Script: Simran: Nicholas the Second (NII) was the last Imperial Ruler of Russia he came at a point, when Russia desperately needed a great visionary to reform and industrialize her, while NII was known to be a poor leader who was not equipped with knowledge to handle a political reform. Born in 1868 to Alexander III, he was the heir to Russian throne which he attained 1894. Ewalina: It is important to note that NII was a poor leader but he was not a weak character. This means that he did have a vision for Russia, which was to maintain traditions of stardom, Nicholas was a firm believer in autocracy; he was virtually unmovable in this belief. -His stern faith in stardom stemmed from his upbringing, because he was brought up by Konstantin
All Russian governments in this period faced strong opposition to their regime with the period as a whole punctuated by riots, disturbances and revolutions. Political change was expected in Russia during this period, particularly during the Tsarist regime where the growth of the revolutionary intelligentsia, ironically an effect of the Great Reforms, led many to question the need for a Tsar or a royal family at all. The first main success of political opposition is widely considered to be the assassination of Alexander II at the hands of the People’s Will in 1881. Although they assassinated their Tsar, it is very likely this did not actually lead to their desired outcome, it being greater political freedom/democracy. Many historians have said Alexander II was considering the formation of a parliament in Russia.
Arguably Russia’s transformation from an autocratic state to a communist one was the greatest modification in the whole period 1855 to 1964, however, despite differing ideals there was in fact a large amount of continuity between the idealistically different styles of governance. Under Tsarist leaders, Russia experience differing levels of autocratic rule, interspersed with sporadic detours to democracy, yet upon the Communist takeover, there was a decisive shift towards autocratic dictatorship. Taking all this into consideration, the October Revolution can be seen as the most significant turning point in the development of Russian government, as the ideological shift influenced all subsequent decisions taken by the government of the USSR. Ideologically, the October Revolution in 1917 represented a unique turning point from Russia, as a 300 year old regime was unceremoniously discarded in favour of Marxism. Condemning the provisional government in his April Thesis, Lenin moved quickly to ensure the Bolshevik takeover was complete, consolidating
These views are expressed in his two key works, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution (published in 1995) and Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime 1919-1924 (published in 1994). Pipe’s believes that Lenin was primarily responsible for the success of the uprising, even though Pipe’s recognizes Lenin’s role as the most important, he still hypocritically called Lenin’s April Theses “totally out of touch with reality, if not positively mad” despite the fact that this theses played a huge role in the Lenin and Bolshevik uprising. Pipe’s also believes that Trotsky just carried out Lenin’s commands. However the role or Trotsky and his actions before the October revolution were very evidently done on his own accord, with Lenin accompanying Trotsky in his decisions. In early October, 1917, Trotsky was elected
How far do you agree that the most important result of the oppression was the strengthening of Stalin’s political dominance? The Great Terror had a profound effect upon the Communist Party and on Soviet society as a whole and it was most famous aspect of Stalin’s Russia. This terror grew from his paranoia and desire to be the absolute leader, and was enforced by the NKVD as well as his public show-trials. It developed into a terrifying system of labour camps (or gulags) and purges. Stalin’s oppression had many results including, but not limited to, the strengthening of his political dominance.
How far do you agree that communists and Tsars ruled Russia in the same way? The February Revolution of 1917 that brought down the Tsarist regime and led to the ascension of the Provisional Government, had much potential to bring about significant change from the autocratic regime of the Tsars. However, the totalitarian government of the communists seized power in the October Revolution and continued to maintain many aspects of Tsarist rule including the top-down approach to rule, their ideology in policy making and their repressive methods. Although the communists and Tsars appeared to rule differently in their theory, in practice their methods were to a very large extent the same. The top-down approach the rulers of Russia had in the period 1855-1964 were superficially different as the communists claimed to represent the people by giving power to the proletariat where as the Tsars were heavily elitist in their ideology.
In conclusion the Cold War was caused by U.S. fear of the spread of communism and other events. The United States means of control was to contain communism at all cost. Many treaties were put in place to protect the two superpowers. The Soviet Union tried to influence other nations with communism and the United States tried with democracy. This battle of the superpowers lasted for fifty years.
The death of the creator of the Soviet Communist Party and founder of the USSR, Vladimir Lenin, left the young Soviet Union craving the leadership from a man of the same stature. At first, the brilliant leader of the Red Army and also the appointed candidate by Lenin, Trotsky, seemed to be the one to take control of the USSR. Instead, Joseph Stalin took control of the Soviet Union, using many vindictive political moves and his position as General Secretary. As the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin strengthened and stabilized the structure of the nation to become a world superpower and industrial colossus. In many ways, Stalin transformed himself to replicate Lenin by adopting his ideas and goals, although the way in which he met these goals are highly controversial by historians.
President Harry S. Truman was not only involved in foreign affairs, but also in domestic concerns. “The Cold War caused a shift in thinking and tactics among civil rights groups.” After President Truman’s speech about freedom, minorities all over America started to think in different ways about their own civil rights, and used the Cold War towards their advantage, bringing up that racial inequality will damage and obscure America’s image of freedom, which would be beneficial for the Soviet Union. Because of this, Truman decided to enforce policies that called for more devotion to civil rights, and therefore improving the image of America. However, minute amounts of change came from these policies that Truman input, and most of these laws were enforced or given little attention. Nevertheless, although these civil right policies did not get much responsiveness during this period of time, time would show that this was only fleeting and there would soon be a civil rights revolution, which would once again, give a new meaning to America’s definition of
Brutal Force Throughout the many years and before the start of the Russian Revolution, violence, coercion, terror and compromise played a big role in enforcing the government and in making the people and revolutionaries in Russia happy so there would be no overthrow of leading government officials. As we see in the October Manifesto, the tsar was compelled to sign the document to compromise with the people only so he would not be overthrown or executed, also in the Constitution of 1918 and 1924 which were written to establish the new state of Russia and to help keep the new state in tact. We also see acts of violence to help keep rule and enforce government through Bloody Sunday and State and Revolution written by Lenin. The use of compromise