After the Russian revolution (Summer of 1918) Lenin introduced the term War Communism. This meant that industry was nationalized, labour was compulsory, private trade was suppressed, and peasants were forced to give up their entire produce. All they had left was there bare essentials. Lenin had a lot of trouble introducing this system because it was tough on the people for one. A lot of people found it hard to find any sort of motivation to do their job properly since the man next to them, regardless of what they did, would get paid the exact same at the end of the day. Plus the Russian economy was going downhill. Since he Nationalised businesses there was no competition and in turn no need to raise the price on any goods. After Lenin died there was a massive power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky. Stalin wanted to wanted to strengthen Russia's armed forces to be more a world power, but Trotsky wanted to focus more on the russian people and improve their lives at home. Eventually after three years of struggle Stalin won and Trotsky was sentenced to exile. I think Stalin delayed Russia's development by the way he ruled the country. He cut Russia of from the rest of the world and depressed his people.
The first riot of the two was started in february of 1917. It was started in the town of Petrograd (later know as St. Petersburg) and its aim was to take out the current government and implement a provisional one. The people's main motivation was that they were not getting fed, in result they were angry and needed change. The Revolution in October of the same year, also known as the Kronstadt Mutiny, also occurred in Petrograd. It involved 20, 000 armed soldiers taking control of Petrograd, they demanded that the soviets take control. This revolution was bloodless and successful. The reason why the the October Revolution was more successful was because the people were fighting for their freedom and not for some else just to take over. In the February Revolution, after Alexander Kerensky took over he kept Russia in the war and the people still weren't getting fed. In the October Revolution they made a significant difference.
Enemy at the gate is a movie that takes place in the early 1940's and is about the Russian German side of the war. In particular the defence of a small town of stalingrad. The defence of this town was crucial because if the Germans captured it they would have conquered all of Russia and would have won the war. In the film the use of propaganda has a huge effect on the troops and how it keeps them going. At the beginning the troops are scared, so are the officers, and they have no idea what to do or how to inspire the troops. Suddenly officer Nikita Khrushchev has a great idea, and that was to create a hero for the Russian army. This hero went by the name of Vasily Zaytsev and his job was to kill as many Germans as he possible could. This just goes to show how much influence propaganda over populations. |
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