Russian Revolution

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Russian Revolution
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Problems Leading to Revolution

• Attacks on enemies- Other religions, different
  languages were dangerous. Censorship, secret
  police, exile, official language, attacks on
  Jews.
• Growth of Industry- Hardships created helped to
  lead to the growth of revolutionary movements.
  (Bolsheviks)
• Russo-Japanese War- Russias loss lead to leads
  to unrest at home.

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Problems Leading to Revolution

• Bloody Sunday- Russian troop shot and killed
  between 500 to 1000 unarmed protestors.
• Revolution of 1905- Strikes and violence break
  out in response. The Czar will create the Duma
  but dissolve it in 10 weeks.
• World War I- Millions killed, morale low

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Problems Leading to Revolution
Rasputin
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March Revolution

• Czar abdicates and is later executed.
• Provisional Government is created and continued
  WWI. This cost them the support of most Russian
  people.

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Bolshevik Revolution

• Germans send Lenin back to Russia
• He leads a revolution gaining popular support
  among the people. Peace, land and bread.
• They distributed all farmland amongst the
  peasants, control of all factories went to the
  workers, and made a treaty with Germany to stop
  WWI.
• Civil War between Red and White Armies
• NEP helps to restore the economy by 1928.

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Totalitarianism

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Totalitarian political system

• Controls every aspect of life, so that there is
  no private sphere or independent organizations. 
  The political system penetrates the whole society
  - dominating religion, family life, economy,
  education, everything. At the very top is the
  all-powerful leader.

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Examples

• No pure types but these regimes had totalitarian
  elements
• Nazi Germany, 1933-1945
• Stalinist Soviet Union, 1925 to 1953
• China under Mao Zedong, 1949 to 1970
• Cambodia (Kampuchea) under Khmer Rouge, early
  1970s

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Logic of totalitarianism

• Creating a perfect society out of imperfect human
  beings requires a high level of coercive control
  of every facet of life.
• In contrast, authoritarian governments are not
  interested in creating a utopia but maintaining
  control over existing society. Coercion only
  used against perceived enemies of the state.

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Features of totalitarianism

• 1. the cult of the leader. Leader must be
  supreme and autonomous - Hero worship. The
  Leader is perceived as wise, paternal,
  charismatic. 

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Features of totalitarianism

• 2. radical ideology official, total,
  comprehensive. It exploits popular fears and
  prejudices. The ideology inspires and
  legitimates a revolutionary break from the past
• a.) provides a scapegoat for past wrongs
• b). explains present sacrifices
• c.) promises a future of peace plenty

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Features of totalitarianism

• 3. organization. A single political party
  serves the leader in promoting the ideology. The
  party initially might be powerful, but it becomes
  subservient to the leader. In time, no dissent
  permitted even among party elites.

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Features of totalitarianism

• 4.  mass mobilization indoctrination. Fanatic
  followers make any sacrifice. Regime mobilizes
  against internal enemies (opponents, scapegoats,
  counterrevolutionaries) and external enemies.
• Use aggressive warfare (that is, wars without
  justification, not in self-defense) to keep the
  people mobilized.

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Features of totalitarianism

• 5.  use of secret police. All sovereign states
  monopolize armed services and police, but
  totalitarian states also use secret police and
  informers to monitor and control the citizenry.

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Features of totalitarianism

• 6.  central control of all organizations,
  including schools, the arts, clubs, news media,
  labor unions, universities, churches, the
  economy. No separate organizations no civil
  society.

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Features of totalitarianism

• 7.  use of terror and violence 
• To smooth the way to a takeover.  Creates an
  atmosphere of crisis and political instability.
  Dramatizes inability of old government to provide
  security.
• To maintain control afterward. Keeps the
  population too terrorized to dissent.

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Terror violence

• Totalitarian leaders may become so obsessed with
  total control that they eliminate not just
  enemies but loyal deputies who could become
  rivals. Some even imagine enemies where none
  exists conduct bloody purges.
• Examples from Hitler, Lenin, Stalin and Mao
  Zedong.

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Difference between violence terror

• Violence can be useful to dictators.
• 1. enhances leaders status.
• 2. brings economic gain (confiscating property
  of victims).
• 3. punishes political opponents and thereby
  discourages future dissent.
• 4. destroys a group completely. May help
  solidify support among the other groups.

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Difference between violence terror

• Terror useful in the short term. It is arbitrary
  and unpredictable.
• Goal to produce an extreme fear in populace to
  paralyze them into an utter lack of resistance. 
  Terror creates an emotional and psychological
  state. Where violence is a reaction to
  resistance, terror seeks to prevent resistance
  from ever forming. 

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Difference between violence terror

• Terror serves two objectives 
• 1. to maintain control over society (by
  eliminating any possible opposition before the
  fact), and
• 2. to transform the society to a new and radical
  goal (which people ordinarily would strongly
  resist).  Called state terror.

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Example of state terror

• The Khmer Rouge, a radical Maoist group, sought
  to create a socialist utopia in Cambodia
  (Kampuchea) from 1975 to 1978. Policies left
  between 1 to 3 million dead, directly or
  indirectly.
• Regime relied on terror to remake society,
  including to eliminate family clan loyalties.
  Even children used as spies and sometimes
  killers - of their parents.
• See, for example, the film The Killing Fields

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State terror over time

• Once a reputation for terror is established, a
  regime does not need to continue the high level
  of actual terror. It can use rumors and lies to
  convince people that the government is both
  invincible and omniscient (all-knowing). The
  people will believe that resistance is futile. 

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State terror over time

• In addition, terror becomes less necessary as a
  revolutionary government becomes more legitimate.
  Regime then has other means of ensuring
  obedience, such as material incentives.

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State terror over time

• However, in the long term, terror is highly
  dysfunctional.
• 1. Harms productivity and creativity, damaging
  economy technological innovation.
• 2. Destroys an individual's trust in government
  other people, leading to break-down of
  community and even family ties.