cold war
Major Sources of Discord between the Bolsheviks and European States: 1917 to 1921 There were several major sources that created discord between the Bolsheviks and western states in Europe from 1917 to 1921. Conflicting ideologies that each attacked the very fabric of the other's respective society led to the notion that capitalism and communism could not coexist. The attempts of both actors to hold control of their own political system and to expand their political ideas internationally led to major conflicts between them. Also, the lack of respect for the upstart Bolshevik government by the west led to misperceptions concerning the actions of the Soviets. Russia's unsatisfactory involvement in World War I and their abrupt departure from the war which affected the western Allies war effort created much disenchantment between the two sides. The imperial and expansionist nature of both groups of actors led to conflict as the creation of both communist and non-communist blocs began with the independence of Poland as a free state in 1919. By using the Communist party as a vehicle to inject Communism into societies abroad, the Bolsheviks began to make free countries take notice of the threat that the "worker's party" pre
The goal of Bolshevism was to use a governing body to place the masses into one equal social class where everybody would work equally for the advancement of society as a whole (Harris). However, the Triple Alliance was taking Europe piece by piece; fighting a two front war between the Allies of the west, and Entente forces from Russia and the east (p. Even though communism did not reign in Turkey, it made the world realize the evident threat of communism developing on a grass roots level in their own country. Lenin's plans for the expansion of Bolshevism into Germany became complicated by the new Polish state (Harris). Also by organizing the proletariat through trade unions, social democracy allowed for collective bargaining to lead to improvements in working conditions, pay, benefits, and other factors that helped to limit the exploitation of lower class labor (Harris). After World War I, Poland was created as an independent state out of the three empires that had once occupied it : Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary (Ulam, p. The idea of the expansion of Marxist thought became a source of tension that pitted Russia and its experimental communist society against states of democracy and capitalism in Europe. Lenin contended that the Soviet Union would rather not participate in the war, but would rather "gain strength and maintain the oasis of Soviet power in the middle of the raging imperialist sea" (p. With the failure of the West to intervene and successfully defeat the Bolshevik government, Lenin felt the democratic countries would "compose their differences and attack [The Soviet Union]" (Ulam, p. The lack of Russian effort in World War I created much strife between Russia and the Britain/France coalition (Ulam, p. The Allies also felt that as the Civil War went on "the mass of the population was turning against the Bolsheviks" (p. Also, these colonies were mostly poor colonies that were made up mainly of poor, lower class peasants who could be sympathetic to the communist cause (Harris).
Common topics in this essay:
World War,
France Britain,
Britain France,
Brest Litovsk,
Civil War,
Harris Bolshevism,
Germany Bolsheviks,
Communist Party,
Harris Lenin,
Harris Poland,
world war,
civil war,
communist party,
bolshevik regime,
france britain,
soviet union,
communist revolution,
europe harris,
harris lenin,
lower class,
world war 1914,
treaty brest litovsk,
world war created,
bolsheviks western europe,
lead communist revolution,
|
Acceptance Essays
