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Communism In Russia

Decent Essays

Communism started as a mean of hope for people, which were tired of being exploited, and being treated unequally. It became a form of socialism; beginning first in the Soviet Union (1918), then in China (1949), and later it started to spread throughout Asia. Communism was a way of ending that, so the parties made “a promise of liberation from inequality, oppression, exploitation, and backwardness.” (Strayer, pg.775) Before becoming the Soviet Union, Russia was still ruled by the tsar in the 1910s. They still had their social class system. So that meant the majority of the population, were at the bottom; made up of exploited urban workers and impoverished rural peasants. With them still living under a monarch unlike the majority of countries …show more content…

“But that revolution, which was a struggle of decades rather than a single year, was far different from its earlier Russian counterpart.” (Strayer, pg.782) The Chinese imperial rule collapsed in 1911, because of the increasing rise of demand from foreign imperialism. In Russia, where the talk of socialism was common among intellectuals for half a century or more before the revolution, the ideas of Karl Marx were barely known in China. It wasn’t until 1921 that a small Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded, aimed initially at organizing the country’s small urban working class. “While the Bolsheviks had found the majority of their followers among workers in Russia’s major cities, Chinese communists instead, looked to the country’s peasant villages for support. Chinese peasants did not rise up against their landlords, as Russian peasants had. But with years of guerrilla warfare, being able to pass land reform where there was communist control, the creation of a communist military force to protect liberated areas slowly gained for the CCP a growing measure of respect and support among China’s peasants.” (Strayer, pg. …show more content…

In the Soviet, they were able to have full legal and political equality, marriage wasn’t a necessity, but a want, they were able to divorce and have abortions, you can have a child illegitimately and they would not have to be ashamed for it, women no longer had to take their husbands’ surnames, they were given a temporary pregnancy leave, and women were actively mobilized as workers in the country’s drive to industrialization. “Addressing a Congress of Women Workers and Peasants, Lenin declared: “Root out old habits. Every cook must learn to rule the state.” (Strayer, pg.786) In China women were promised, “a Marriage Law that made arranged or “purchased” marriages illegal, which made divorce easier, the right to vote, and own property. Land reform offered them equal shares of land. The end of being anyone’s concubine, and child marriage, widows were able to remarry. Women’s associations enrolled hundreds of thousands of women and promoted literacy, discussions of women’s issues, and encouragement of home economics production, such as making clothes, blankets, and shoes that were essential for the revolutionary forces.” (Strayer, pgs. 782-783, and 787) But more traditional rural villagers it was a very drastic measure, especially for the male, and soldiers the communists depended on, persuaded the communists to adjust these measures. So women were not permitted to divorce men on active

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