The Russian Revolution

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        I think Russia in the early 1900s changed dramatically over the revolution. Karl Marx was an idealist who wrote a book called Communist Manifesto expressing his ideas about communism. This book was read by many Russians and provoked a revolution. Some of the ideals it consisted of were: “Abolition to the right of inheritance,” “Equal obligation of all to work,” “Let ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution,” “raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class,” “establish democracy,” “confiscation of property,” and many others. The first ruler to support Karl Marx’s ideals was Vladimir Lenin. Lenin lived up to Marx’s ideals and created a country that Marx would have approved of, for he made laws that agreed with Marx’s ideals. The ruler after Lenin, on the other hand, Josef Stalin, did not fully live up to Marx’s ideals and created a country that Marx would not have approved of.

            The three main ideals that we will use to determine if Lenin lived up to Marx’s ideals are: “ruling classes should tremble,” “confiscation of property,” “and “raise the proletariat to the position of the ruling class.” In agreement with Marx’s ideal, “Ruling classes should tremble,” Lenin issued a Hanging Order on November 8 1918 to “set an example,” or strike fear into the hearts of the rich. Part of the Hanging Order reads, “You need to hang (hang without fail, so that the public sees) at least 100 notorious kulaks, the rich, and the bloodsuckers.” The words, “so that the public sees” demonstrate Lenin’s extreme radical attitude toward the kulaks. He also included “publish their names” to further strike fear into the hearts of the kulaks. One of the last lines of this hanging order says, “let’s choke and strangle those blood-sucking kulaks.” Finally, Lenin creates a secret police made up of professional revolutionaries. Lenin obviously wanted to show that he hated the kulaks as Marx did. We can assume that Lenin has lived up to Marx’s “ruling classes should tremble” ideal. Another part of the Hanging Order of November 1918 was “take away all of their grain,” referring to the kulaks. This shows how Lenin lived up to the ideal of “confiscation of property.” The last ideal of Marx that Vladimir Lenin lived up to was “raise the proletariat to the position of the ruling class.” This is shown when he argues for a secret police made up of professional revolutionaries. The revolutionaries are mostly made up of proletariat, so the secret police makes them more powerful or helps to get them “raised to the ruling class.” Another thing that Lenin did was put heavy restrictions on the amount of food the upper classes get, and give the workers a lot more food. This is seen in Vladimir Lenin’s Rationing and War Communism. This is where Lenin decides that “Workers are allowed 200 grams of bread for two days, further 2 eggs or 20 grams of fat or vegetables.” This progresses all the way to “Members of the bourgeoisie, landowners, merchants, etc, are allowed 50 grams of bread for two days, however neither eggs, fat nor vegetables.” The different rations for the different classes are evidence that Lenin lived up to “raise the proletariat to the position of the ruling class,” “confiscation of property,” and “ruling classes should tremble.” Marx would therefore have approved of the country Lenin created, seeing as his laws considerably hurt the ruling classes.