Note: Resources I have used are cited below.
In early 1900s, Russia was ruled with an absolute authoritarian system. It was in the middle of an economic crisis, majorly because of extreme numbers of unemployment and mass population of peasants. Situation were worsening and Tsar was doing nothing about it, people revolted. It was the 1905 Revolution. It didn’t solve much thing, only made situation of country to worsen even more. After this the Tsar formed the “Duma” assembly to give more rights to peasant and working class. But this too didn’t solve a thing either and made Tsar to lose his throne.
While Russia was fighting in the Great War outside of the country, inside, everything were falling apart. People were wanting peace, and that was the last line crossed. People revolted again in Lenin’s lead with their motto “Bread, Peace and Freedom”. Even this shining lots of light to times of revolution and before. People were suffering from poverty, so they wanted “bread”. Government were dragging people to fight its own war, so they wanted “peace”. After the French Revolution, one by one, all empires were being replaced by more democratic regimes while Russia was still a dictatorship. People wanted to being ruled with their own will, so they wanted “freedom”. On 24 October, Bolsheviks - led by Lenin - took control of country with help of the people. With that in first time of history a big country adopted Communism.
The question is, people were wanting freedom, yet they helped Bolsheviks to form another totalitairan system. In first glance this may seem confusing. Even though French Revolution was a success and World was shifting to democracy, there were still understanding of strong state. And democracy was new and in a blurred state (rise of the fascism after the Great War). And also, that was the time of war. Whole World was colliding into each other to win the “war to end all wars”. With these external and internal problems considered, another totalitarian system was inevitable.
All state-owned grounds were redistributed among people. Healthcare and education services became free. Rights of working class largely increased. Working time was limited to 8 hours. New state adopted the symbol of sickle and hammer. This was symbolising the union of peasant and worker class.
Did this communist state, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, succeded in history? Well, that’s another questionable topic. But the October Revolution surely did give a few things to World. First of all, it was a another reminder to World that people has the role of judge, they are the source of power. Another important topic is people’s perspective of war. Most of time wars fought are not the people’s but the government’s. Even though this fact considered, it’s the people who fight and die. On 1–4 May 1917, about 100,000 workers and soldiers , led by the Bolsheviks, demonstrated protests with banners on hands: "Down with the war!".
Also, that was the beginning of biggest standing against rising capitalism in the World. Bolshevik government nationalized all the private properties, Russian banks and properties of Church right after revolution. Later on, two giants of the World, one capitalist and other communist, USA and USSR, fought with each other. Not in trenches while shooting each other, but with a sense of race; a race that will declare which
one is the biggest. That was going to likely shape the rest of the World with their own ideas.
I mentioned what October Revolution introduced to World, and how it was evolved and completed. Reasons of revolt varies highly but after it has done, one thing was put in center: Communism.
In the sense of political sciences, communsim is the economic, political, social and philosophical ideology that has the ultimate goal of creating a society in which economy is based on the common ownership of the means of production, which are instruments of labor and subjects of labor, with an absence of social classes. The term “communism” first mentioned and defined by French philosopher Victor d’Hupay. He defined the term “commune” as a communist lifestyle. Communism itself is also father of many other ideologies like marxism and anarcho-communism.
Marxism, created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is the most popular ideology of the communist movement. It is a scientific approach to communism itself, taking its roots from historical materialism. It states that communism is the inevitable consequence of class struggle which triggers the shifting of modes of production.
Now, considering all of these, I wish to talk about the very fate that brought Russia and communism together. The Great War was begun and nations were clashing with each other in various fronts. While soldiers and generals were trying to win the war by doing what they do best, by fighting, in the backstages governments were also trying to do same, but what they do best is politics. In the popular historian Andrew Marr’s documentary “History of the World”s last episode “Age of Extremes” he talks about a really specific and interesting topic. Arthur Zimmerman, German bureaucrat on the head of State Secretary of Foreign Affairs, was done a really bold act to put Russia out of WW1. He took Vladimir Lenin, who is in exile, and put him back to Russia. With looking from this perspective, we see that biggest step taken to revolution was done by efforts of a German bureaucrat. It was a win-win situation, Russia was taken out of war and communist revolutionary movement was success.
Above all, it was an oppurtunity for communism to finally have a concrete place as an ideology in the history. The people were ready for a revolution. They only needed a push and a lead to follow. But the important thing was the life after revolution. It could, for example, an anarchist revolution. Anarchist models could still lead people to a revolution but after then, people may reject them too, because of their understanding of life. But communism was lucky in this sense. They took everything, and distrubuted them among the “citizens of Soviet Union”. Of course, some may disliked it but since communism was advocating the rights of peasant and worker class, which were the biggest portion of population. These were the things that communism was promising for people. It’s debatable that if USSR kept its promises, but these were what communist movement promised and people accepted.
I previously mentioned Andrew Marr. He also claims communism and fascism as most extreme things happened last century. Well, there is a famous saying “history is written by the victors”. If Nazis could’ve won the World War 2, we may remember Stalin as how we remember Hitler now. A violent dictator. One can say communism failed, and one can also say it succeeded. But one thing certain is communism has seen the oppurtunity, took it, and showed us what it looks like in a great scale. USSR was there for 69 years. It was born from ashes of revolution, challenged capitalism, started the race to the Moon, sent arms to Middle-East in the fiercest times of Cold War, done what World thought impossible in WW2 (repelled the attack of Nazi Germany and launched an immerse counter-offensive), all of them while sticking to communism.
Today, USSR is history. But what it introduced to World at October Revolution is still with us. Marxist and Leninist understandings have inspired many thinkers and nations. And it tried to show us communism can survive in a potential capitalist World. It’s still being critized if it has been successful or not, but I think this debate is hard to answer just by considering it does not exist now. It was something different in the new industrial and liberal World. It gives us hints about what would be next step in history ahead of us, how different thinks likely to stand up in extreme times and in vastly capitalist World of ours. People will always want to stand against something even in future, and this will always give way to new things.
Resources
• Michael Evans, Karl Marx, London, England, 1975.
• Nikoli Bukharin, The ABC of the Communism, 1920.
• Steinberg, Mark (2017). The Russian Revolution 1905-1917. New York: Oxford University Press
• Cassely, Aix insolite et secrète JonGlez, 2016.
• Karl Marx, The German Ideology, 1845.
