Contradiction in Karl Marx’s Prediction: Socialist Revolution in Russia

1. Karl Marx predicted that a socialist revolution could only be successful in the most advanced capitalist countries with a large proportion of factory workers – the proletariat (England, Germany, the U. S. or France). However , Contrary to his “scientific “ prediction, the socialist revolution succeeded in the most backwards agrarian country – the Russian Empire. Answer : Karl Marx Stated that socialist revolution could only be successful in the most advanced capitalist countries instead of the most backwards agrarian countries.

It is predicted wrongly to me because for socialism to work you need to exterminate a certain amount of the population and for that to work you have to exterminate the “middle class” because these people will fight hardest to keep their property and because the most advanced capitalist countries have the biggest Middle classes the system would never be able to work because of the vast power of the middle class.

Why this worked in the “the most backwards agrarian countries “like the Russian empire is because of the following reasons: Because the Tsarist regime pre-WW1 oppressed the lower classes there became more and more poverty among the lower classes and the rural agrarian peasants what made room for more strikes and strikes with the goal of securing ownership of the land they worked on, Second the incredibly industrialization that Russia was going through followed that the urban areas where getting overcrowded and the population had to live under horrible and unhealthy living standards resulted in even more strikes a year and that kept building up until the revolution. When World War 1 broke out the chaos got even worse and because the army Conscriptions took skilled workers and brought them into the army whereby these where replaced by unskilled peasants what had an impact on the productivity, And because of poor railroad conditions the city’s developed mass famines what resulted into mass abandonment of the city’s in search for food.

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Because of this the supply of good to the army; for the war effort began to dwindle and the army started to suffer from lack of equipment and protection from the elements what led to the army revolting against the tsar to. The conclusion, Because the tsar misused his power to oppress the lower classes, and the poor conditions of the working class in urban area’s gave room for the idea of change, Change to equality, Change for more right to the lower classes and an opening to an ideology of Socialism what gave them that option, And because of desperation for that Change, that idea people where ignorant to see the consequences to what It could lead to. 2.

The New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced in 1922 saved the young Soviet Union from the economic collapse and the Bolshevik government from being ousted. In spite of its success, in the end of 1920s NEP was dismantled, which caused a new wave of economic hardships and unprecedented terror. What made the Soviet government under Stalin’s leadership reverse this successful economic policy and resort to such drastic measures in the process? Argue your point Lenin realized that war communism had failed and that he had to choose a different approach to gain the trust of the people again, he therefor chose NEP ( The new economic policy ) he had to choose this system because the people started to revolt against the communist system and he was scared that he would lose control.

NEP was planned from the beginning as a between step for Lenin as he says “ NEP is a strategic retreat and a defeat that would be made up once the country was economically healthy” He gave back the free market system to the Russian people and this created the “kulaks” class the middle class they whir the major component for the incredible increase of the Russian economy with some impressive benchmarks, By 1925 agricultural production was at the same level as pre-war level, by 1923 private trade was responsible for about 90 % of foods and goods and by 1924 industrial production returned to the 1913 level. Lenin also started to change his enemy’s from not only the nepmen but also the kulaks because “ Only big capital possessed the qualities that were useful to progress : its ability to organize on a large scale, its tendency to plan its sense of discipline. Therefor the kulaks and nepmen remained object of resentment, envy and suspicion. Even politically the NEP system was greatly feared because they considered it a return of Capitalism so Stalin came up with Collectivization after he thought that the economy was fully grown enough, he exterminated and imprisoned almost all of the Kulaks class he portrayed them as enemies of the state and used their labor as slave labor, The area’s that revolted against this had to pay for it, Stalin tripled the quota’s leaving famine in the area’s Ukraine, southern Russia and north Caucuses the people started to starve, Stalin called this “war by starvation” it was to break the resistance against Collectivism.

Collectivism was used to support the massive industrialization by feeding the extremely big workforce that would give the soviets a massive modern military establishment, the heavy industry grew by 400 % making it into an industrial big shot, To support the industrialization Stalin created the largest slave labor ever seen in mankind. Conclusion; There was an idea that drove men like Stalin to horrific deeds like these and that idea was Communism where everyone was equal and everyone served the great nation, everything that came between these men and their idea’s where exterminated like the Nepmen in 1918 and the Kulaks in 1929 because they were a threat to the great idea because they supported Capitalism but why exterminate them?

They supported the economy made sure the people whir happy by selling them goods and services. It was all because the threat that the government could not control their power and that they could revolt against the system if they became to economically powerful. So the best way was to exterminate them and give away their land so they would not be a threat anymore and the people would be happy because they would all get a piece of land. Another reason why Stalin chose to get rid of NEP and start collectivism was that he could use arrested kulaks as his slave labor force to reinforce the industrialization growth of soviet union because as he said it is cheap, substitutes machine and the most severe discipline could be used.

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