The Russian Revolution
by 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.
The ruler that came after Lenin was Josef Stalin. Stalin claimed when he became ruler that he would follow Marx’s ideals. However, he knowingly did not fully live up to them. An example of this is how he addresses Russia’s grain problem and writes to “defeat in their villages the kulak sabotage of grain collection,” trying to make sure the ruling classes got their grain taken away and trembled in fear. This shows that Stalin lived up to two of Marx’s ideals. However in Industrialization of the Country, 1928, Stalin says that in order for socialism to survive, Russia must take over the capitalist countries and industrialize. The problem with suggesting this is that Stalin does not give a method how to take over the capitalist countries, which implies that Stalin might disagree with the socialist industrial methods altogether and just want to become a capitalist country. Also Stalin described how non-socialist countries are in better shape than Russia and that Russia must “overtake and outstrip” the capitalist countries to survive. This could also be interpreted as Stalin wanting to turn Russia capitalist. Marx would have strongly disagreed with this, and would not have approved of a capitalist country by any means. Therefore, Stalin did not fully live up to Marx’s ideals but did live up to some of them.
In conclusion, Lenin lived up to and created a country that would have been approved of by Marx/Marx’s ideals and Stalin did not create a country that Marx would have approved of/Stalin didn’t live up to the ideals of Karl Marx.
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