The Revolution Of The Communist Party

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).

The strive for socialism goes far beyond the torture and rape of an unfortunate few, rather the idea that everything under communism was free and that there was no such thing as selling products for profits would lead to “the greatest human disaster in Europe since the Black Death.” Still, many more unfortunate others found themselves on market displays to be sold as food. Even with the prospect of cannibalism and the terror that Lenin’s secret police caused, the masses still believed that he was their savor and didn’t know anything of the horrors that occurred under his rule. Many families worshipped Lenin as a god and to speak otherwise was seen as a great disrespect. The amount of hope that they poured into Lenin and his idea of communism just serves to show how desperate the Russian people had become.

The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution was the seizure of power by the radical Marxists led by Vladimir Lenin and was one of the pivotal moments of the 20th Century. The ramifications of the event, and the subsequent establishment of the world's first Communist regime were immediately obvious, but also had continuing repercussions for decades. This essay will argue that although Lenin and Stalin seemed to have conflicting views, in reality they shared very similar policies; Stalin just took these policies to an extreme.

When Lenin and the Bolsheviks officially came into power, the pressure from peasants could not be ignored. Lenin adopted a number of policies between the years 1918 to 1921 known as War Communism. These policies of War Communism targeted peasants, there was forced grain requisitioning, banning of private trade and labour discipline. Unsurprisingly, the peasants acted bitterly and began to lose support of the government, as seen in source B. This source is a propaganda poster used by the Bolsheviks in the 1920’s, when the Provisional

One of the main reasons that the Bolsheviks gained support in 1917 was due to the fact that Lenin rejected any compromise with the propertied classes, and insisted that the power should be held by the proletariat and the peasants, which was the majority of Russia’s population. Another reason for the Bolshevik’s growing support was because the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries continued to support the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government had failed to enact land reforms demanded by the peasantry and had failed to keep the military from falling apart. As previously mentioned, the Bolsheviks had harnessed the revolutionary mood of the workers and garrison soldiers in order to successfully go through with the October Revolution (Connor 1). The Petrograd Soviets and the Red Guards also supported the overthrow of the Provisional Government as they did not feel it represented their interests. This gave even more support to the Bolsheviks as they promised the overthrow of the traditional order. Lenin created the Sovnarkom, which would be the new type of government in Russia, and would replace the Provisional Government (Provisional Government). The Sovnarkom’s initial objectives represented a revolt against tradition. This is because the objectives included land collectivization, where land is taken from the nobles, church, and tsar and given to the peasants, and to empower workers to set up factory committees to take control of factories.

The fight for communism began “in the early evening of October 24, [the Military Revolutionary Committee] used small bands of troops loyal to their cause or the Red Guards… to take control of the railway station, telephone exchange, electricity plants, post offices, the state bank, and key bridges” (Gellately 37). Although there were a small amount of revolutionaries, the Russian government was without proper defense and they quickly took control of key areas in the state (Gellately 37). Lenin had to convince his Bolshevik constituents that a quick revolution was the proper course of action, he was met with much resistance at first, but his persistence convinced his comrades. Through his leadership a small revolutionary army was able to secure the majority of Russia. Subsequent to the revolution, an election was held in which Lenin and his Bolshevik party “managed only 24 percent of the vote” while the social revolutionaries won the election with “40 percent of the ballots” (Gellately 39). However, Lenin had expected an electoral defeat and “had no intention of letting the Constituent Assembly meet”(Gellately 39). Despite his previous promises, Lenin believed that he was the one who would lead Russia to prosperity through Marxism and “In December 1917, Lenin made the case for forcing through a vanguard dictatorship, in full defiance of the

The history behind the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ranges back to the early 20th century. Communism first arose from the writings of Karl Marx, one of the most influential men in the Soviet Union’s history. Essentially, the Communist Party arose from the Bolshevik side that was part of the Russian Revolution of October 1917.

In The Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx and Engels elaborate a bold thesis on the trajectory of history. Their argument is an important sociological step in social and economic analysis but it fails to provide a convincing account.

Drafted in 1848 by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” outlines the views, tendencies, and aims of the communist party through the so-called philosophy of historical materialism (Distante). These views were expressed throughout four distinct sections of the “Manifesto of the Communist Party.” The first section describes the relationship between the bourgeois and the proletarians. The next section depicts the relationship between the proletarians and the communists. The third section of the document presents socialist and communist literature. The “Manifesto…” is ended with a section stating the position of the communists in relation to opposition

The past 30 years have been filled with great change and turmoil for many of Europe’s countries. The rise and fall of the USSR as well as widespread communism throughout Europe deeply effected many nations and forever changed the course of their economies. Independence came with a sigh of relief but also a lingering question of how to effectively reenter a market that had been inaccessible for years. Coming up with a plan to transition into the global economy was difficult, and once established implementation was even harder. New policies and reforms were met with resistance and many nations had to work hard to erase the lingering effects of communism from within their economy. Nevertheless, this hard work, in many cases, did pay off and ultimately

I researched the Communist Party of Russia, which was founded in 1903 by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. They were committed to democratic centralism, opposed capitalism, and were dedicated to the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, or the rule of the economic and social class of industrial workers. The Bolsheviks seized power from the Russian imperial government in 1917 and changed their name to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1952. From 1918 through the 1980s, the CPSU was a monopolistic party with members consisting of high-ranking USSR government officials, which allowed them to make policy that was enforced by the government.

The Manifesto of the Communist Party discusses the topic about the proletarian revolution. The author Marx and Engels claim that the struggle in today’s world is between two great social classes, the “bourgeoisie”, the capitalists who own the means of production and the “proletariat”, the workers employed by the bourgeoisie (p.5). They believe that the proletariat will ultimately overthrow the bourgeoisie through revolution and reach a classless society (p.9, p.13). To achieve this goal, the communists who pursue the common interests of all proletarians need to make the proletariat the ruling class, then abolish the private property and centralize all production (p.13). Personally, I think that Marx and Engels are weak for the argument that

After the WWII alliance with the Soviet Union collapsed in mutual distrust, the administration of Harry Truman began a policy of “Containment.” This meant checking on perceived communist aggression anywhere in the world. While seeking to prevent Communist ideology from gaining further adherents in Europe, the United States also responded to challenges elsewhere. In China, Americans worried about the advances of Mao Zedong and his Communist Party. During World War II, the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek and the Communist forces waged a civil war even as they fought the Japanese. Chiang had been a war-time ally, but his government was hopelessly inefficient and corrupt. American policy makers had little hope of saving his regime

During November 1917, an army of peasants had formed, which was described as “a huge crowd of tired, poorly clad, poorly fed, embittered men. The Russians continued to involve similar aspects of the Communist party such as creating an army of peasants, which is mainly what the Communist party consists of. Another example of a demand of the Communist party would be “It follows that if the workers in England or France now liberate themselves, this must set off revolution in all other countries – revolutions which, sooner or later, must accomplish the liberation of their respective working class.” Within this principle of the Communist party, it describes how the workers should band together and start a revolution in order to liberate themselves. In November of 1917, armed factory workers, which were called Red Guards, banned up with rebellious sailors from the Russian navy and attacked the government. Workers from Russia followed the Communists’ instructions to start a revolution in order to be

Communism is a scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life; specifically, a scheme which contemplates the abolition of inequalities in the possession of property, as by distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all wealth in common for the equal use and advantage of all. was created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as an economic strategy to end capitalism. It abolished all private ownership and gave ownership to the whole community thus “communism”Marx and Engels felt capitalism created social classes and the lower social classes felt poorly because of this.