What was the Russian government under Lenin like? What kinds of tasks did it attempt to achieve: Vladimir Lenin chose the timing of the communist takeover perfectly. The Russians were so tired of fighting that when the takeover took place it faced hardly any resistance. The problem was that this passive demeanor wouldn't last long. Communism is such a radical jump of ideologies you cannot expect everyone to suddenly embrace it with open arms. Consequently, this led to the Bolsheviks becoming dictators in order to maintain rule. Lenin's first agenda was to end the war with Germany. He viewed the war as a distraction to the Communist mindset and would not allow it to distract anyone. The entire Communist system was supposed to be highly scientific based off of facts and logic. The only problem was that the system failed the Bolsheviks …show more content…
He saw right away the troubles of the original Communist manifesto and became impatient with Marx's idea of Communism arriving gradually yet suddenly.
A Russian historian named Richard Pipes wrote, "Soviet Russia was the first society in history to outlaw law." What did he mean by that: Sometime later in Lenin's rule he gave the order to every judge in Russia to base legal decisions, with their revolutionary minds. What this means is that the judges could effectively ignore the law and make decisions that they thought would best serve the Communist revolution. The worst part is that the only requirements needed to be a judge at the time were able to read and write. There was no need for silly things like study law for years and memories the law to get a degree. Things like that were silly and hindered Communism. All a person needed was to make the best judgment they could use their revolutionary mind. Anything to aid Communism. As you can imagine this did not sit well with some of the population as no doubt some truly unfair punishments were handed
The concoction of communist regime caused paranoia within the people which lead to riots. The history of the Soviet Union greatly contributed to this unjustified fear. During the nineteenth century, Karl Marx, a revolutionary socialist, wrote the “Communist Manifesto” which presented the idea of Communism. In this political ideal, property is publicly owned and workers are paid to extent of their abilities and needs. Nowhere does the theory state dictatorship or any type of totalitarian government. This revolutionary speculation remains as Russia’s greatest achievements in history and unforgotten. However when Vladimir Lenin took control of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1917,
When Elizebeth explains, "folks are brought before them, and if they scream and howl and fall to the floor--the person's clapped in the jail for bewitchin' them." (1), she is showing the illogicallity of the court and their decisions. This led the court to convict anyone they wanted and, without the logic, punish them however they perscribed. Just as in the GDR, the National Peoples Army was able to kidnap, torture, and kill however they thought necissary. Leading to the officials having all the power, which is unjust and, ironically, undemocratic. However, people in both societies had no awareness of what was going on.
Grant:What actually happened when Russia adopted communism was far from the idea of Karl Marx.After Russia had overturned the Tsarist rule and established a communist country they were actually doing pretty good for a while,the system was working fine,the people were happy and everyone was “equal”.After a Vladimir Lenin(head of government) got out of office a man named Joseph Stalin came into office. This is where it all went wrong. Stalin changed the leadership, and rules in the government and became a dictator. Millions of citizens died during his reign, although he turned the peasant society of the Soviet Union
The Russian people were ruled by an autocratic government since 1613 when the Romanov Dynasty began. The government was run by the Tsar who had unlimited power over the rest of Russia. The Tsar set up a system of government involving an imperial council, a small cabinet of ministers and a senate; all of which were implemented as personal advisers and delegates. The Tsar had control over who was
Everyone feared the thought of communism at the time, and was quick to support whoever was in charge of the investigations. Both situations had soon escalated to a level no one could have predicted and the trials were soon starting to be used for other purposes.
Russia before the Bolshevik revolution was an unsettling time. Coming out of the bolshevik revolution, Russia had undergone a change in government which would change its future forever. The Tsar had been overthrown and Vladimir Lenin, the head of the revolution, had risen to power. At the time, the ruling party was called the New All-Russian Communist Party which would later be renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After the death of Lenin, the power was held by Joseph Stalin. Although Stalin was the leader who kept his country in fear and had silenced millions to keep power, without him, Russia would not be the political and economic superpower that it is today if it were not for Stalin’s needed atrocities.
The first two leaders of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin had very different methods in commanding their country. Differences can be seen in the way they achieved their political power and how they dealt with their political opponents. Similarities can be seen in the way that these men were unwilling to share their power. Vladimir Lenin achieved his political power by rallying fellow Bolsheviks to seize government installations and storm the capital. The plan made Lenin the visible figurehead of the Bolsheviks and the new government that was put into place.
Upon the creation of the USSR, Lenin introduced new rule that would ensure greater totalitarian control. Only communists would be able to stand for the soviets, and so this meant that the communist party had the true control over the
Lenin used many different means to attempt to make his Communist ideal work in Russia. He, effectively, utilised propaganda, pragmatism and a certain amount of good luck to keep his reign secure, and also to make sure that it was likely to stay secure for a good many years to come. His pragmatism was shown in his quick change of economic policy after the Kronstadt mutiny, even though it meant him turning away from the basic tenets of the Communist idea. The fact that Communism actually lasted until the late 1980s show that his initial work in establishing it was, by definition, successful.
Lenin relied on fear and terror to control the citizens of Russia. This lead to the establishment of the Cheka in December 1917, which was the secret police that made sure consequences were given to those who opposed the Bolshevik party and were considered as threats to the party. The Red Terror was created in September 1918 to maintain political control. The Cheka was very similar to the secret police the Tsar had called the Ohkrana, however the Cheka were more efficient and organised. Lenin ended Russification, which was the idea that everyone had to speak Russian and believe in the Church. This meant that the population had freedom of religion, providing that they put communism before their beliefs. One of Lenin’s greatest quotes from the April Thesis was “Bread, Peace, Land”. Due to this, Lenin created the Land Decree, which meant that land was given back to the peasants and also signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to end the war between Germany and Russia during World War I (1914-1918) and created peace within Russia. Peace however, was not fulfilled as shortly after the treaty was signed, civil war occurred in Russia. Richard Pipes, a historian, stated that the April Thesis, “were not in touch with reality if not simply mad”. This indicates that Pipes believed that Lenin’s promises were impossible to achieve during 1917. Lenin also introduced education to all Russians,
How important was Lenin in enabling the communist government to survive war and rebellion in the years 1918-1922.
After a while he moved away from Samara, and headed to the capitol of Russia at the time. In St. Petersburgh Lenin connected with other Marxist and became a very important part of their life and began to peruse revolutionary activities. Him and a group of other Marxist were arrested one day and exiled to Siberia where, Nadezhda Krupskaya, his fiancé joined him. It has been known that Lenin had quite a few women in his life, and cheated many times. After Lenin was let back into Russia the country went to war with Japan, quite a few losses had made the Russian citizens rethink their political views. More and more people started agreeing with Lenin and began to speak out about it. Alexander created the Duma which was a legislative body. This frustrated Lenin even more and got him thinking. He knew the only way that he would be satisfied was that if the working class people would start a revolution, because it could possibly spread to other countries not just Russia. Lenin was sent to Switzerland ,during World war I, on exile. While he spent his time in Switzerland he wrote a book, which argued that international capitalism naturally caused war. After Russia was drained of energy after losing battles in the war the tsar was disposed of. This drew to Lenin's attention and he quickly returned home. Lenin attacked the new temporary government and decided that Russia should be ruled by a Soviet
Soviet law, likewise called communist law, law created in Russia after the socialist seizure of energy in 1917 and forced all through the Soviet Union in the 1920s. After World War II, the Soviet lawful model likewise was forced on Soviet-commanded administrations in eastern and focal Europe. Afterward, administering socialist gatherings in China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam received varieties of Soviet law. Soviet law, which changed profoundly amid its over 70 years of advancement in the Soviet Union, resuscitated certain highlights of before tsarist law, imparted key components to the law of different tyrannies, and presented open responsibility for methods for generation and subordination of the legitimate framework to the Soviet
if it is to advance our understanding of communism’s failure, in what way should the history of individuals be related to that of the party? Here outright condemnation of communism as an institutional project, which was a mark of the British work, contains a lesson on how not to put the story of individual communists
The Russian Empire was a vast state that ruled over many different nationalities. All people in Russia had to face a highly authoritarian regime, the Tsarist Autocracy. The most crucial of the defining features of the Tsarist Autocracy was the fact that the ruler, the Tsar, had an absolute power which was said to be derived from God and knew no constitutional limits. This had very deep political and legal implications: decrees of the Tsar were considered laws, and with such authority there was no need for any political system. Below the Tsar existed his government and a vast bureaucracy which was administering the state affairs. Lack of control and accountability generated high corruption in the public life of Imperial Russia. Another characteristic of the regime was the absence of political freedoms and civil rights, censorship and strong repression of opposition with a strong role of the secret police which in turn made Russia a police state.