Communism in Russia
This video helps explain the
ideas of communism and how they played a role in Russia. From 1:17-2:00, the
narrator explains the general basics of communism and where its origin is, and
from 4:15-5:50 it gives an explanation on how Russia used communism and the effects that it had on
the people living in Russia during the time.
A man named Karl Marx
proposed the idea of socialism (the root of communism). He believed that a
perfect society must not have social classes, so the poor must be free from
poverty and the rich must be stopped from making more money. This can happen by
having the government in control of all production and leaving the government
in charge of distributing land and property among the people equally. Marx wrote
his ideas about communism in his book called Manifesto of
the Communist Party and can
be found using that link.
Communism under the Russians
 |
| Communist Propaganda |
The All-Union Communist Party was
formed after the Russian Revolution, but changed their name The Communist Part
of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1952. Their main objectives were to change Russia
to be completely communist, to raise material and cultural level of the people,
to build up a strong defense system, and to bond workers of other countries
together.
Origins of Communism
A man named Karl Marx
proposed the idea of socialism (the root of communism). He believed that a
perfect society must not have social classes, so the poor must be free from
poverty and the rich must be stopped from making more money. This can happen by
having the government in control of all production and leaving the government
in charge of distributing land and property among the people equally. Marx wrote
his ideas about communism in his book called Manifesto of
the Communist Party and can
be found using that link.
Marx believed in 3 simple steps to create a perfect
society.
1. A revolution
must occur and the existing government must be overthrown.
a.
The Russians
successfully did this in the Russian Revolution (or civil war) from 1918-1921.
You can check out the page about the Russian Revolution for more information on
that.
2. A supreme leader
or dictator must arise to absolute power. They must create a new government
that has complete control over the people, including their education, job,
religion, and who they marry.
a.
The leader of the Communist Party of Soviet Russia was
Joseph Stalin. He decided to go about making Russia a communist country by
modernizing and industrializing Russia. He created large agricultural
communities that grew the food that would be shared among the whole country.
This was difficult because it was very strenuous on the people working in the
communities. He also created Gulags (check out the informative gulags page to
learn more) that he sent people to when they were seen as potential enemies.
Here is a link that gives an overview of Stalin's Life
3. The last step is
to become a utopian society. This can be achieved by sharing all wealth and
property, preventing the creation of a higher social class.
a.
This step was
not completed by the Russians and has never been achieved and it is unlikely
that it will ever be achieved. It is extremely difficult to have only one
social class. The Communist Part of Soviet Russia was
devoted to creating total equality between everyone in the country. However,
the citizens often were crammed into small apartment buildings having a limited
supply of food and property, whereas the officials lived in country houses and
ate food of higher quality.
Communist Symbol:
The main symbol of the communist party is a hammer and sickle. The hammer is the tool that we all know and the sickle is used to cut grain. They represent the industrial workers and the workers in the agricultural industries. Also, the tools show that the two types of workers are also equals.Connection to Ivan Denisovich:
·
Even though
under communism there should only be one class, in the gulag there is clearly a
hierarchal society where the people with higher status are more privileged than
those with a lower status
o
Fetiukov saved
Shukhov’s breakfast for him because he is a higher status
o
Tsezar gets more
food parcels than the other prisoners because he has a higher social status in
the gulag
Works Cited:
"Communist Party of the Soviet
Union." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 11 Dec.
2014
Hoyt, Alia. "How Communism
Works" 25 February 2008. HowStuffWorks.com.
<http://people.howstuffworks.com/communism.htm> 10 December 2014.
"Joseph Stalin."
Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 11 ngIf:
(retrieved|date:'MMMM').length<5 ngIf: (retrieved|date:'MMMM').length>=5
Dec. end ngIf: (retrieved|date:'MMMM').length>=5 2014.
I find the part in the first video interesting when they call Russia a threat to the world because of the role communism plays there. They say how the actions of the communist leaders play a role in disrupting the peace of the world. The video really exemplifies how communism had a significant effect of the Russian people. A better understanding on ways to create a perfect society are shown with Karl Marx's. It explains how a revolution must occur and the current government must be overthrown. It also says how a new dictator/leader must rise and create a new government that will have complete control over the people. Exact events happen under the rule of Stalin.
ReplyDeleteA kelsey said, i also find it powerful that Russia was considered a threat to the peace of the world because of the communism. It is also surprising that they had communist leaders faces hung around Russia as art. I liked how the video transitioned to the background of communism to the effects it had on people. I also liked how you included steps to the perfect society Karl Marx believed to be possible. It is almost funny how different the steps are to the reality as clearly the Soviet Union under Stalin was not at all perfect or utopian. This post gave me a better understanding of communism and what it is supposed to look like versus what is actually looks like when it is enforced.
ReplyDeleteI learned that Karl MArx was the man who proposed the idea for socialism. Socialism would later be the roots for Communism. I learned that he believed that a perfect society should not have social classes. It's interesting how he wanted to create a utopian society by sharing all wealth and property. I liked how you explained gave some background on each of the steps. I also thought that the symbol for communism is 2 tools crossing each other.
ReplyDeletewas pretty interesting**
DeleteI found it very helpful that you gave a specific part of the video to watch, so that we did not have to watch the whole video. I found it very ironic that Karl Marx, supported the idea of eliminating social classes, but communism essentially turned into one person vein superior than everyone else. I liked your embedded link about Stalins life because it gave us some background info about Stalin and his ideas. It was surprising that one of Marx's steps was to create a utopian society because this was basically the opposite of what happened in Russia. I also thought it was cool how the hammer and the sickle on the soviet flag represented the equality of industrial and agricultural rulers. In all, I enjoyed your blog because it showed the somewhat good ideas of a communist society, but how it resulted terribly in Russia.
ReplyDeleteSweet blog Ian, I learned a lot from your blog. I did not know there were so many ways communism held control. The whole part about Karl Marx was interesting and showed me the logic behind communism. I also did not know what the hammer and sickle stood for.
ReplyDeleteI liked this article because it gives a clear picture of communism and the goals of communism as stated by Karl Marx. This article also clearly highlighted what the Russians did and didn't do in trying to achieve their communist goal of a perfect society without class and where everyone is equal. Russia was the first country to ever put communism into practice, and is a good example of how it failed because of the greed of the government officials. Stalin and the other people who were in power took advantage of the Russian people. Communism allowed the people in charge to distribute the wealth, which allowed them to keep themselves rich from the work of others.
ReplyDelete