How Did Leon Trotsky Influence The Russian Revolution

From 1928, when the plan started, to 1932 to its end, many factories, dams, power stations and even cities were being built. Despite there being harsh penalties implemented to workers for failure to meet their targets, there was still a significant increase in Russia’s industrial growth in a very short period of time. Just like the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, under Tsar Alexander II, in protest of Stalin’s policies, the peasants, in protest, refused to work harder than they needed too, causing them to destroy livestock and crops, which eventually lead to their unnecessary death. Stalin, just like the Tsarist autocratic regime, was not committed to collectivism but preferred capitalism in his ruling of the Soviet Union. This caused a lot of rebellion from the Kulaks who opposed collectivism.

He ended up resorting to “war communism” during the Russian Civil War, and the Bolsheviks needed to quickly produce goods. When the war was over, Lenin became sick and Trotsky began ruling after him. Trotsky took the role of controlling the corrective measures

He abandoned the revolutionary ideal of democratization and guerrilla tactics got him much criticism from other communists. Trotsky and Stalin had a disagreement over the defence of the city of Tsaritsyn. According to the article “Leon Trotsky”, “Trotsky’s approach was, however, vindicated by the success of the Red Army in turing back attacks by the anti-communist White armies in 1918 and

After the turmoil, new urban-industrial regions appeared quickly in Russia and became increasingly important to the country’s development (SparkNotes Editors). The population was drawn to the cities in huge numbers and education went up immensely and in turn, illiteracy went down. The revolution started a range of social and cultural activism across the opening decade of the new Soviet State (Willimont). In the years immediately following the revolution, the new Soviet State fought a civil war against the White Guards and against the invasions from the Western powers who were determined that the new communist state would not last (Harbor 10). Leon Trotsky organized the revolutionary forces into the Red Army, which defeated the White Guards and pushed back against foreign invaders.

Post WWl, Russia was still not industrialized, suffering economically and politically and in no doubt in need of a leader after Lenin’s death. “His successor, Joseph Stalin, a ruthless dictator, seized power and turned Russia into a totalitarian state where the government controls all aspects of private and public life.” Stalin showed these traits by using methods of enforcement, state control of individuals and state control of society. The journey of Stalin begins now.

The Russians Fight Back Three outcome and causes of the Russian revolution were the large amount of peasant population, Russia joined the war when they knew that they couldn’t even pull their own weight, and communism took over Russia. The tsar joined the war thinking that he would gain nationalism and patriotism from the peasants.(doc.1).He thought that all the people would rush to sign up to fight for their country and support the tsar. The first months after joining the war were disastrous. The tsar had to steal from his people to give to the troops who had very little supplies.

During the 20th century, Russia was experiencing turmoil in war and the country was deeply affected with Tsar Nicholas’s wrong decisions and lack of experience in politics. After the 1917 revolution in Russia, Lenin became the ruler of Russia and the USSR and proved to be the best Russian ruler of the 20th century. Before then, Tsarism dominated and Nicholas II was in power until he foresaw many revolutions against his methods of ruling. He remained as the supreme ruler and did not take actions for reforms. However, after the 1917 revolution, which Lenin masterminded, the Tsar was overthrown and the Bolsheviks established a stable government which took control in Russia.

Lenin continued to give Stalin power and the people could not do anything to stop it. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin had complete control over the communist party. By the late 1920s, he was the dictator of the Soviet Union. Stalin kept finding way to get more power and the people were not able to do anything to fix

However, the question of whether he was a hero who toppled an oppressive tyranny, or a villain who replaced it with another remains a controversial one today. In 1917, Lenin helped overthrow the Russian tsar Nicholas II, and founded the Soviet Union. On October 1917, after the victory of the Russian Revolution, Lenin did not have a clear image on socialism, or how it meant to be built. He was, however, able to state the three principal characteristics of socialism, which were the public ownership of the means of production, an end to exploitation, and the dictatorship of the proletariat. He did not take action on these points, and did not devote much attention to socialism as he felt it was not yet an immediate issue.

When the Bolsheviks were first brought to power, Lenin had four main prospects that he would bring to Russia, which made him popular among the Russian people. Initially, Lenin wanted to bring peace by removing Russian forces from World War I, provide the Russian people with land and bread, and to give all power to the Soviets, also known as the Worker’s Union. Lenin’s first act of pulling Russia out of the war commenced due to the introduction of the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk. Although the treaty enabled Russia

War communism had a devastating impact on the peasants and proletariat in Russian society between 1918 and 1928. However, the New Economic Policy that followed the Civil War effects was opposite, raising living standards and reinstating support for the Bolshevik party. Vladimir “Lenin” Ulyanov, known as the head of the notorious Bolshevik party, introduced War Communism (1918-1921) and the NEP (1921-1928). As Martin McCauley states “If War Communism was a leap into socialism then the New Economic Policy was a leap out of socialism” The aims of War Communism and the NEP were both successful in a large number of areas, however, the effects of both policies were not all favourable.

However, although hard, Lenin knew to remain in power he would have to stick to his word and once in power, his leadership spoke itself – He was able to bring peace to the country by signing the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, therefore removing Russia from World War One and by doing this, allowing peace to flourish. However, with this came reparations, by signing the treaty, Russia gave up one third of her fertile land in the Ukraine Region to Germany and this caused unrest amongst his followers however, his promise for land was filled by the new Bolshevik decree’s. Once in power, Lenin abolished private ownership, workers owned their factories and worked a maximum of 8 hours and Large houses became shared households, enforced by the Red Guards and CHEKA, Lenin was also able to attain the ongoing support of the Peasants and working class which made over 80% of Russia’s

Furthermore, they wanted to start revolution against decisions made by their tragic excuse of a czar, Nicholas II. These transactions proposed as the idea of a revolution gained followers and grew greatly in hopes to create change. These transactions were right because they opposed what the people needed, which was equal treatment and protection for not only people of higher authority, but yet for everyone. Once Lenin gained control of Russia as new czar, great changes were created. As proposed, Lenin followed through with his wanted changes and made them present in Russian society.

“Is what you want? A miserable little bourgeois republic? In the name of the great Soviet republic of labour we declare war to the death on such a government!” (Bukharin, 1917) . The Russians were fed up of being poorly treated by their own country, so they decided to take a stance.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) considered himself not to be a sociologist but a political activist. However, many would disagree and in the view of Hughes (1986), he was ‘both – and a philosopher, historian, economist, and a political scientist as well.’ Much of the work of Marx was political and economic but his main focus was on class conflict and how this led to the rise of capitalism. While nowadays, when people hear the word “communism”, they think of the dictatorial rule of Stalin and the horrific stories of life in a communist state such as the Soviet Union, it is important not to accuse Marx of the deeds carried out in his name.