The Russian Revolution

1. By Andrew Alexandre The Russian Revolution http://www.marxist.com/alan-woods-on-the-russian-revolution-part-one.htm http://www.st-petersburg-life.com/st-petersburg/1917-russian-revolution

2. The causes of the Russian Revolution The Russian revolution was caused by multiple things such as: • People had little to no political rights or freedoms such as they could not say what they wanted to change or what they wanted to have or get rid of. • The poverty in the area was so bad that many people were suffering from it. To be exact it was about 90% of people in poverty and the lucky 10% was nobles and the czar and all those other people high up in the government. • Russia had been ruled by a czar for 300 years and the whole time its been ruled by them all the things listed above had happened and over the years people anger toward the government had kept increasing until the people couldn’t take it anymore and they revolted and that’s when the revolution started.

3. Russia before 1917 Russia before the revolution was very similar to this: • The geography of Russia offered advantages such as unlimited natural resources because of the amount of vast land in the area, the harsh climate and rough terrain made it hard for foreign invasion, and Russia had a great river system that was used for an easy way to travel in Russia. Some disadvantages were, Russia's climate made it difficult to travel in and out of ports, the arctic ocean was frozen most of the year and the ports of Russia were blocked by other nations, and the large Caspian sea was landlocked and did not connect to any other waterways. • In the 1900’s in Russia only about 10% of its people were actually Russian. Most of the people were nationalists who spoke their own language and on top of that many non-Russians had a very strong loyalty to their cultures and practices so in the end many people had different and conflicting interests and needs. • Non-Russians were treated horribly by the Russian Government and Jews were treated the worst by being forced to live in certain areas and there was a limit to how many could study at universities and have a profession. They also needed to wear special clothing and needed to have a special permit to travel. The Russian Government allowed something called Cossacks which was the act of beating, robbing, and sometimes killing and burning the Jewish villages.

4. Karl Marx • Karl Marx was a German philosopher, social scientist, and a professional revolutionary who was born to Jewish parents back when Russia was known as Prussia. In his earlier years he went to the University of Bonn to study law and later transferred to the University of Berlin where he became interested in philosophy. He then became a free-lance journalist who helped create several radical journals. • In 1843 Karl moved to Paris with his wife and met a young German radical by the name of Fredrich Engels. Together they published a book called The Communist Manifesto in 1848. in this book it predicted that the ruling class would be overthrown by the lower working class and it will result in a classless society called pure communism where everyone would live as equals. According to Marx all history is a struggle between the ruling and the working classes. • One day when Karl was in Great Britain he saw factory workers living together in crowded slums and he believed eventually all their suffering would unite them. He thought that the workers would rise against the capitalists and take control of the industries, farming, and the government. This stage in the revolution was called Socialism. Once the capitalists were overthrown the workers then would share the wealth with all the other members of society or in other words they would create a classless society where everyone is equal. Eventually people would cooperate so well that there would be no need for a state, or a government to run society. It would all just disappear. This final stage in the revolution was the thing that was actually called communism. The belief that all this was going to happen was so strong to Marx that he even compared it to evolution as in it is a force that will eventually happen and can’t be stopped

5. Vladimir Lenin • Vladimir Lenin was a Russian Revolutionary who was the founder of the Bolshevik party which later on was then called the communist party. He was the leader of the Bolshevik revolution and founded the Soviet state. Lenin was born with the name Vladimir IIyich Ulyanov. He became a revolutionary when his oldest brother was executed in 1887 for participating in a plan to kill the czar Lenin happened to be a follower of Karl Marx and was exiled to Serbia from 1887 to 1890 for his revolutionary activities. Upon his release he traveled to western Europe in the year 1902 where he published his famous pamphlet called What Is to be Done? Lenin has argued that only a professional revolutionary could bring Marxist socialism to Russia. • In 1905 Lenin and his group of Marxists returned to Russia for the early attempt at revolution which eventually failed. He then returned again in 1917 but this time he was aided by the Germans and within six months the Bolsheviks controlled the state. • Finally, in 1921 Lenin introduced something called the New Economic Policy or NEP for short. It called for a temporary compromise with capitalism. It gave farmers the ability to sell any surplus instead of having it taken by the government, citizens were permitted to buy and sell goods for profit, privately owned businesses, and even foreign investment. Thanks to this new policy the communists were able to stabilize the revolution. Lenin influenced communism more than anyone else except Karl Marx.

6. Communism • Communism is basically the act of making the gap between the rich and the poor very small it makes the rich and poor into one class of people who share the exact same amount of money and property and just about anything else that has to do with money. Even though this idea sounds bad to the rich because they would be loosing money and good to the poor because they would finally be able to get somewhere in life, this and everything else in the world comes with advantages and disadvantages. The advantages is that the economy could get a lot better because so many people hopes are up because of the money and they don’t feel bad because there are no more poor people in the area anymore. • But when it comes to communism there at least to me kind of feels like there are a little too much more in disadvantages than it being actually good. For example if everyone is getting the same amount of money then some people would sit around and do nothing while everyone else works their butt off and your still getting money and that to me and so many other people seems that its just not right. If many countries took on communism I feel that many Civil Wars would break out because there would be so many people wanting to keep it because there working hard and getting good money and there would be people complaining about to many slackers and war is the last thing everyone wants am I right or what?

7. Russia after the Revolution • Joseph Stalin was the person who led the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953. he was a ruthless dictator who was directly responsible for the murders of millions of Soviet people and his co-revolutionary, Leon Trotsky. Between the years 1918 and 1923 Stalin played an increasing role in the Soviet Government and he was one of Lenin’s most trusted advisors. After the Civil War Stalin was given the job of General Secretary of the Communist Party and made his position a very powerful one. He used his power to appoint his friends to the communist party. • During Lenin's rule he had one major rival in the Soviet government who was a man named Leon Trotsky who was responsible for the success of the Red Army during the Civil War. Stalin knew that when Lenin passed Trotsky would be the most likely choice of the next leader of the Soviet Union so after Lenin’s death Stalin continued to gain more power and by the year 1928 he had become the most powerful person in the Soviet Union. He then exiled Trotsky and with him gone he was now the absolute dictator in the Soviet Union. • Stalin ended the NEP in 1928 and started something else called the Five-Year plan where millions of peasants were brought to cities and paid low wages to work in newly built factories and about 100 million of them were forced to live and work on collective farms which were large units that were worked by hundreds of families. • Under the five year plan the welfare of the people stayed bad and even got worse anything that was made whether it be from factories or collective farms all of it went to the government and in the 1930’s even though the Soviet Union went through a industrial revolution life for most people did not improve.

8. Russia after the Revolution Cont. • During the 1930’s Stalin Made the state in a Totalitarian state which basically means that the political system takes over every single aspect of life whether it be public or private and on top of that Stalin began what was called purges which means he got rid of anyone he thought to be disloyal. He built a secret police force to spy on everyone around including the communist party, military leaders, and other high ranking officials. If caught these people were accused of trying to destroy the Soviet state and then they were either tortured, murdered or ordered into labor camps. The main point was everyone feared him and no one dared to talk out of line about him. • In all Stalin was a ruthless dictator terrorizing the people for about 25 years and he was responsible for the rise in position to be one of the great world powers. Even though what he did seemed too much without him doing it the Soviet Union might not have been able to get as far as it has today. Whether it be a good or bad thing that Stalin did what he did the Russian people paid a very heavy price to be where they are now.