked by a series of revolutions, following the end of World War I. The country experienced great economic difficulties and famine, and the people became dissatisfied with the Tsarist rule. Tsar Nicholas II of the Romanov dynasty was abdicated, and on July 17th, he and his family, along with several servants were executed by the Bolsheviks.
It has been noted, “This ‘reshaping’ had three main aspects: the elimination of all dissent; the liquidation of all forms of democracy and of working class organisation; the slashing of the living standards of the working class and the physical annihilation of millions of peasants” (Text 5). This quote explains how Stalin wanted to industrialize Russia, which includes the deaths of several peasants of Russia. The Russians did not just die from The Great Purge, but also from Stalin’s Five-Year Plan. The Five-Year Plan was an attempt to industrialize the Soviet Union. It was also a plan to increase the output of steel, coal, oil, and electricity.
Lenin’s pragmatic leadership was the most considerable factor in helping to fortify Bolshevik power. His willingness to take power in October/November 1917 and the successes of the move, through his right-hand man, Trotsky, was critical as it helped give him unquestioned authority within the party despite members of the Central Committee i.e. Zinoviev and Kamenev who suggested industrialisation needed to occur first. This highlighted Lenin’s communist ideology in practice which was essential to the Bolsheviks maintaining power. Following the failure of the Provisional Government, Lenin recognised that it was the Bolshevik’s priority to legitimise their government. As a result, issues of ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ were addressed through the issuing of a number of decrees in late 1917 including decrees on land, peace, Workers’ Rights as well as reforms to marriage and religion. ...
Demands for changes in the government finally resulted. in the abdication of Nicholas II and his son on March 15. Over three centuries of Romanov rule are at an end. In the summer of 1918, the Russian royal family was imprisoned in
Isaac Murrin Mr. J. Pharion Freshman English 20 February 2013 The Similarities and Differences between Lenin and Stalin Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were similar in what they claimed to be, but in actuality they were very different people. Although Stalin claimed that he followed Leninism, the philosophy that Lenin developed from Marxism, he often distorted it to follow what he wanted to do. While Lenin wanted to make a unified society without classes, with production in the hands of the people, while Stalin wanted to make Russia into a modern industrial powerhouse by using the government to control production. Lenin accomplished his goals through violence, because he thought achieving the Communist revolution was worth using violence, with a ‘The ends justify the means’ mentality. Stalin also used violence to accomplish his goals, however Stalin used much more violence than was often necessary to accomplish his goals.
In 1905 , Russia had a prerevolution that was put down of the Czar. Instead of learning from this prerevolution, Czar Nicholas II, made a very big mistake by in not introducing some reforms to correct the problems. So because of his actions, the situation grew worse. In 1917, the Russians were fighting in World War I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the Czar's rule. This uncontent along with economic hardships caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar called for the army to put down the revolution as they did in 1905. But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was kicked out of power soon afterwards. A temporary government was set up to decide on what kind of government Russia was gonna set up. Two political parties were set up. The Bolsheviks were one of the two. The leader of the Bolshevik party was a man named Lenin. Lenin was a firm believer of the theories and ideas of Karl Marx. So with his slogan of "Bread, Peace and Land", Lenin gained the support of the peasants and gained control of Russia and setup a communist state.
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...
on or not. It is impossible to say how much effect the war had of the
But the Tsar had least central control. After the 1905 Revolution the Russian people were granted civil rights, an... ... middle of paper ... ... ressed the Tsars lost support from the nobles and power, after 1905 revolution Nicholas II had very little central control.
Over the next few years, Russia went through a traumatic time of civil war and turmoil. The Bolsheviks’ Red Army fought the white army of farmers, etc. against Lenin and his ways. Lenin and the Bolsheviks won and began to wean Russia of non-conforming parties eventually banning all non-communist as well as removing an assembly elected shortly after the Bolshevik’s gain of power. Lenin’s strict government, however, was about to get a lot stricter with his death in 1924.
The Conditions for Workers and Peasants Under the Bolsheviks and Under the Tsar's Rule Conditions for workers and peasants were deplorable under the rule of the Tsars, but not to the extent they were under the Bolsheviks. Despite the Bolsheviks claiming their policies were entirely in favour of the proletariat, peasants were forced to face horrific famine and a vast decline in living standards under rule by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. When Alexander II came to power in 1855 he realised that in order to modernise Russia and improve the weakening economy he needed to make dramatic reforms. In 1861 Alexander issued his Emancipation Manifesto, proposing 17 legislative acts that would free the serfs in Russia. Even though this new-found freedom in some ways seemed to place a greater burden on the peasants due to heavy redemption payments on their land and little improvement regarding agricultural methods in Russia, the act made the now-freed serfs feel that progress was being made towards a fairer social system in Russia and gave them some hope for more affirmative reforms in the future.