Russia was once the leader of the communist world. With a history of harsh communist dictatorship and cruel leadership, their past is one of desperate civilians seeking to live in a world that for them has seldom been with justice and too often been coerced into serving the dictators of the eras.

Russia became the world's first communist ruled nation in 1922. The Bolsheviks were a group of communists who overthrew the last of the czars and established the Soviet Union.

Before this, however, Russia had been ruled by various authoritarian monarchies. Passing through totalitarian kingdom eras, the country went from the hands of the Kievan State, in the early hundreds AD, through Mongol-Tatar rule, with harsh, absolute power and an autocratic method. The first czars came to the throne in the 1400s, and Moscow became the center of the government.

The era of a government ruled by czars involved autocratic government - a government by a single individual who possesses unlimited power. The supreme loyalty of the people was expected to acquiesce to the royal czar. Different leaders came to the throne, bringing their own ways and rules. As is the case with totalitarianism, the nation and its people were subject to the judgment and decisions of one person, which meant life or death at that person's sole desire. One such czar was Ivan the Terrible. During his regime, Russia was enlarged and government power was expanded under his desire and executions. He suppressed uprisings, resisting with force any group who tried to live differently than the czar wanted. Ivan the Terrible had people killed for reasons such as disloyalty to the crown.

At one point, Napoleon invaded Russia and tried to add it to his conquered lands. But he lost his hold, and Russia continued to be ruled by czars.

As centuries passed, groups rose as opponents to the czar rule. One such group, the Social Democratic Party, succeeded. The group was divided into two wings: the Mensheviks, which made up the small minority, and the domineering Bolsheviks, followers of Karl Marx, self-proclaimed Communists, led by Vladimir Illich Lenin.

Lenin was an individual with a firm determination. He devotedly followed the principles of Marxism, developed by the Father of Communism, who looked at history as a war between the poor working class and the rich employers. Lenin followed the same belief that communism was the right way to govern a nation. Marx talked about better lives and pay for the ordinary individual, although evidence suggests that this theory does not always work in fact, both for the rights of the citizens and the success of the government.

Lenin was the first to clearly bring communism to Russia. Although he was arrested and sent to prison in Siberia, he was released and swept through Europe and Russia promoting and strengthening his Communist movement. As WWI began, which went badly for Russia, Lenin called for support from the working class. He encouraged them to turn the conflicts of the era into a war against the higher class. The people revolted. The czar abdicated.

In March, Czar Nicholas II gave up his thrown. There were now two groups competing for the support of the people. One of them was led Lenin and the Communists. Their success was a result of his determination and goal to conquer the government of Russia.

For a while, before the Communists had taken control of the government, Russia became a provisional government, but Lenin wanted something else. He wanted it ruled by the Soviets, strictly the dictatorship of the Communist party. The traveled around Russia gaining supporters by filling them with the ideals of communism, and encouraging them to resist against the richer class by shouting slogans such as "Peace, Land, and Bread!" Lenin was creating ideas of rebellion, making promises, and gaining their support.

The provisional government was overthrown. The Bolsheviks had Russia in their control, with Lenin at the head. Although they had some support, they came to power without the support from the majority of the people. The defeated provisional government tried holding elections for a constituent assembly. The people only gave less than one quarter of the vote to the Bolsheviks. But it was broken up by Communist-loyal troops. The Communists had come to the seat of government without much strong opposition. The provisional government was lacking the military organization needed to keep the government. The new governing body was proclaimed the Soviet of People's Commissars, controlled by the Communists.

If they hadn't risen to power, if the provisional government had stayed in authority, there would have been an entirely different outcome of events. The provisional government would have set up a very different way of thinking, based more on political freedom, land reform, and elections. Their intent was to establish democracy. The turning point of the overthrow meant that a lasting mentality would control the nation for years, one that evolved into Communist Russia and its results.

Communism Envelopes Russia

The remainder of Russia's history further involves communism. They encountered years of war, famine, disease, and conflict within their own country during these points. Lenin had to retreat to a plan to meet the needs of the nation, and he took up the New Economic Policy, with which some private business was permitted. Lenin did this only as a way to "pacify" the people, not really giving them all that they needed, but incorporating some fundamentals of capitalism, which the country could have benefited from. Eventually, after the need died, in December of the year 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formally founded.

Stalin was the next dictator through whom the Communists of Russia continually progressed the Russia into a state of Communism. The building blocks stacked one by one to create an even more government-controlled nation.

After Lenin died in 1924, there was one man who sought power over the soviets. His name was Joseph Stalin, who was general secretary of the Communist Party. His aim was to gain leadership. His method: killing those who stood in his way. He had murdered most all humans who endangered his leadership, clearing out all opponents who could threaten his claim. By 1929, Stalin was absolute ruler of the Soviet Union. During his rule, the working peasants were forced into living on mass labor farms. They resisted, which caused agricultural production to plummet. In the 1930s, Stalin had the remaining Bolshevik leaders executed. He ordered millions of everyday people to be arrested and sent to forced-labor camps.

Russia's Influence, and the Spreading of Communism

After WWII, the non-aggression pact that had earlier been signed between Nazi Gernmany and Communist Russia was dissolved. As a result of Russia's participation in the war and all that transpired between nations, Communism was spread. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Eastern Germany had adopted the Communist way of government and were now communist nations.

The spreading of communism made for tension between the Soviet Union and western countries such as the United States and Britain, who were trying to keep the agreement that gave the Eastern European countries freedom to choose their own way of government. Now that this had been violated, tension led to the Cold War, a time of hostility between Russia and western countries including the United States.

The Soviet Union continued to pass through different Communistic dictator's control. Relations with USA had periods of negotiations, but worsened.

Russia had entered a century of communism and dictators. Relations are disintegrating.