Marxism, Russian Revolution, and the Rise of the USSR

Posted on Nov 23, 2024 in History

Marxism

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

  • Manifest of the Communist Party (1848)
  • First International

Marxism or Communism

  • Motor force of history is the class struggle.
  • Every dominant class tries to control the means of production.
  • Each era is characterized by a mode of production.
  • Accordingly, Marx designated human history as encompassing four stages of development in relations of production:
  • Primitive communism: cooperative tribal societies.
  • Slave society: development from tribal to city-state in which aristocracy is born.
  • Feudalism: aristocrats are the ruling class, while merchants evolve into the bourgeoisie.
  • Capitalism: capitalists are the ruling class who create and employ the proletariat.

Social Revolution

“At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or—this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms—with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution.”

The Capital (1867)

Class struggle: Bourgeoisie against Proletariat

1904: War and Defeat against Japan

Revolution of 1905: Bloody Sunday

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) 1922-1991

HOLODOMOR (killing by starvation): THE UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE, 1932-34

Socialist Revolution

  • Destruction of the Bourgeoisie and capital.
  • Temporary dictatorship of the proletariat.
  • Society without classes (Communism).
  • Revolution should happen in the most developed capitalist countries, like Britain or Germany.

Russian Empire

  • At the beginning of the 20th century, in the transition between feudal and capitalist society (Marxists).
  • Social Democrats (Mensheviks): It must be a bourgeois Revolution (like the French revolution) before the socialist Revolution would be possible.
  • Lenin (Bolsheviks): It is possible to ‘jump’ from a feudal to a socialist society if the communist party leads the revolution.

Russian Socialism

  • Social Democrats (Mensheviks): It must be a bourgeois Revolution (like the French revolution) before the socialist Revolution would be possible.
  • Lenin (Bolsheviks): It is possible to ‘jump’ from a feudal to a socialist society if the communist party leads the revolution.

February* 1917 (*Gregorian March)

  • In February 1917, a women’s demonstration sparked a popular and democratic revolution against the Tsar.
  • The Tsar abdicated, and a provisional government of bourgeois, center-left forces was formed.
  • In response, socialists created a soviet, or workers’ council. Russia now had a dual power structure.

Lenin Arrived to Petrograd: The April Theses

The Germans allowed Lenin, the exiled Bolshevik leader in Switzerland, to cross their territory so he could reach Russia. Upon his arrival, Lenin announced his April Theses:

  • All power to the soviets.
  • The bourgeois provisional government must be overthrown, and a communist revolution must begin.
  • Additionally, Russia needed to immediately withdraw from the war.
  • Bread, land, and peace.

October* 1917 (*Gregorian November)

The Bolsheviks staged a coup with the help of workers, soldiers, and sailors. The Winter Palace was stormed, and the provisional government fled. Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, took power. Instead of convening a democratic assembly, the Bolsheviks proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Civil War: 1917-1922

In March 1918, the Bolshevik government withdrew Russia from World War I, incurring heavy territorial losses under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Meanwhile, however, a civil war had broken out.

  • On the “White” side gathered multiple forces with little in common except their opposition to the Communists.
  • On the Bolshevik side, Trotsky played a prominent role by organizing the Red Army. The final victory went to the Communists.

USSR

A dictatorship of the proletariat was established:

  • A totalitarian regime.
  • With a political police force (the Cheka).
  • Political persecution of all opponents (starting with the Mensheviks).
  • Constant purges within the party itself.
  • Famines caused by government policies.

NEP (New Economic Policy): 1922-1928

Economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include “a free market and capitalism, both subject to state control”, while socialized state enterprises would operate on “a profit basis”. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Trotsky and Stalin vied for power.

  • Trotsky advocated for a global revolution.
  • Stalin promoted “socialism in one country,” consolidating his personal power. Stalin won the struggle in 1928; Trotsky and his supporters were expelled from the party. Stalin became the supreme leader until his death in 1953, ushering in a bloody era of assassinations, purges, and genocides, such as the Holodomor.

Number of deaths of people by Stalinism, 1924–1953

Dekulakization: 530,000–600,000
Great Purge: 700,000–1,200,000
Gulag: 1,500,000–1,713,000
Soviet deportations: 450,000–566,000
Katyn massacre: 22,000
Holodomor: 2,500,000–4,000,000
Kazakh famine: 1,450,000