Students will read the link provided above this module, labeled "historical context." Students will then write a summary of 1 page. In the summary, students will need to focus on spelling and grammar, as well as providing adequate insight to demonstrate that they have actually read text.
Russian society in the early twentieth century was bipolar: a tiny minority controlled most of the country’s wealth, while the vast majority of the country’s inhabitants were impoverished and oppressed peasants. Communism arose in Russia when the nation’s workers and peasants, assisted by a class of concerned intellectuals known as the intelligentsia, rebelled against and overwhelmed the wealthy and powerful class of capitalists and aristocrats. They hoped to establish a socialist utopia based on the principles of the German economic and political philosopher Karl Marx.
In Das Kapital (Capital), Marx advanced an economically deterministic interpretation of human history, arguing that society would naturally evolve—from a monarchy and aristocracy, to capitalism, and then on to communism, a system under which all property would be held in common. The dignity of the poor workers oppressed by capitalism would be restored, and all people would live as equals. Marx followed this sober and scholarly work with The Communist Manifesto, an impassioned call to action that urged, “Workers of the world, unite!”
In the Russia of 1917, it appeared that Marx’s dreams were to become reality. After a politically complicated civil war, Tsar Nicholas II, the monarch of Russia, was forced to abdicate the throne that his family had held for three centuries. Vladimir Ilych Lenin, a Russian intellectual revolutionary, seized power in the name of the Communist Party. The new regime took land and industry from private control and put them under government supervision.
This centralization of economic systems constituted the first steps in restoring Russia to the prosperity it had known before World War I and in modernizing the nation’s primitive infrastructure, including bringing electricity to the countryside. After Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky jockeyed for control of the newly formed Soviet Union. Stalin, a crafty and manipulative politician, soon banished Trotsky, an idealistic proponent of international communism. Stalin then began to consolidate his power with brutal intensity, killing or imprisoning his perceived political enemies and overseeing the purge of approximately twenty million Soviet citizens.
The historical context provided in the link above gives us an insight into the social and political dynamics of early twentieth-century Russia. The society was sharply divided between the wealthy minority and the impoverished majority of peasants. This led to a growing unrest among the working class and intellectuals, who were inspired by Karl Marx's socialist principles.
Marx's theories, outlined in works such as Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto, provided a framework for the revolution that would eventually take place in Russia in 1917. The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the rise of Vladimir Lenin marked the beginning of a new era, where the Communist Party took control and implemented policies aimed at creating a socialist utopia.
The centralization of economic systems under Lenin's regime aimed to restore prosperity and modernize the country's infrastructure. However, the power struggle that ensued after Lenin's death between Stalin and Trotsky led to a brutal consolidation of power by Stalin. His regime oversaw the purge of millions of Soviet citizens, highlighting the violent and oppressive nature of the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule.
Overall, the historical context provided sheds light on the complexities and turmoil of the time period, as well as the ideologies and actions that shaped the course of Russian history in the early twentieth century.