In the period directly following Soviet liberation of Nazi-held Eastern Europe, it became evident of the Russian desire to dominate that very region. The reasons for this are manifold, but one of the most significant reasons was a desire to ensure the USSR’s security. Russia had repeatedly been attacked through Eastern Europe (and most specifically Poland), from the time of Napoleon to Hitler not 4 years ago. With America and its allies building up force in Western Europe, Stalin was bound to be suspicious of the capitalist powers, even more so considering the increasing level of anti-communist demagoguery in America. Having a series of puppet states in Eastern Europe would give the metropole invaluable security, ensuring that the states which bordered it were friendly and would support it in a theoretical invasion.
Russia’s main national interest after setting up other communist republics was to further spread communism. They went about setting up organisations such as Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) and Comecon (Council for Economic Mutual Assistance) to provide economic and military assistance to soviet satellite states. The Warsaw pact was set up in 1955 to provide a combined military force of soviet satellite states. As Eastern Europe unified as communists, Eastern Europe united with the fear of communism. The fear of the spread of communism to Western Europe caused Western European countries to join forces to stop the spread.
1953 saw the death of Soviet Russia’s greatest leader, in a never-ending atmosphere of anxiety, betrayal and paranoia. Stalin had become the state, not through the path of diplomacy, but through tumultuous bloodshed and trickery. He held absolute power and anyone foolish enough to protest against him and his path to the ultimate communist Utopia would find them selves dead or in a forced labor camp. The roots of this ultimate power lie in the years 1929-39, where Stalin employed the ‘Great Terror’, with the purges to secure political and economic control over the Soviet state. This essay will deduce how effective the ‘terror’ was employed to secure these corner stones.
Old Majors similarities to Karl Marx Old Major is like an exact counterpart of Karl Marx of the Russian Revolution. Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto and Old Major's speech both lead to an uprising of their people. Both however died before they could see their plan in effect. Old Major, in the story, influenced his people through his vision and theories of equality of all, and communism. Old Major uses his theories of these the same way that Karl Marx did, and that was to sway people to believe in you and your beliefs.
Bourgeois vs. Proletarians Karl Marx’s purpose for writing the article The Communist Manifesto was to persuade the proletarians, class of modern wage-laborers, to rise against the bourgeois, class of modern Capitalists, and settle a level of equality. He himself grew up in “a middle-class family in Germany” (56). After the publication of this article Marx was forced to “flee Paris and eventually to seek exile in London” (56). However, even though Marx uses good evidence and emotion to convince his stance to be the right move forward, he is unsuccessful in changing the thinking of the proletarians. In the article, Marx attempt to clarify the goals of Communism, as well as underline the theory behind the movement.
They thought a departure from this model would signify a Soviet surrender to the Capitalist West in the ideological war. However, not all policies resulted in failure and devastating suffering (Allen 1964). One notable exception was the policy of Peaceful Coexistence instituted by Khrushchev. Until then, the country had been led by Josef Stalin. Under Stalin’s leadership, many oppressive and rigid policies were put in place.
Third, wherever Germany in Eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen were created to murder Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Finally, Jews and Romani were ordered to be live in overcrowded ghettos, there they were then transported by freight train to extermination camps. Extermination camps were camps that were built by Nazi Germany, during the World War II, that were designed to kill millions of people by gassing and extreme work under terrible living conditions. The Nazis were not alone in this effort. Parish churches and the Interior Ministry supported the genocide by presenting birth records showing who was Jewish; the Post Office delivered the deportation and denaturalization orders; the Finance Ministry took away Jewish property; German businesses fired Jewish workers and took away stock that belonged to the Jews.
This ‘Surveillance of society’ was similar to the ‘big brother’ concept. The main characters every move are followed closely. In the time of Nazi Germany, up to 1 in 3 civilians were Nazi informants. In one way or another if you were committing crimes or spreading protest of the Nazi rule, you were bound to end up in a Nazi concentration camp. Orwell may have used Nazi Germany as a influence for the strong ‘surveillance of society theme’ Stalin’s rule and the Russian revolution were also another key influence in Orwell’s novel 1984.
This led to the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 Hitler aided by General Lundendorff and a few hundred supporters marched on the Munich town hall as a pretext to a national revolution, unfortunately for Hitler this attempt failed and he was sent to prison. Similarly during the late 19th century and early 20th century Russia's political situation was as problematic as Germans. It is important to mention
Stalin was able to eliminate all effective opposition through a series of purges. The Show Trials, which began in 1936, were designed to create an atmosphere of intimidation and paranoia. As the purges swept through the party, many highly prominent Bolsheviks were put on trial and accused of being part of a Trotsky counter-revolutionary bloc. During the first Show Trial, of 1936, Stalin eliminated Kamenev and Zinoviev, who forcibly confessed to being part of Trotsky’s conspiracy and were consequently executed. In 1937 Stalin began the purge of the military, accusing them of spying for Nazi Germany.