A New Form Of Government During World War II

Russia in the late 19th and early 20th century was riddled with social and economic hardships throughout the countryside and inner cities. The Russian peasant was faced with widespread poverty and poor living conditions throughout their entire life. The economic situation and the living conditions drove the peasants and working class to rebel and begin the Russian revolution that would change the face of the country and impact the world forever.

During the 1900’s the Russian Government made it extremely hard for the Bolsheviks to progress which made them revolt against the government making this a prime matter for the start of the Revolution. The Czarist government was ostracized by the common people of Russia so Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown by the Provisional Government, whom later on were overthrown by Lenin and shortly after the Bolsheviks took control over Russia. Russia was hard to develop because of the major leaders who had control; Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky. Almost overnight an entire society was destroyed and replaced with one of the most radical social experiments ever seen. Poverty, crime, privileged and class-divisions were to be eliminated, a new era of socialism

In 1917, Russia was crumbling into pieces. The World War I was draining all of Russia’s resources. There was shortage of food throughout the country, which left people starving. At the battlefront, millions of Russian soldiers were dying, they did not possess many of the powerful weapons that their opponents had. The government under Czar Nicholas II was disintegrating, and a provisional government had been set up. In November of 1917, Lenin and his communist followers known as the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and set a communist government in Russia. However, in 1924, Lenin died and Josef Stalin assumed leadership of the Soviet Union, which was the name for the communist Russia. Stalin was a ruthless leader who brought

The Bolshevik revolution came to prominence because of the Provisional Government’s inability to gain support from the Russian population. ‘The government enjoyed little confidence amongst the masses; and many of its members were largely unknown to the new Russia that had burst upon the political scene.’[3 ] Kerensky himself comments on the problematic circumstances his government experienced, ‘the old (governmental machine) had disappeared; the new was not yet established.’ The support of the peasantry was critical in establishing popular rule, as historian Richard Abraham comments, ‘the largest social class in Russia was still the peasantry.

The Russian revolution of 1905 was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian empire. Most of the Russian population were agriculturalist with impoverished and highly taxed peasants. Dominance of aristocrats and clergy was there in government. Industries were being set up which was mostly private property of industrialist. Workers in cities lived in overcrowded apartments and poor conditions. Ideas of enlightment like democracy, rights of individual and accountable government. It was spread from Western Europe to Russia in 19th century. Romanovs were absolute monarchs since 17th century. In 1894 tsar Nicholas was influenced by Rasputin a mystic. Karl Marx gave the theory of communism. He said workers as proletariat which means they should only rule. Vladimir changed the theory he said some of the proletariat should stand further and prefer dictatorship. After

The first section of Fitzpatrick’s essay discusses how Marxism was such an important part to creating classes during the Bolsheviks rule in the beginning of the 20th Century. She notes that this western belief system was popular with Russian intellectuals, especially on revolutionary left. (173) However, around the 1890’s industrialization was starting to catch up with the Marxist dreams, and the first soviets were founded in Moscow and Petersburg in 1905 helped bring down the tsarist regime in February 1917 (Suny 173).

Due to Russia’s sheer amount of citizens in the country, it resulted in a overcrowded society, poor housing along with poor living and working conditions (created by economic problems in Russia) led to social tension in cities. In terms of land and agriculture, the Russians had methods that were inefficient and backwards- as they still used wooden ploughs and very few animals and tools. With not enough land to go around (due to the controlling of private property), vast expansion of peasant population in the later half of the 19th century led to overcrowding and competition for land. The diverse people of Russia desperately needed a social reform. With peace established with Germany, the of lack of a compete control over the country then led to the civil war immediately after the Bolsheviks assumed power. The Reds (communists) and the Whites (anti-communists, Capitalists, western forces) fought a series of battles that resulted in countless deaths. The White forces received support from the Western Allies during the internal war. The United States, England and Canada had contingents of men inside of Russia initially to guard supplies they had sent during the war, but they were in a position to fight if their governments thought necessary. The Red Army was able to defeat the much larger White armies over the course of the three-year

The Russian Civil War (1917-1923) saw millions of deaths and millions further starved. The Bolsheviks saw the importance of maintaining their power in the cities in order to maintain power over the country itself. To keep the people happy thus, they realised they needed to keep the people fed. This led top the eventual inception of War Communism. An economic/agricultural policy incorporated by War Communism was known as Prodrazvyorstka – requisition of agricultural surpluses from peasants in excess of absolute minimum for centralized distribution among the remaining population. This meant that the Bolsheviks could seize whatever food they needed from the countryside towns and villages and distribute it amongst the urban population in cities such as Petrograd and Moscow.

In the World War II, two super power and allies, the United States and Soviet Union fought together with different reasons. The United States wanted stop Nazi-German, but the Soviet Union wanted absolute control of the Eastern Europe countries. These differences brought tension to the relationship between them, which Americans started to concern about Joseph Stalin, the Russian leader.

The introduction of War Communism during the Russian Civil War, is evidence of Russian moving towards a Totalitarian State. Many aspects of War communism were totalitarian in nature. For instance the creation of a Supreme Economic Council, formed to take complete control over the Russian highlights the central control over the most vital aspect of the state, that the Bolsheviks enforced. Other measures include the requisitioning of excess grain from the Peasants. Many of these policies were met with opposition, particularly among the agricultural peasants. This opposition was in turn met with brutal force, which was another example of the nature of complete state authority. War communism continued on until the end of the Civil war, by which time the Bolshevik forces had succeeded in crushing all opposition. The success of the red forces meant that Russia was a step closer in becoming a Totalitarian state, as they were now the most powerful party in Russia, with complete control over all its territory.

Communist rule was confined to the Soviet Union until the end of World War II.

Communism in Russia was begun by Karl Marx. Marx, along with much of the country, was tired of the tyranny they suffered under the Tsar. He came up with a system of government that would make everyone equal, and wrote it into the Communist Manifesto, the handbook for Communism. The Tsar and his family were eventually overthrown by the angry populace. Vladimir Lenin, a leader of the communist party, became the new head of the country. After his death, Joseph Stalin, another leader of the communist party, became the new leader of Russia. Although he claimed to adhere to the basic rules of communism, Stalin took advantage of the peasants and working class by taking their property and money, and eventually became a dictator. The middle and lower classes were, arguably, worse off than before.

The Police State in World War II Nazi Germany is often described as a totalitarian state meaning that individual people were completely controlled by the Government. A Security system was set up to ensure that Nazi ideas and policies were followed and that any opposition was dealt with. The control was enforced by Heinrich Himmler - head of the Nazi Police

In the beginning Communism seemed to the people of Russia as a utopian ideal. The promise of the elimination of classes, of guaranteed employment, "The creation of a comprehensive social security and welfare system for all citizens that would end the misery of workers once and for all." Lenin's own interpretation of the Marxian critique was that to achieve Communism there would first have to be a socialist dictatorship to first suppress any dissent or protest. Through coercive tactics this new government seized power and in 1917 Lenin came to power. Under his "rule" Russia underwent radical changes in it's economic doctrines adopting a mixed which was termed the New Economic Policy, also referred to as NEP. This

To better understand the nature of Sino-Soviet relations in the twentieth century, one must analyze the emergence of communism in the respective nations of Russia and China. Communism was first developed by German philosopher Karl Marx in the 1800s, and is defined as a socioeconomic policy structured around the common ownership of property in the absence of any social distinctions such as class, wealth, or race. Marx saw this arrangement as the zenith of human society, the paragon of interaction where the resources of economic production are fully socialized and everything, from basic nutrition to education, is freely allocated based on necessity. These egalitarian doctrines and policies of social, economic, and political freedom greatly appeased to the working-class populations in politically oppressed regions of the world, especially in the situations of the repressed poor and peasant classes of early twentieth-century Russian and Chinese societies.