The Benevolence of State Socialism and the Brutality of Its Application in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia
The promises of state socialism and with it Communism were nothing short of fantasy turned reality for the deeply impoverished working classes of the Russian empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. The uneducated and desperate people of the Russian empire were eager to believe in a social and political system that promised to finally deliver them from the crushing burdens placed on them by the aristocrats, capitalism and the class system. Unfortunately for them the reality of these new systems would be far from the promised utopian society of continuous prosperity and absolute equality. There would not be the freedom from the class system as promised by Communist propaganda instead in its place would be a less obtrusive and more industrialized version the class system that had existed before. Everyone would not share evenly the prosperity and wealth as promised either, instead those who were controlling the government would reap the greater rewards such as choice of living arrangements and top pick of academic endeavors. Those who had seized the government in the interest of the working class would not completely fulfil their promise to educate their working-class comrades to a level sufficient to take control of the government.
Vladimir Lenin’s views on Communism and the process necessary for achieving state socialism would be the first attempts that
Analyzing the Bolshevik State compared to Marxism can be difficult because Marx, Engels and their followers gave relatively little thought to what the state would look like after a socialist revolution. Engels famously wrote, “the state is not ‘abolished,’ it withers away,” which highlights the hazy and unfixed nature of Marx and Engle’s writings on the ultimate, classless society they envisioned. Further, what they did write is subject to the differing interpretations by numerous socialist parties all claiming to be Marxist. As discussed earlier, Lenin claimed he simply reshaped Marxism to fit the conditions of Russia. Others argue his interpretation was not true Marxism at all. However, the basic principles of a socialist state in the eyes of Marx’s are outlined in the Communist Manifesto as follows:
The December of 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union—and with it, an entire era. Like the February Revolution of 1917 that ended tsardom, the events leading up to August 1991 took place in rapid succession, with both spontaneity and, to some degree, retrospective inevitability. To understand the demise of Soviet Union is to understand the communist party-state system itself. Although the particular happenings of the Gorbachev years undoubtedly accelerated its ruin, there existed fundamental flaws within the Soviet system that would be had been proven ultimately fatal. The USSR became a past chapter of history because it was impossible to significantly reform the administrative
This section argues that the lower classes are under pressure of their owners and that the lower class can be able to achieve their goals to overcome their problems by the formation of unions or riots. It also states the capitalism should be overthrown because communision is the only way for equality among the people. In the third section of the Communist Manifesto, “Socialist and Communist Literature,” the authors discuss the differences of communism and other socioeconomic systems. In their conclusion, “Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Opposition Parties,” briefly discusses countries that were taking action toward becoming a communist country. It ends with the authors calling for the communist revolution.
“…the Bolsheviks, cherishing an imagined class community yet inheriting a shattered and fragmented class structure in Russia after the revolution, found themselves obliged to invent classes on the basis of Marxist theory... in that most obvious and yet least expected place, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” (Suny 172)
“If the Soviet Union let another political party into existence they would still be one state party state because everybody would join the other party,” is a quote by Ronald Reagan about the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union(USSR) is a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1999. It's fall resulted from its government-run economy not working very well. Soviet Union was run by Vladimir Lenin, dictator who overthrew Russian monarchy, and Bolshevik communist. At first USSR aligned with the US to defeat the Nazi Germany. But the countries soon turn against each other due to the difference in perspective about how government should run in 1945. Their clash was a major part of cold war. Now with all this information
Have we learned the accurate information about the Soviet Union? When most people reflect about the Soviet Union, they only remember learning to fear them. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; also known as the USSR or Soviet Union, created during the 1922 after the Russian Revolution;1917, when Nicholas II was overthrown. This led to Lenin, who was a revolutionist and theorist, an opportunity to create a communist country. What should we learn about the Soviet Union?
Over the years that the soviet union was active, they had many achievements to be proud of. However some of these achievements are not recognized or are so miniscule in soviet textbooks that no one pays any attention to the topic. The Soviet Union had a lot of pride in themselves so it only makes sense to put more emphasis into these three topics, geographic expansion, military strengths, and socio economic accomplishments. The Soviet Union was great at all three of these areas and showed the world how great they truly were.
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,
According to Marxist theory, it should have been impossible for Russia to achieve socialism. It was the least industrialized country in Europe, and most of its population consisted of peasants rather than a class-conscious proletarian working class. The first socialist country should have been a country like the United States, but proletarian revolution did not occur in the United States first or ever. Over the course of the past 110 years, historians, political scientists, and economists have all attempted to explain why. The bulk of this historiographical essay will address Werner Sombart’s 1906 assessment of the failings of American socialism, Eric Foner’s critical reinterpretation of the question from 1984, and these works’ conversation with each other and other studies.
Lenin grew up in a middle class family but was never fond of the political party and the class system. Having a Marxist political belief system, Lenin wanted the government to own and control everything. After taking control of the Soviet Union, Lenin wanted supreme power for himself and the government, with hopes to make all of the citizens’ equal. Throughout his reign, the Soviet Union was crowded with war, disease, and destruction. His idea of a perfect communist society was anything but
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 Soviet Union post World War II intended on expanding their political power via communism under a guise of spreading Marxist thought; thus transforming Marxist ideology into “a tool of Soviet domination in Poland” (Aleksandrowicz, 101). They did this through the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) a
The intentions for the different social structures seemed to be benevolent, allowing all people to be equal, but once the institution had been established the malevolent truths of monotony became present. The Russian communism system, produced by Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto,” depicts this scenario very clearly, from Russia’s recent history. The clumped masses of similar people, all providing similar products and services, were thought to allow the very upper two-hundredths percent of the population to go on with their lives as normally as possible, which in theory would allow the bottom ninety-nine percent of the population to enjoy the same luxuries as well. However, this reality, as seen from history, never occurred due to the simple fact that the Russian people had to obey to tyrannical laws that suppressed or razed any
The command system, which is also described as Marxism, socialism, or communism, is both a political and economic philosophy. In a communist economy, the government owns most of the firms, subsequently controlling production and allocation of resources. One of the most well-known and well-documented cases of a communist government took place in the Soviet Union, beginning in 1917 and eventually falling in 1992. Idealistically, communism eliminates social classism and provides equal work for all in a particular society. The government appoints a central planning board to “determine production goals for each enterprise and to specify the amount of resources to be allocated to each enterprise so that it can reach its production goals.”
In the beginning Communism seemed to the people of Russia as a utopian ideal. The promise of the elimination of classes, of guaranteed employment, "The creation of a comprehensive social security and welfare system for all citizens that would end the misery of workers once and for all." Lenin's own interpretation of the Marxian critique was that to achieve Communism there would first have to be a socialist dictatorship to first suppress any dissent or protest. Through coercive tactics this new government seized power and in 1917 Lenin came to power. Under his "rule" Russia underwent radical changes in it's economic doctrines adopting a mixed which was termed the New Economic Policy, also referred to as NEP. This