Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Liam Gibson
Humanities/AP World
22 February 2017
Were socialist ideas good for the established Russian culture and populace?
The unity of a nation, culturally and physically, will drive a country forward, even in the
hardest of times, carried onward by a strong working class. Leading up until, and during World
War I, the exposure Russia received to socialist beliefs, and Western society, pushed the state
towards socialism, and eventually Communism. Near the end of World War 1, these newly
developed beliefs pushed the people to overthrow Tsar Nicholas II and the formation of Soviet
Russia, referring to the period of time before the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922, was an
attempt to reform an economically broken, though culturally rich empire. The empire returned to
its former glory when a new form of government, communism, was introduced to the now
named Soviet Union. Although the world perceives the actions and consequences of the Soviet
Union as negative, it paved the road for one of the worlds most physically, culturally and
Russian interactions with European countries served to spark interest with socialist
ideologies, and blaze a path for a socialist takeover for the better of the people. During the rule of
Nicholas I Russia was failing, with constant cases of corruption. Because of the tsarist rule, there
was no hope for the Russian people to become free from tyranny, except by force. The Russian
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people joined together as an army, and multiple revolutions happened, in an attempt to free
themselves from the shackles imposed on the population. Isaiah Berlin stated in his article,
Russia and 1848, that Russia was in a gigantic strait-jacket of bureaucratic and military control
which, if not devised, was reinforced and pulled tighter by Nicholas I. Berlin describes the rule
of Nicholas I as that of an asylum keeper, locking his people in small rooms, restricting the
goods they can obtain, and when his rule is threatened, he responds with military force,
destroying his country from the inside. This pushed the Russian population to band together, and
seek out European help. Berlin also states in the article, Eighteen years earlier, in 1830, the
news from Paris had put new life into Russian radicals; French utopian socialism wholly
transformed Russian thought; the Polish rebellion became the rallying point of democrats
everywhere, very much as did the Republic in the Spanish civil war a century later. But the
rebellion was crushed, and all embers of the great conflagration, at any rate so far as open
expression was concerned, were by 1848 virtually stamped out? In St. Petersburg no less than in
Warsaw. To observers in western Europe, sympathetic and hostile alike, the autocracy seemed
Europe, not only because of the decisive part played in subsequent Russian history by
revolutionary socialism, heralded by the Manifesto composed by Marx and Engels to celebrate
its birth; but more immediately because of the effect which the failure of the European revolution
was destined to have upon Russian public opinion, and in particular upon the Russian
revolutionary movement. Berlin highlights the French efforts to pump blood like a heart into
Russian revolutionists, which helped to restore socialist ideas, which was a basis of Russian
culture from the beginning, and gave the uprisers hope that if they band together, regardless of
origin, they can kill the toxicity of the current government. The other revolution that had
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happened in the past, before the Russian revolution really took off, gave the Russian people
hope, as they could see many had successfully overthrown exploitive governments. The joining
of the Russian people helped to develop their culture, and the discussion of what form of
government they will use to replace the tsar. The union of the Russian people against the tsarist
rule sparked discussion of foreign ideas introduced by the French, and the revival of cultural
ideas helped to pave a road to revolution, and the construction of one of the worlds most
successful empires.
culture, and enriched an otherwise failing state. The primarily socialist population felt threatened
by capitalist ideas, which was the main reason the populace banded together in order to preserve
their rich history and what they felt were the right government policies, which simultaneously
accelerated the industrialization of Russia, giving the country more ground to become a world
powerhouse. William A Pelz says in his article, War Leads to Revolution: Russia(1917), Central
Europe(1918-19), that If the war to end all wars was a disaster for the commoners of the West,
it was, if possible, even worse for the people of the Russian Empire. Backward economically and
as deeply superstitious as it was religious, Russia was a historical curiosity. French financial
capital had invested heavily in attempts to modernize this land, as had the British and Americans.
Between 1890 and 1904, the total railroad mileage within Russia doubled. In addition, national
production of coal, iron, and steel doubled during the last five years of the nineteenth century.
The Russian bourgeoisie, with its ties to Paris and London, was European in mindset. Likewise,
the radical leaders were far better schooled in revolutionary theory than one might expect. As
William A Pelz states, Russia was a historical curiosity, meaning they asked many questions, and
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sought answers, augmenting their culture, and making great advancements technologically.
Historically, Russia has always sought to be the most sophisticated country, and the working
class exposure to European influence swayed beliefs to be like that of Europeans, growing the
socialist mindset across the state. The adoption of socialist policies and ideologies were in favor
of the people, and while later on down the road the corruption of leaders would harm the country
as a whole, the ideas that follow socialism outweighed the negatives. Yes, Russia could have
gone down the capitalist road, and go against the people, but the country would have suffered
more, making the wealthy even more rich, and increase the class gap, which is what the people
wanted to avoid, which they did when adopting socialism. Everyone was given a purpose, and
could work for their own good, and the betterment of the people, rapidly expanding in
technologies unheard of by the public, and the enrichment of the culture that followed the
unification of the population under a socialist authority. In the end, Russias adoption of socialist
policies and working towards the growth of the community as a whole, rather than taking the
direction towards a class structure with large gaps, gave power to the people, and grew the
country culturally and physically, as the Russian society shared more ideas freely, and labored
together, and eventually would go on to fight many wars together, many of which they played a
The unification of Russia under a socialist regime enriched, and preserved the already
established culture, and the establishment of a workers union accelerated the technological
advancements of an otherwise failing state. The Russian empires former glory was soon restored
when revolutionists overthrew a corrupt tsar, and paved a path for Russia to become a world