The fact that peasantry took part in the 1905 revolution (also known as Bloody Sunday)shows that the suspicions of the peasants changing were true and to the Tsar and his government this could have appeared to be a threat because they always feared peasantry development, the Tsar and the Empress especially. However the peasants had not planned to overthrow the Tsar as they supported Tsardom, they only demanded for some changes that would reduce the working hours to 8 hours per day, allow workers to earn minimum wage of a rouble a day and to abolish overtime. From a point of view these demands would seem to be reasonable but to the soldiers these were perverse. When the 200,000 petitioners were instructed to retreat but didn’t because of the amount of people, the soldiers took it as if they were not cooperating and decided to open fire at the peaceful demonstrators. The reason why the soldiers were at liberty to shoot the demonstrators was because the Tsar was not present at the mass demonstration because after he was informed about the potential revolution the Tsar quickly decided to leave St Petersburg with his family to avoid trouble 15 miles away in Tsarkoe Selo.
He believed there should be a smychka (alliance) between peasants and workers (didn’t want to create differences between them.) • Trotsky wanted to abolish the NEP- Resented the fact that much of the USSR’s industry was under the direct control of the government. Hated the NEPMEN (traders who made large profits from the NEP.) Wanted to end the inequality between poor peasants and kulaks. Wanted to abolish private farms and introduce collective farming.
'How far were the divisions over the continuation of the New Economic Policy responsible for the outcome of the power struggle in the years 1924-1929? ‘ The New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced in 1921 by Bukharin and Lenin, primarily due to Russia’s urgent need for food, which offered the peasantry a partial response to small-scale capitalism and a free market economy. The aim of this was to win over the poor peasantry to the side of the proletarian dictatorship. The NEP divided the CPSU, as many believed that it was “anti-communist”, as it allowed a capitalist structure under a communist party. In order to prevent the NEP tearing his Bolshevik party apart, however, Lenin introduced a “ban on factionalism”, and this stifled criticism of the NEP.
This was probably due to their authoritarian ideology. It can be considered a fact that for the majority of the 1855-1964 period, the Russian citizens had little if any political freedom. Despite the legalization of political parties in 1905, this was a very short lived concession as Lenin revoked this in 1920. A similar approach was taken by Alexander III in reversing the reforms of Alexander II, including a reduction in power for the Zemstva. A recurring theme throughout the period is the regime’s desire to maintain autocracy, which Lenin’s disregard for democracy in any area and opposition shows.
Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech. He was also very critical of the policy of Peaceful Coexistence as he believed it was a way of being friendly with the United States (the enemy) and also Mao saw it abandoning millions of comrades struggling to free themselves of capitalist and imperialist oppression. This, therefore, made the USSR an ‘enemy’. How could two countries work together if they had such differing beliefs about how to run their countries? This problem had a big contribution to the split as they couldn’t agree on anything, and if they did, it was because their national interests were at risk.
Another ideological method that was central to his success of emerging as the leader of the Soviet Union by 1929 was accusations of Trotskyism . This was due to Stalin defending himself by accusing Bukharin of Trotskyism because Trotsky had been the first to make the claim about bureaucracy . This can be viewed as a weakness of Trotsky because this accusation of Trotskyism attempts to show that Trotsky’s ideology was far from Leninist . This greatly caused decline in Trotsky’s support because many wanted a leader who was close to Lenin and followed Lenin . Therefore , this is one of Stalin’s strengths because he was
• Did the NEP really fail or did it suit Stalin to make it look as though it had? (Scissor Crisis)Look at statistics to see how far production increased during the NEP • Was the change due to economic circumstances (e.g. need for self-sufficiency; grain procurement crisis)? • Or did he have other motives e.g. political (defeat of the right –Bukharin), • Ideological (NEP hated by communists; class war against the kulaks; socialism in one country), • Strategic (i.e.
His “Great Turn” can be seen as a realistic and attractive policy, suited to the rank and file of the party, that he did not adopt earlier in the 20’s since it was not a fitting policy at the time. The problems in ideology could be seen to link to the problems with agriculture as it was the Kulak class that Stalin held responsible for hoarding the grain and demanding higher prices for it, thus if the ideology changed to rid Soviet society of such elements, then haste could be seen to be of importance. However this was not the only problem with Russian agriculture. Farming methods were
During the revolution, members of the imperial parliament gained control of the country.The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. It is argued that the social and economic factors were the most important catalyst and the main cause of the revolution. Others may argue that the military factors were the downfall and breaking point of the country. Although the military factors were important and did play a huge role, the social and economic factors were perhaps the more important reason. The military issues perhaps would not have escalated the way they did if it was not for existing social and economic problems at home.
There was a time where he opposed the interests of the Communist Party these interests were projects started by Bolsheviks and Stalin so he was greatly outnumbered in making any decision. He argued that if large projects were going to be undertaken they had to be safe, and have considerable conditions for the workers, but the Communist party was willing to sacrifice those regulations to output the projects more quickly. Palchinsky continued to disagree and criticize the projects so he was eventually arrested on April 1928, and then executed from his political position. There was a project in particular that Palchinsky warned the USSR about, and that was the