Imperialism: The Struggle Of The Soviet Union

Following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1914, Joseph Stalin took up his position as leader of the Soviet Union. After rising to power, Stalin made drastic changes to Russia that was still torn from war at the time. With his power, Stalin aimed to bring Russia to the top of the world. In the end, while he pushed the Soviet Union’s economy to new heights, his methods were cruel and had negative impacts. After the war, Stalin was determined to turn Russia into a great industrial power.

Anyone who refused to cooperate were either shot or exiled as punishment. Millions of farmers were killed (“Joseph Stalin.”) and this farming method wasn’t able to produce enough food leading to famine which results in millions of other deaths across the Soviet Union (“Joseph Stalin –

Throughout Russia’s history, there have been many rulers that tried to manage their country in different ways. Even though, all of these rulers had their own unique ways of ruling, all of them were seen as terrible by the people. This eventually led to a tipping point for the Russian citizens and the Russian Revolution took place. The goal for these people was to gain freedom from their oppressive czar but instead, they got an even worse leader. Joseph Stalin was a leader of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953 and he was known for his ability to strike fear into people.

This attitude, a product of an impoverished society, led Russian-communists to regard revolution as the only solution to this detrimental system. Kennan notes the use of Marxism as justification for the desire

This highlights the still present class system in Russia. Even though serfs had been freed they were still being treated as the lowest class, but in turn they were still free to vote and do everything any other free Russian citizen could do, in theory. Things were still unequal and life was hard for the serfs. Serfs who had recently been freed had no means for income and struggled to provide for their families. This arrangement worked in favor for the Russian government because the freed unemployed serfs would join the army and help Russia fight.

A Russian Serf was a peasant farmer who was “bound” by law to the land he was born. This is the land where they would work and that their masters owned. The practice of serfdom in Russia lasted for several hundred years before Alexander II issued a decree that emancipated serfs. Alexander II believed that “It is better to abolish serfdom

The Russian government treated the working class terribly, leading to several protests and boycotts. S.I. Somov was a Russian Soviet who shared his emotions on his overwhelming experience in the demanding Soviet working class. At a protest, he wrote that there was a “...mystical, religious ecstasy...” that peppered the angry workers who fought for their freedom from the exhausting chains of overwhelming labor and inhumane working conditions (Document 4). He added that the working class was deprived of a lively human soul, and their bitterness and dissatisfaction had “overflowed.” Somov was a worker himself, who first hand experienced the cruelty described and developed his own reasonable emotions towards the topic.

Post WWl, Russia was still not industrialized, suffering economically and politically and in no doubt in need of a leader after Lenin’s death. “His successor, Joseph Stalin, a ruthless dictator, seized power and turned Russia into a totalitarian state where the government controls all aspects of private and public life.” Stalin showed these traits by using methods of enforcement, state control of individuals and state control of society. The journey of Stalin begins now.

Lenin continued to give Stalin power and the people could not do anything to stop it. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin had complete control over the communist party. By the late 1920s, he was the dictator of the Soviet Union. Stalin kept finding way to get more power and the people were not able to do anything to fix

The indigenous people were required to listen to the encomendero at all times. Similarly, Russia’s serfs were like slaves because the serfs also had to obey their nobles. Serfdom was hereditary, just like slavery. This kept the nobles with constant labor help and essentially kept them happy. In addition, serfs also had to work in agricultural areas, but also in mining and manufacturing.

Andre Abi Haidar PSPA 210 INTRODUCTION It is always difficult to write about and discuss Karl Marx, or more importantly the applications of Marx’s theories, due to the fact that he inspired and gave rise to many movements and revolutionaries, not all of which follow his theories to the point. Although Marx tends to be equated with Communism, it might not seem righteous to blame him for whatever shortcomings occurred when his theories were put to the test; Marx passed away well before the revolution in Russia, and he played no role in the emergence of the totalitarian regime at the time. When discussing Marx, however, Vladimir Lenin is one of the biggest highlights when it comes to studying the outcomes of Marx’s theories.

Fordham University entailed, "if there were a proletarian dictatorship not only in our country but in other, more advanced countries as well, Germany and France, say. If that were the case, the capitalist encirclement could not be so serious a danger as it is now, " With these three quotes excerpted thus far, it is clear to see that Stalin played the victim card, making the Soviet Union seemed completely doomed. To fix this awful problem, the answer lied in the rapid industrialization he desperately wanted and eventually achieved (Fordham University). Stalin also explained on the Soviet Unions issues internally. Fordham University stated, "But besides the external conditions, there are also internal conditions which dictate a fast rate of development of our industry as the main foundation of our entire national economy.

War communism had a devastating impact on the peasants and proletariat in Russian society between 1918 and 1928. However, the New Economic Policy that followed the Civil War effects was opposite, raising living standards and reinstating support for the Bolshevik party. Vladimir “Lenin” Ulyanov, known as the head of the notorious Bolshevik party, introduced War Communism (1918-1921) and the NEP (1921-1928). As Martin McCauley states “If War Communism was a leap into socialism then the New Economic Policy was a leap out of socialism” The aims of War Communism and the NEP were both successful in a large number of areas, however, the effects of both policies were not all favourable.

However, for Lenin the working class was incapable of achieving socialism and then communism without leaders. The transition from capitalist society, developing towards a communist society, is impossible without a ‘political transition period’ ” (6). We can see these stages that occur after capitalism: socialism and communism in Zamyatins’ We when D-503 refers to the ancient world. However, Lenin makes the observation that it is impossible to refer to the ancient contemporary world when factors are still brought up in the present “rationale” period.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) considered himself not to be a sociologist but a political activist. However, many would disagree and in the view of Hughes (1986), he was ‘both – and a philosopher, historian, economist, and a political scientist as well.’ Much of the work of Marx was political and economic but his main focus was on class conflict and how this led to the rise of capitalism. While nowadays, when people hear the word “communism”, they think of the dictatorial rule of Stalin and the horrific stories of life in a communist state such as the Soviet Union, it is important not to accuse Marx of the deeds carried out in his name.