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The Rise of Communism in Russia

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The Rise of Communism in Russia

"Unless we accept the claim that LeninÕs coup dՎtat gave birth to an entirely new state, and indeed to a new era in the history of mankind, we must recognize in todayÕs Soviet Union the old empire of the Russians -- the only empire that survived into the mid 1980's" (Luttwak, 1). In their Communist Manifesto of 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels applied the term communism to a final stage of socialism in which all class differences would disappear and humankind would live in harmony. Marx and
Engels claimed to have discovered a scientific approach to socialism based on the laws of history. They declared that the course of history was determined by the clash of opposing forces rooted in …show more content…

The crowds demanded food and the step down of Tsar. When the troops were called in to disperse the crowds, they refused to fire their weapons and joined in the rioting. The army generals reported that it would be pointless to send in any more troops, because they would only join in with the other rioters.
The frustrated tsar responded by stepping down from power, ending the 300-year- old Romanov dynasty (Farah, 580). With the tsar out of power, a new provisional government took over made up of middle-class Duma representatives. Also rising to power was a rival government called the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies consisting of workers and peasants of socialist and revolutionary groups.
Other soviets formed in towns and villages all across the country. All of the soviets worked to push a three-point program which called for an immediate peas, the transfer of land to peasants, and control of factories to workers. But the provisional government stood in conflict with the other smaller governments and the hardships of war hit the country. The provisional government was so busy fighting the war that they neglected the social problems it faced, losing much needed support (Farah, 580). The Bolsheviks in Russia were confused and divided about how to regard the Provisional Government, but most of them, including Stalin, were inclined to accept it for the time being on condition that it work for an

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