Chapter 21: Revolution, Socialism, and Global Conflict
This chapter was about the spread of communism in the 20th century. Socialism is an idea
created by Karl Marx. Marx believed that the capitalist system would be inefficient and would
collapse on itself through a revolution by the Proletariat against the Bourgeoisie. The new
government would then actively work towards abolition of private property, and this would
result in socialism. Marx considered an industrialized society to be a requirement for this type
of upheaval to occur.
Although many countries became communist in the 20th century, the book focuses on
comparing Russia’s communism with China’s communism. Both found inspiration in the
French Revolution and had a vision of a modern and industrial future, one that honored
economic and political equality.
Russia’s Revolution happened quickly. It lasted only one year, throughout 1917. The upheaval
began because of discontent with Tsar Nicholas II, who was in charge during the years of
WWI. He had to give up his throne, which landed in the hands of the Provisional Government.
These leaders proved to be inadequate. They couldn’t fix any social or economic problems,
nor could they take Russia out of the war. This government was composed of middle-class
politicians and socialist leaders, and their leadership was ineffective because of the divide in
their ideology. Amidst all the chaos, the Bolsheviks took over with their leader, Lenin. They
advocated an end to war and redistribution of land for the peasants. They held a coup d’etat
on the capital, St. Petersburg. The Bolsheviks were able to take Russia out of the war like the
people wanted. However, the Bolsheviks had authoritarian tendencies
China’s revolution was slightly different. Their revolution lasted decades, and Marx’s ideas
were still relatively new to them. Thee Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) leader was Mao
Zedong, and their opponents who were in power at the time were the Guomindang
(Nationalists). The CCP found support in rural areas that were being neglected by the
Guomindang. Mao Zedong was committed to the liberation of women, but these advances
were stopped short due to complaints by the men at the time. The CCP’s accomplishments
gave them a lot of support. They were able to protect parts of China against the Japanese
invasions.
Out of all the topics in our textbook, I found this chapter most familiar to me. We did a lot of
simulations on them in high school. We tried to simulate the Russian Revolution once over a
period of a few weeks and it wasn’t easy. We really thought our grade depended on whether
or not we praised the leader well enough. We had to deal with ridiculous rules like having
certain books banned, having points taken away from our grade if we sneezed in class, and
earning points by creating posters to praise the Glorious Leader.
A book I would recommend reading to understand the Russian Revolution better is Animal
Farm. The book simplifies many of the Bolshevik’s authoritarian tendencies, such as their use
of fear, propaganda, and censorship. It directly references many events that led to the rise of
Stalin. Read this book if you haven’t read it already as a requirement in high school. One
reading I really liked that references the communist revolution in China is Kitchen God’s Wife.
It’s about a woman named Winnie who lives in a time where the Nationalist party was in
power against the communists. I love the characters in this book. They are so real and
relatable. I probably made these books sound very boring, but they aren’t. I just didn’t want to
spoil the plot because they’re so good that I want it to be a surprise.
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!
Comments
Post a Comment