The Rise of Communism in Russi
Unless we accept the claim that Lenin's coup that gave birth toan entirely new state, and indeed to a new era in the history of mankind,we must recognize in today's Soviet Union the old empire of the Russians --the only empire that survived into the mid 1980s (Luttwak, 1). In their Communist Manifesto of 1848, Karl Marx and FriedrichEngels applied the term communism to a final stage of socialism in whichall class differences would disappear and humankind would live in harmony. Marx and Engels claimed to have discovered a scientific approach tosocialism based on the laws of history. They declared that the course ofhistory was determined by the clash of opposing forces rooted in theeconomic system and the ownership of property. Just as the feudal systemhad given way to capitalism, so in time capitalism would give way tosocialism. The class struggle of the future would be between thebourgeoisie, who were the capitalist employers, and the proletariat, whowere the workers. The struggle would end, according to Marx, in thesocialist revolution and the attainment of full communism (Groilers Socialism, of which Marxism-Leninism is a takeoff, originated in
Even though the Whites had moresoldiers in their army, they were not nearly as organized nor as efficientas the Reds, and therefore were unable to rise up (Farah, 582). Trotsky set himself emphatically against thisattitude and demanded an army organized in the conventional way andemploying military specialists -- experienced officers from the old army. Byearly 1920 the principal White forces were defeated (Wren, 151). When Lenin reached Russia in April after his famous sealed car trip across Germany, he quickly denounced his Bolshevikcolleagues for failing to take a sufficiently revolutionary stand (Daniels,88). Twenty-two Bolsheviks, includingLenin, met in Geneva in August of 1904 to promote the idea of the highlydisciplined party and to urge the reorganization of the whole Social-Democratic movement on Leninist lines (Stoessinger, 33). The Provisional Governmentscommitment to the war effort was denounced. Though born only in 1879, Trotsky had gained a leading place amongthe Russian Social-Democrats by the time of the Second party Congress in1903. The most significant part of the debate turned on the possibility for immediate revolutionary action in Russia and the relation of this to the international upheaval. At the top level individuals still spoke forthemselves, and considerable freedom for factional controversy remaineddespite the principles of unity laid down in 1921. At that point theopposition parties took positions which were either equally vocal or openly anti-Bolshevik, and one after another, they were suppressed. The principle of suchpolice surveillance over the political leanings of the Soviet populationhas remained in effect ever since, despite the varying intensity ofrepression and the organizational changes of the police -- from Cheka toGPU (The State Political Administration) to NKVD (people's Commissariat ofInternal Affairs) to MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) to the now well-known KGB (Committee for State Security) (Pipes, 140). Hostilities between the Communists and the Whites, who were thegroups opposed to the Bolsheviks, reached a decisive climax in 1919. Also rising to power was a rival government called the Petrograd Soviet of workers and SoldiersDeputies consisting of workers and peasants of socialist and revolutionarygroups. As early as 1894, when he was twenty-four, Lenin had become a revolutionary agitator and a convinced Marxist. With the tsar out of power, a new provisional government took over made up of middle-class Duma representatives.
Common topics in this essay:
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Lenin Bogdanov,
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democratic workers,
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