|
|
Post by Winterhaze13 on Mar 3, 2005 13:15:39 GMT -5
The Russian Revolution may just be one of the most important events of modern history. Unlike the French Revolution, it is often seen as contentious? What are the underlining causes of the Russian Revolution? Did the Bolsheviks have legitimacy for power or did they usurp it? And finally, do you think Russia benefited from 1917 or have they not gained anything at all?
|
|
andrew
Long Term Member
Senior Contributor
Posts: 66
|
Post by andrew on Mar 4, 2005 15:12:37 GMT -5
The Russian Revolution is a very strange bubble in Russian history and ironically it happened at the perfect time. Russia was very much governed the way the rest of Europe was before 1917. The Royal families were aristocrats just as in every other European country. Also, the expansion of colonies under the British, Spanish, etc. can also be seen in Russia but as a movement to the unstable countries around it.
The events that set the tone for the revolution are the Crimean War, the War of 1904-5 against the Japanese, and backing down of the Tzar to the Germans in 1910. These events showed the Russian people how far the country had fallen behind the west and even had fallen below the Japanese, which was a major shock. Then going into World War I the country showed repeatedly how backwards things in Russia were. Mix all that with the fact that an Evil yet powerful religious figure known as Rasputin climbed into the inner circle of the Royal family and actually was dictating national policy while the king was away at the front.
When the Russian Army had collapsed the Germans transported Lenin straight from Switzerland to St. Petersburg and it began.
Learning mainly from the failed revolution in Paris known as the Commune, Lenin quickly seized the governmental institutions starting with the munitions stations. Then he moved to communication centers, rail station centers, and finally moved on to other cities. He was not given power like in Germany with Hitler or Italy with Mussolini. He seized it!
It is well known that the majority of Russians suffered greatly under the Bolsheviks. Stalin killed millions upon millions more than even Hitler. Also, remember the millions who starved to death in the 1920's and 30's during Stalin's collectivization program. However even with these monstrous acts in mind it is quite arguable that the Russians could not have beaten Hitler without Stalin!
The Tzars before the Communists came across great difficulty whenever trying to modernize the country. But the dictatorships of Lenin and Stalin were able to accomplish much more and quickly. Comparably the country before 1917 might have been two hundred years behind the rest of the Western nations but after 1940 the gap had closed to maybe 50. In some areas the Russians were almost completely up to date!
It was stated somewhere that if Russia had paved roads as in France that the Blitzkrieg would have accomplished everything it intended and before the end of 1940. However without updated paved road or means of rapid transportation such as the autobahn, the Germans still would have crushed the Russians over time had it not been for the rapid industrialization brought on by Stalin. Hitler made a statement shortly after beginning the campaign that had he known the number of Russian Tanks he would have never embarked on this colossal struggle.
So in a sense Russian Backwardness was the immediate savior that slowed the Germans until winter and it was the Russian industrialization, under the Communists, that won the war for them. As Evil as Stalin and Lenin were the Russians could not have beaten the Germans without them. So in a sense this bubble in Russian history was perfectly timed even though it came with such great cost!
|
|
