Russia in the last years of the First World War was a cauldron waiting to explode on various fronts mostly due to the fact that Tsarist monarchy had left most of the country poor and in economic ruination. Large sections of the population, especially those who lived in the country were illiterate and desperately poor with serf like conditions still imposed on the vast majority of them (Perry 2007 pp 769-776).
Political progress was also slow so the Revolution was simply a new way of applying the techniques developed in other countries to the Russian reality. This led to the formation of a puppet government after the Revolution and a bloody civil war in which the Communist Party emerged as singularly triumphant.
The 1920’s saw a rapid change in the base of Russian society. First and foremost there was the massive rise of industry which demonstrated that the capitalist section of society could form an important part of progress for the country. Socially the country developed too with the rise of the middle classes who gave an ever increasing contribution to industry and the country’s expanding wealth.
However the repressive political regime intensified in the early 1930’s with the continued rise of Josef Stalin especially with regards to the starvation of the Kulaks in the Ukraine. The continued murders of political opponents and the purging of the military led to an ever increasing totalitarian state with the result that Russia was barely able to face up to the realities of the second World War when this came upon it. The old situation with the repressive Tsar had simply been replaced by another system of autocracy, terror and tyranny.
Works Cited:
Perry M; Western Civilisation Vol 2; New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007, Print
Vladimir Illyich Lenin: State and Revolution, 1918 www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/lenin-staterev.html
J.V.Stalin: The Results of the First Five-Year Plan: Report Delivered at the Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the C.P.S.U.(B.), January 7, 1933, P.629 to end. Retrieved from: http://www.marx2mao.com/Stalin/RFFYP33.html#s8
Collectivization and Industrialization
Retrieved from: http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/coll.html
The Fundamental Task of the Five-Year Plan and the Way to its Fulfillment
Retrieved from: http://www.marx2mao.com/Stalin/RFFYP33.html#s2
