07/09/04 Chris Rules!!!

Chris Lehman

April 2, 2003

Sr. Comp

Cause and Effect

                                                            Russian Revolution

            The birth of communism from the ideals of Karl Marx fathered the innocent teachings of this on a political and economic system  in Russia. Little did Karl know what totalitarian leader would come from these ideas. From the Romanov family, to Stalinism, from intrigue, to betrayal to executions, from czars to dictators, the rise of communism, and the twist of the Russian Revolution.

            The Romanov family prior to the revolution produced great leaders such as Peter the Great 1682-1725 a reformer who sought to modernize Russia, also gave us Catherine the Great 1762-1796 an outstanding diplomat and reformer. Three hundred years of great leaders from 1613-1917 until Czar Nicholas the 2^nd who inherited none of his family’s great leadership qualities. He was an authoritarian like his father and was insensitive to the needs of his subjects. In early 1917 a riot over food shortages erupted and chaos reigned when the czar’s rule ended, he and his family were held in their palace, then moved to Siberia. In July 1918 Nicholas the 2^nd, his wife Alexandra, and their children were executed by order of the Bolshevik leaders the bodies were desecrated and their remains buried in secret, thus ending the Romanov rule and beginning the revolution.

            On behalf of the great Karl Marx both young revolutionaries Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin dropped out of school to support the Marxist cause. Trotsky dropped out at age 17 and became a brilliant debater and writer, but he was exiled to Siberia by age 21, he escaped however to London in 1902 and met Vladimir Lenin to forge a lifetime alliance with the father of Russian Communism. On the other side of the spectrum Stalin was exiled 7 times to Siberia but always managed to escape. He first made an impression on Lenin in 1905 when the Bolshevik leader returned to Russia from London. Stalin was a skilled party organizer then became a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee in 1912 and in 1913 he met Trotsky for the first time. They worked for the same goals until Lenin’s death in 1924. But Trotsky and Stalin were revolutionaries whose aims finally split. Trotsky continued to give his speeches of freedom of the people and the great future they possessed while Stalin stayed on the Central Committee while Lenin controlled the country. It was later deemed that Trotsky being the brilliant, individualistic, who thrived during the days of storm and stress, was unfit for office politics. But the unimpressive, emotional, vain cynical, and often vindictive temperament won the office in 1928. Through the first few years, the revolution was profitable and prosperous. Stalin turned Russia into an industrialized nation overnight. From 1934-1939 Stalin had a movement to “purge” all military and political elites giving him full control of Russia. In 1932 however was when things for Russia changed November 8^th his second wife committed suicide, she left a letter indicting him personally and politically. After this he lost all trust in anyone and resorted to execution of those who she felt paranoid towards.

            With the revolution at an end Russia was left with a totalitarian regime headed by Joseph Stalin. In 1939 he concluded a bilateral nonaggression treaty with Hitler and his uprising war machine. Then when the German armies attacked the USSR in June 1921 Stalin, after suffering a brief nervous collapse, personally took over command of the Soviet armed forces with the help of his war cabinet. With his amazing display of leadership skills he fought out the Germans and helped the allies claim victory in World War Two. Until his death on March 5^th, 1953 of a sudden brain hemorrhage the economy was practically a roller coaster always changing from one extreme to the next. The following regime was no different than Stalinism all reforms were merely designed to dress familiar features of Stalinism in more attractive ways.

This way of life and government policy continued in Russia until its final days in 1991 when the Russians decided it was time to give democracy a try. Although it is less totalitarian the economic depression is just as great of a threat as it was during the revolution and Stalinism. Trying times is all it has been for the once mighty Russia since the Romanov dynasty has ended and it appears there is no end in sight and you’re left to ask yourself, did the Russian Revolution actually serve a purpose? The answer is no the Revolution removed and authoritarian and implanted a totalitarian.