Russia, officially known as the Russian Federation is an Eastern European country that was once under the control of the Soviet communist party in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, until its collapse in December 1991 as the nation started transitioning towards democracy. However, the transition from socialist to democratic for Russia proved to be severely fatal as there was direct military involvement along with public widespread protest during the Constitutional Crisis of 1993. Although it was a time in which former President Boris Yelstin (executive) was in a heated confrontation with the Russian Parliament (legislature formerly formed by the Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet) on issues about the control and reframing the constitution of the government, it was actually a time in which the nation was entrenched with political instability as many political analyst would answer the question of, why has the nation had problems with political instability?
It all began to take root on early January of 1992 as Boris Yelstin, who was faced with “One of the most urgent challenges…for rescuing the sinking Russian economy” (Breslauer 2002: 153), decided to take an initiative to put into effect his economic reform policies to alleviate the economy. Consequently, it caused many industries to go out of business as prices soon began to skyrocket which caused spending to take a drastic downturn and taxes to escalate further. Soon afterwards Yelstin’s reform began to viewed as being too radical which caught the Parliament’s attention for his actions being somewhat “unconstitutional” because “He was an autocrat who, without regard to formal constraints…acted in unpredictable ways to achieve his goals” (Rose and Munro 2002: 41), namely he exercised his powers beyond constitutional norms to stabilize the economy. Furthermore, Yelstin who grew aware that his special power to issue decrees was about to terminate at the start of 1993, but demanded Parliament to revise or amend the constitution (since the Constitution of 1978 invested them with the authority to be able to do so) which would grant the president more power than he already had at the time through his decree being revived. On the contrary, Parliament decided to decline his request which led to series of clashes between both Yelstin and Parliament as “…Yelstin did not change his position concerned his relations with Parliament and the power of the presidency” (Breslauer 2002: 167), to illustrate Yelstin’s will and determination in exercising his powers so the nation can truly obtain democracy.
...oved to be singularly influential and daunting. This is, perhaps, the greatest obstacles to achieving true democracy in Russia—the authoritarian and repressive traditions that refuse to die out with the passage of time.
Corney, Frederick “What Is To Be Done With Soviet Russia? The Politics Of Proscription And Possibility.” Journal Of Policy History 21.3 (2009): 264 – 281. Political Science Complete. Web. 23 Nov. 2013.
The USSR under Gorbachov and Russia, first under Yeltsin and then under Putin provide evidence of a slow but definite move away from many of the pillars of the Soviet Union. These developments are in the broad areas of governmental ideology, economic systems and the party’s dictatorship and authoritarian control. While addressing these main ideas, it is important to acknowledge that reformation and development does not necessarily imply a shift toward Western systems, rather is a move to a system that works effectively in the nation being studied, here immediately pre dissolution USSR and Russia since that time.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has undergone many changes. These changes were very profound and included the drastic restructuring of both the political structure and the economy. When the Russian people became dissatisfied with the communist system, they pushed for a regime change, which resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the introduction of a democratic system. Along with these political changes came the economic change from communism to a free market system. The new system and the old system, while initially seeming like they have many differences, are similar in the corruptness and oppression of the people. Because of this, the political and economic transitions from the old system of communism to the new democratic system in Russia have not been successful.
...eved this state of mind through the geography, history and traditions of the nation. Russia, although having geography, history and traditional values standing against it, has made a significant effort to preserve strong features of democracy through recent decades. Bibliography Grudzinska-Gross, Irena. The Scar of Revolution: Custine, Tocqueville, and the Romantic Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Gustafson, Thane, and Daniel Yergin. Russia 2010. New York: Random, 1993. Heywood, Andrew. Political Ideas and Concepts. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. McDaniel, Tim. The Agony of the Russian Idea. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Melvin, Neil. Russians Beyond Russians. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995. Rzhevsky, Nicholas. Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
"For hundreds of years, dictators have ruled Russia. Do they still? In the late 1980s, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev launched a series of political reforms that eventually allowed for competitive elections, the emergence of an independent press, the formation of political parties, and the sprouting of civil society. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these proto-democratic institutions endured in an independent Russia" (McFual). However history has shown how Russia has always been an anti-democratic country; power having shifted to authoritarian rule under both the Communists and the Russian Tsars. Under the previous authoritarian rule, Russian citizens were stripped of their rights and freedoms, but in t...
In 1917, two revolutions were involved in Russia, which terminated centuries of imperial ruling. The Russian revolution was made up of two revolutions, which the first one was in February, and the second one was in October.These revolutions started political, and social changes that lead to the creation of the Soviet Union. By March of 1917, Russia who became civil turned into turmoil, which caused constant food shortages.This turned into a revolt against Czar.By the year of 1917 lots of Russian citizens lost faith in their leader Czar Nicholas II. The citizens lost faith in Czar’s leadership due to the governments corruption, Russia’s economy, and Czar constantly affecting the success of the Duma ( the Russian legislative assembly established by Czar Nicholas II in 1905) .This impacted Russia in a disastrous way, which caused Czar Nicholas II to be overthrown.A few months later after Czar was overthrown, the new provisional government was overthrown by Bolsheviks. The first appearance of the Russian Revolution was in February 1917, due to the destructive involvement in World War I. The military and imperial side of Russia, could not compare to the industrialized Germany at the time. The costly war also made Russia’s economy decline in a major way. Word count: 207
Russia is generally apportioned the benefit of having introduced a political phenomenon that basically provided an alternative for capitalism; communism. Since this concept was only set in motion at the turn of the 20th century, we can therefore deduce that, to a large extent, Russia is, to most people, synonymous with leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev. This supposition is entirely based on the premise that the Russian revolution of 1914 inherently altered the socio-cultural and socio-political direction of the nation, bringing into birth a never before envisioned era where Russia was not ruled by the Tsars, but by simple men; men who spoke to and articulated the needs of the masses. To this extent, communism, therefore, is largely misconceived as having been the fulcrum of Russia’s civilization. Much of this misconception , as signaled earlier, is based on the growth and progression of the Russian society in the years after the revolution until 1990, when the Berlin wall fell, essentially bringing down with it decades of Soviet Union tradition based on communism.
In conclusion, with the government change left and right, Russia went through a period of chaos and destruction. The government change also hurt Russia's economy and the alliances that Russia made in previous years. The government was also the main cause of the Cold War and because of the time period, Russia is a completely different time from when Russia was back in the 1900s.
In 1946, George Orwell foretold that “the Russian regime will either democratize itself or it will perish”. He was one of the first to predict the fate the Soviet Union, and yet, when it occurred, “the abrupt end of the Cold War … and the sudden disintegration of the Soviet Union astonished almost everyone, whether in government, the academy, the media, or the think tanks” (Gladdis 1992). The Cold War’s sudden end can be attributed to a number of tensions which, occurring simultaneously, diminished the once-extraordinary power of the USSR.
The Russo-Chechen war that ended in 1996 should have given the Russian government a feel of things to come when they decided to attack in late September of last year. Triggered by security challenges to the State, Russia decided that the democracy would be in danger if they didn’t act. Russia was in a politically unstable situation right now with the resignation of Yeltsin, and the current Presidential elections looming. Also looming on the political horizon was the concern over rampant corruption in the government. If they had done nothing Yeltsin’s party would have stood to lose, yet Putin, (Yeltsin’s successor) succeeded in focusing the medias attention on the war rather that the domestic corruption.
Russia and the USSR 1900-1995Oxford HistoryRussia and the USSR1905-1941Russia and the USSR;Empire of RevolutionModern World HistoryRussia and the USSR1905-1956Heinemann HistoryThe Russian RevolutionHeinemann Historywww.bbc.co.uk/education/modern/russia/russihtm.htm#q1
The Tsar did not know what to do, so to lift the moral of the armies he took the command of the armies. He left the government on the hands of the Tsarina and her adviser Rasputin . This divided the government between The Tsar and the Tsarina ( pro peace) influenced by Rasputin .Russia could not handle the decisions that the Tsar was taking so from 1905 the Council of Ministers decided to bring the government under control of the Duma. On November Alexander Trepov (prime minister) promote a parliamentarian system , but never accomplish because of his destitution ( because of Rasputin )… many try to destitute Rasputin, people start blaming Rasputin of the loss of the war in the east. Rasputin was assassinated by the aristocracy died on December 17 of 1916. (His dead was in itself a whole history… where I am totally persuaded that evil forces where
Russian as a country has a very long and interesting history. There are a lot of different events happened which shaped Russian political and cultural life. However, two biggest events have took place in the beginning of 20th century which played a significant role of forming government and a new society. There were two big revolutions in the beginning in 1917's, the first one February Revolution which happened in February 1917 and the second one is October Revolution, also known as Bolshevik Revolution, which happened in October 1917. Between these two historical events was a time of change or by another word transition period. In my opinion, two revolutions, they were different. During the first one, a lot of people have died, when the second
Russia’s political landscape before the October Revolution can be described as a jumble of puppies all trying to get a ball. Due to the separate ideas of the puppies, some want to play with the ball, others want to keep it, they collide with each other and are unable to reach an end to their plight. However, the situation reached a climax in