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The Genesis of communism
The
events which enable
the creation of the first communist country - Soviet Russia (since 1922 called
USSR, United Soviet Socialist Republic)
Contents:
Historic Background
Russia
entered the 20th century as an absolute monarchy. Tzar had unlimited
authority although, as a result of economic weakness of the country and
discontentment of the people, his position shriveled. The expected reforms which
had to better the situation of people did not come and the limited changes which
did take place were not enough to pacify their discontentment. As a result of
this, in 1902 a series of peasant’s
strikes took place. The situation lead to the establishing of the Duma, a
parliament with limited rights, in 1905. This move did not unload the social
tensions. 
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Click the photo to see enlarge
version of it. 1905, peasants' rebels in Moscow. Street barricade raised by revolutionary group.
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Russian peasants demonstrating in front of the monument of
Tzar Nicholas II in 1905 year.
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World
War I, worsened yet the moods in the country, and caused a crisis in the
government. Tzar still did not understand then the
danger for his position. Willing to enstrengthen military actions with
his authority he to command of the army and by this fact he tied all military
decisions and successes on the front with the head of the country. The affect of
this was that the critics of war attacked the institution of Tzar itself.
The
professional revolutionary.
The
discontentment with the situation caused a fermentation of Russian intellectual
elite. Illegal groups and organizations applying to criticize and reform the
system started to sprout all over Russia. These organizations
claimed to represent the interest of peasant and workers and to bring up their
consciousness of a need to fight against Tzar. One of such organizations was The
Struggle for Liberation of the Working Class Association which was established
in 1895 by, among others, Wlodzimierz Iliicz Lenin (Wlodzimierz Iliicz Ulianow)
in 1897 Lenin was sentenced for deportation to Siberia and since then he lived
as an immigrant, mainly in Switzerland. In 1898, the Social Democratic Workers
Party of Russia was established. Its magazine “Iskra”
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served Lenin in creation of the group of people- professional revolutionaries.
This group, working within the Social Democratic Workers Party of Russia,
represented the radical ideas. In 1903, it separated and pretended to have a
majority of workers support, called themselves, The Bolsheviks.
The
Bolsheviks wanted to reach for the power and all their actions were directed
toward this goal. Their strength was based on their flexibility
- they did not have any main idea beyond them which would limit the spectrum of their
access. Everything that they were saying they were adjusting to the present
expectations of the society and it brought them lots of popularity.
The Events of 1917
Until
1917, the social tensions were still growing. Not much was needed to ignite the
explosion of social discontent. The first revolutionary event took place in the
March 1917, as Russia used then the Julian Calendar which is thirteen days later
than the Georgian Calendar used in the rest of Europe, the events were called
the February Revolution. It started with
protests in many factories. The protests which were not unusual for those days,
actually turned into something much more serious because soldiers refused to
obey orders and did not want to shoot to the protesting workers. As a result of
the events, which followed this revolution, Duma established a democratic
temporary government and Tzar, Nicholas the 2nd abdicated. At the
same time, as a result of the initiative of various fractions of the socialist
movement among which some of the members of Duma, a Council of Delegates of
Workers and Soldiers was established. It led to the existence of two
governments: legal Temporary Government and competing with it Council of the
Delegates.
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1917, events of February Revolution; Bolshevik solders in
front of Tzar's palace.
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The
government was not insufficient. It was not able to take Russia out of crisis
nor could it solve the urgent problem of land and peace. The members
waited for the fall elections for the parliament. Meanwhile, the situation in
the country was worsening due to the war: the was a huge inflation,
unemployment, problems with supplies. It all led to a new wave of
discontentment. People wanted the war to end and the government wanted to
continue it.
All
these factors contributed to the process
of the decomposition of the country, accompanying economical crisis and the
collapse of the social structure. Overlapping of those processes resulted in a
new revolution.
The first process which had an important impact on the
revolution was the peasant movement. It was caused by the war poverty, and the struggle
between peasants and landowners who did not want to agree on the division of
land among peasants. At the same time, the Russian army was falling apart
because most of the peasants who were serving there considered the war senseless
and deserted en mass. In the cities, groups of workers also discontent and
striking wanted to give the control into the hands of working class.
Additionally, the nations which were a part of Russia started demanding
independence or autonomy. Russia those days was a colonial empire which
conquered mainly the neighboring countries.
Bolsheviks
promised all the discontented groups exactly those things which they wanted. For
peasants, they promised land reform, equality, and no exploitation; for the
separatist movements they promised right of self-definition and independence;
for workers-control over factories and a dominate role in the society.
Bolsheviks never thought that they were obligated to fulfill their promises. One
day they were saying that peasants should have their own land and another day
they wanted to collectivize villages. They were passing the law about the
freedom of religion and at the same time they were fighting the Orthodox Church.
Nothing that they were saying had any value. It was a fiction made up for the
use of propaganda.
In
this way Bolsheviks were attracting masses of important followers - armed
peasants - deserters. Although they followed Bolsheviks, it would be difficult
to call them their real supporters. “Soldiers did not realize what was
communism, proletariat or constitution.
They wanted peace, land and independence without laws, officers and landowners.
Their ‘Bolshevism’ meant as much as a will to be free or even anarchistic”
- this is how the commander of Tzar’s army, general Brusilow described them.
Bolsheviks
found this situation good to start proletariat revolution. During the February
Revolution Lenin was on emigration in neutral Switzerland. With a German help
(Germans were in war with Russia) he sneaked to Russia and was able to steer the
events. For Germans it was profitable to help him, because it gave them a
warranty of internal conflicts in Russia and weakening of its military machine.
After
coming to Russia, Lenin announced the “April Theses.”, which described the
program of the party: establishing workers control over factories, disbanding
Tzar’s policy, army and bureaucracy, confiscation of the land from the huge
landowners, creation of the Soviet Republics and International Revolutionary
Government. All those postulates, seemed completely unreal those days.
On
the beginning, Bolshevik party was in opposition both in the government and in
the councils. It made several attempts to change workers protests into the
military rebellion and as a result of those attempts its activities were limited
by the government. Later on, they gained more popularity and influence. There
was an anti-government organized by General Lawer Kornilow. Fighting against
this movement, the government asked Bolsheviks for help that enabled the further
growth of their activities. Probably, if not an accident- Kornilow’s
rebellion, the Bolsheviks would not have been able to overthrown the government.
Kornilow, himself, fought later against Bolsheviks leading the “White Army”.
On
the beginning of November, (end of October according to the Julian Calendar)
Lenin started the military pouch. The number of fights and causality was quite
small. The soldiers who supported Lenin won quite easily with the supporters of
democratic government. All ministers were arrested. The actions leading toward
the establishment of a democratic system in Russia were suspended for 74 years.
Many
historians think that an important role in the creation and the establishing of
the communist system in Russia was played by tradition. Russia did not know
democracy (excluding a short period between the February and the October
Revolution) nor even a republican system until the fall of the USSR in 1991.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was an absolute
monarchy. Very often ruled by very repressive Tzars (for instance, Peter the
Great, and Ivan the Terrible). Additionally, throughout the centuries Russia was
developing its imperialism and lead the politics of territorial expansion. These
elements became an important part of Russian tradition.
When
in 1917, the last Tzar abdicated, the social order of the country collapsed. The
place of non-existing Tzar’s order had to be filled up by some new way of
social organization. It could have been democracy. The temporary government was
an example of the existing tendencies. Democracy did not succeed because the
Bolsheviks overthrown the government and took the control over the country.
World War I, helped Bolsheviks to gain a control over all Russia. The October
Revolution and the creation of a communist Russian state was in a sense a
continuation of this war. Communists thought that World War should be used and
reshaped into domestic war which had to destroy the remains of the old order and
lead to the establishment of a new communist society.
Bolsheviks
succeeded in shaping the war against other countries into the domestic war which
was fought against those who did not accept the rules of Bolsheviks. Incredible
amounts of blood were shed, freedom and rights were suspended and all of this
was justified by “the necessity for the mobilization of the state”.
The
domestic war in Russia started the era of communism in which the state led by
the party was destroying its own citizens in the name of its own ideas.
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