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Why Did Stalin Lead The 1917 Revolution

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Russia’s peasant revolutionary tradition goes back to the 16th century, but few of the uprisings led to significant changes in the imperial system, as they were spontaneous and leaderless (Rieber and Nelson 60). That is why Lenin felt that it was necessary to establish the highly organized Bolshevik Party to successfully lead the 1917 revolution - a decision that worked, but also ultimately led to a totalitarian rule of his successor Stalin. One of the biggest criticisms of Marxist theory is his vision of the proletariat uprising. In his writings, he argues that after being oppressed long enough, the worker will have “nothing to lose but his chains” and will rise against the capitalists to establish a society with public control of the means …show more content…

That’s why his doctrine Leninism called for a small organized group of intellectuals to lead the revolution, as they would be the only ones who could see beyond the daily necessities and ensure the accomplishment of the long-term goals of the new system (Rieber and Nelson 57-64). To succeed, the newly formed Bolshevik Party needed the full trust and obedience of the people, a feat manageable by infiltrating trade unions and eliminating all potential enemies of the regime. In October 1917, Lenin and his party seized power with almost no opposition and won the civil war that followed to establish full leadership of the nation. While this partisan approach worked well for the period of the revolution, it was far from the fundamental Marxist ideas of a rule by the people and in the end would only perpetuate class differences between those in the party and the rest. Realizing that, Lenin developed the idea of the fair socialist government, which guaranteed low prices and equal wages without consuming too much money itself, in his book The State and …show more content…

Although Stalin claimed he was following the ideas of Lenin and Marx, many of his policies diverged from their writings and his stricter, much more totalitarian mean of governing, known as Stalinism, shifted the political course of Soviet Russia (New World Encyclopedia). Stalinism put forward a new main principle of Russian socialism, which stated that everyone had to be paid in accordance to their performance (Rogovin). While this would make sense in the free market of a capitalist society, it did not have a place in the communist society of the USSR, as it is impossible to compare the work of a butcher to that of a doctor, or the importance of a teacher to that of a miner. Nevertheless, there was a clear preference for mental work over physical one, and the social inequality between different members of the working class and the “intelligentsia” - the intellectuals, furthered through the years even after Stalin’s death (Artir). The privileges, power, and influence of higher ranking citizens, however, are most clearly evidenced when looking at Stalin

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774 Words | 4 Pages

From 1928, when the plan started, to 1932 to its end, many factories, dams, power stations and even cities were being built. Despite there being harsh penalties implemented to workers for failure to meet their targets, there was still a significant increase in Russia’s industrial growth in a very short period of time. Just like the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, under Tsar Alexander II, in protest of Stalin’s policies, the peasants, in protest, refused to work harder than they needed too, causing them to destroy livestock and crops, which eventually lead to their unnecessary death. Stalin, just like the Tsarist autocratic regime, was not committed to collectivism but preferred capitalism in his ruling of the Soviet Union. This caused a lot of rebellion from the Kulaks who opposed collectivism.

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From 1790 to the late 1800’s, the Industrial Revolution recreated industry as Europe knew it with ground-breaking inventions and mass-producing factories. The Industrial Revolution widened the social gap with the bourgeoisie on a pedestal and the proletariat baring the weight of being the work class that would make the Industrial Revolution happen; this strife would lead to many riots and revolutions across Europe as many men like Karl Marx would develop solutions to the proletarian’s problems such as communism. The question arose of how the proletariat were to rebel against the bourgeoisie. The fact was that a revolution was inevitable.

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This attitude, a product of an impoverished society, led Russian-communists to regard revolution as the only solution to this detrimental system. Kennan notes the use of Marxism as justification for the desire

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In 1917, the Russian Revolutions caused the end of Russia’s monarchy under the tsar, and the Bolsheviks were able to seize control of the country. The leader of the Bolsheviks, Vladimir Lenin, and the Politburo (the highest part of the new Soviet government that overlooked every other part of the government) planned to shape Russia (later changed to the Soviet Union (USSR)) into a communist country where everyone was equal. After Lenin’s death in 1924 there were inner conflicts over who would become the new leader of the USSR. Eventually, Joseph Stalin, one of the members of the Politburo, seized control of the Soviet government. With Stalin came a change in government policies that shaped the Soviet political landscape for years.

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Marx argues that due to division of labor and class struggle, “man comes to objectify himself through this mere one-dimension he has created and identifies with” (Marx p.475). The class struggle resulted from division of labor created an inequality where some will own the means of production, and the lower class who provides or sells their labor or “self” to survive working for those owners of means of product. This two groups are simply explained as bourgeoisies and proletariats by Marx. As the industrialization and society modernizes, the inequality will prevail observably. Marx argues that the proletariats will revolt against bourgeoisies and lead to the fall of capitalism and rise of communism.

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Adding on to totalitarianism, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler believed the state was greater and more important the individual. Stalin’s Five-Year Plan had shown a huge increase in the urban population, but it also came with human cost due to the labor camp system (or the gulag). An excerpt from the document “Stalin’s Industrial Development, A View From Below” digs deeper on how harshly Soviet workers were treated, going on about having bad hygiene and starving and living in filth. Clearly, there was a class distinction between the lower-level workers and the upper-level workers and upper class. If you compare this to the communism in Russia before, there’s a major difference.

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The Russian Revolution led to extremely difficult times for Russian citizens because of the social, economic and cultural implications that the Communist regime led. Many have read about the scars that the Stalin and Lenin regime left. Stalin’s drastic economic turn led to the Russian people making massive economic, social sacrifices and cultural sacrifices that many of us now take for granted. Before the Communist movement within Russia occurred the standard of living was very comfortable. However, when Stalin came into power much of the economy was “not up to his standard” and he wanted Russia to become the “Soviet America, modernizing the USSR as quickly as he could” (152, Corhin, Fiehn).

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The whole idea that Lenin had was that the whole working class should be mindless and just follow orders for the profit and pleasure of the government while private enterprise was being limited to small industries/factories. Lenin had launched a malicious campaign called the Red

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Andre Abi Haidar PSPA 210 INTRODUCTION It is always difficult to write about and discuss Karl Marx, or more importantly the applications of Marx’s theories, due to the fact that he inspired and gave rise to many movements and revolutionaries, not all of which follow his theories to the point. Although Marx tends to be equated with Communism, it might not seem righteous to blame him for whatever shortcomings occurred when his theories were put to the test; Marx passed away well before the revolution in Russia, and he played no role in the emergence of the totalitarian regime at the time. When discussing Marx, however, Vladimir Lenin is one of the biggest highlights when it comes to studying the outcomes of Marx’s theories.

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It is argued that social inequality occurs because of the conflict between the upper-class and the working-class, or as Marx defines it, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. Based on the Manifesto of the Communist Party (Marx and Engels, 1848), the divergence emerges because the aim of the Bourgeoisie is to obtain a surplus-value that is produced by the work of the Proletariat. On the other side, the Bourgeoisie provides the Proletariat with the minimum required, such as a place to live and a minimum wage, in order to keep the society under control and avoid a rebellion. However, Marx did predict a revolt of the working-class that would eventually lead to a communist regime. When it comes to applying this theoretical approach to reality, it is evident to notice that no global revolt in regards to capitalism has occurred.

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2360 Words | 10 Pages

These rising conflicts eventually spiraled Russia into a civil war where more “underground [groups] worked to overthrow Russia’s Tsarist government”[1] in late 1917. However, a wide range of revolutionary leaders such as Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin rose from the outskirts of Russia to preach a new communist government that is based off the philosophy from Karl Marx socialist theory. Here, Karl Marx develops his theory into a utopian philosophy , known as Marxism. From here, he published his work as the Communist Manifesto which helped his influence skyrocketed as he further specified the flaws of capitalism and the shortcomings social classes. He even goes on to describe a type of government that follows a political and economic theory that has all production and distribution regulated by the government.

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669 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout Lenin’s life his ideas changed drastically. One of the changes involved his view on co-operations and their place in Russia. Another instance where Lenin changed his views regarded free press. And lastly his view on a coalition between the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries changed from a supportive outlook to one of opposition.

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764 Words | 4 Pages

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during to the period of its existence was the largest country in the world divided into 15 constituent republics. Even though The Soviet Union was a highly centralized one party state, it was incredibly hard to govern such unit and fulfill the economic needs of society. The economics of the USSR since the Bolsheviks revolution could be called more or less continues reform and experimentation in which ideology was considered to be one of the main elements of success (Clarks). Soviet Union was a nation founded on Marxism ideology, which was based in Hegelian philosophy, was a rebellion against the individual rights doctrine of the century before Marx (Raico). The main activist of the Bolshevik party, which later became the Communist Party of Soviet Union, were mainly intelligentsia, who presented themselves as leaders of the revolutionary

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1899 Words | 8 Pages

In the end, the proletariats will have full control of their own lives through the implementation of global revolution, which he believes will result in a classless society. In the last hundred years, the working population has developed to produce another layer: middle class. Marx explained this idea in his writing, “a second and more practical, but less systematic, form of this socialism sought to depreciate every revolutionary movement in the eyes of the working class, by showing that no mere political reform, but only a change in the material conditions of existence, in economical relations, could be of any advantage to them” (Tucker 496). This is a devastating truth of the capitalistic system that the revolution of working class is very difficult to implement. This can be related to relationship between human perception and social

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1486 Words | 6 Pages

Karl Marx (1818-1883) considered himself not to be a sociologist but a political activist. However, many would disagree and in the view of Hughes (1986), he was ‘both – and a philosopher, historian, economist, and a political scientist as well.’ Much of the work of Marx was political and economic but his main focus was on class conflict and how this led to the rise of capitalism. While nowadays, when people hear the word “communism”, they think of the dictatorial rule of Stalin and the horrific stories of life in a communist state such as the Soviet Union, it is important not to accuse Marx of the deeds carried out in his name.

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