The Russian Revolution and Soviet Socialism

1
The Russian Revolution and Soviet Socialism
2
The Revolution (1917)

• Tsarist (emperor) Russia
• Government is an autocracy (absolute power)
• Most people are peasants/serfs until 1861.
• Growing population, rapid industrialism led to
• Inflation, food shortages, exploited labor, money
  hoarded by the Tsar
• Revolutionary ideas land and products should
  belong those who work on/make them (proletariat)
• 1917 Tsar abdicates
• Lenins leadership (Bolsheviks/Red Party)

3
Leon Trotsky(Founder of Red Army 1920s)

• Revolutionary and Marxist
• Marxism
• socialist (anti-capitalist/liberal left)
• Against capitalist exploitation (company owners
  benefit from exploited labor of lower classes)
• Equality of man, democracy
• Collective ownership and authentic input in
  production
• Socialism/Communism
• Opposed peace agreements with Hitler
• Expelled from the Communist Party and deported by
  Stalin

4
Joseph Stalin Two Faces(General Secretary of
Communist Party 1922-1953)

• Helped Lenin as a fellow Bolshevik in revolution
• Become leader of army and party
• Lenin dies became a fascist
• single-party state/totalitarian gov (conservative
  right)
• benefits of inequality
• opposes conflict
• often hides under
• Communism
• Five year planindustrialism
• Led country to famine in 1932

5
Two Faces of Stalin (cont)

• Great Purge of people accused of disloyalty and
  sabotage
• executed, imprisoned or exiled.
• ethnic minorities deported.
• Unstable foreign relations
• 1939, non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany.
• Germany violated pact in 1941 Soviet Union
  entered WWII.
• Stalin established communist Eastern Bloc/Iron
  Curtain.
• Stalinism (Cult of Personality) idolatry of
  Stalin statues, pictures, name

6
Fascist Tacticsof Submission

• Use of rhetoric
• Fear and emotions
• Revisionist history
• Justifications and faulty logic
• Red herrings
• Brainwashing
• Idolatry (Cult of Personality)
• Perpetuating ignorance
• Common enemy of the state
• Scape-goating
• Orthodoxy (conforming beliefs) and alienation
• Inquisitions and public punishment

7
Animal Farm, 1945

• George Orwell (Eric Blair)
• Fable (for example, Aesops fables)
• Teaches a moral lesson
• Uses animals
• England becoming more socialist
• Romantic view of Soviet Union b/c of WWII
  involvement
• Orwells political background
• Trotskyist championed socialism warned against
  false socialism
• Went to Spain to fight for cause
• Stalin had political control in Spain
• Believed that too many decent people in the
  Western democracies had succumbed to a
  dangerously romantic view of the Russian
  revolution that blinded them to Soviet reality
  (Russell Baker, preface, Animal Farm).

8
Effects and Anti-Communist Movement

• After truth revealed about Stalin/Russia, cold
  war began
• Anti-communist movement in England/U.S. (1950s)
• McCarthy trials in U.S. (McCarthyism)
• Russian spy stories
• Anti-Communism propaganda and scare tactics(how
  ironic!)
• Cold war ended in 1989 wall fell, open dialogue,
  open markets and travel
• Lingering resentments, misperceptions, and fears
  about socialism

9
Cult of Personality, Living Colour

• Look in my eyes, what do you see?the Cult of
  PersonalityI know your anger, I know your
  dreamsI've been everything you wanna be
  ohhhI'm the Cult of PersonalityLike Mussolini
  and KennedyI'm the Cult of Personalitythe Cult
  of Personalitythe Cult of PersonalityNeon
  lights, Nobel PrizeWhen a mirror speaks, the
  reflection liesYou won't have to follow meOnly
  you can set me freeI sell the things you need
  to beI'm the smiling face of your T.V. ohhI'm
  the Cult of PersonalityI exploit you still you
  love meI tell you one and one makes three ohh

• I'm the Cult of PersonalityLike Joseph Stalin
  and Gandhi ohhI'm the Cult of Personalitythe
  Cult of Personalitythe Cult of Personality
• Neon lights, Nobel PrizeWhen a leader speaks,
  that leader diesYou won't have to follow meOnly
  you can set you freeYou gave me fortune, you
  gave me fameYou gave me power in your God's
  nameI'm every person you need to be ohhI'm,
  the, Cult, of, Per, Son, Al, ItyI am the Cult
  of (x8)Personality