Читать книгу So Blue They're Red - Roy Court - Страница 4

Russian Society was continuing to worsen under Tsardom rule as they only cared about power and wealth, while peasants continued to starve, the monarchy celebrated, as Russia continued to fall behind the rest of Europe, its economy fell with it. Karl Marx, co-author of the Communist Manifesto stated, "The Bourgeoisie," or aristocratic upper-class was in a “supreme rule of the proletarians," a lower labor class of workers. The Communist ideology was purely based on Socialism, an ideology that is plaguing the United States in the modern-day. Socialism is the ideology in which the means of all production in a country are held by everyone, not only the upper class, and in Marxism, Socialism is a transitional period between Capitalism and Communism, and many left-wing radicals are proclaiming themselves, “Marxists.” Russian society, and most of all societies at the time were purely based on labor as production involving factories had been established, this included Russia. The Industrial Revolution had taken its course on the economy and ever since the 1600s, Russia wanted to be more modern. Karl Marx was a German Philosopher, and with the help of Frederick Engels, helped co-write the Communist Manifesto starting with the infamous words “A specter is haunting Europe.” The Manifesto had stated many faults in the Bourgeois society and had spread incredibly fast across Russia. The book had been published in 1848, during the time of the Industrial Revolution and major advances in factories and production the Bourgeoisie had been rich and heavily dependent on the proletarians for the production and payment. The proletarians or workers, barely being paid, were doing much for the Bourgeoisie. Karl Marx and others produced the idea of a society in which there was no Bourgeoisie or proletariat, instead, Communism would be a classless society, free of any unfair Bourgeois. The Communist Manifesto had been heavily about laborers but had also mentioned Plebeians of ancient Rome, Plebeians being the commoners of Rome, while the Patricians being the upper class of Rome; similar to the Bourgeoisie of Russia and France. Julius Caesar was apart of the “Populares,” who supported the Plebeians of Rome, who were the commoners, and gave massive reforms to them in his short-lived reign. The Patricians in the Roman senate realized Caesar;s lust for his own power, and his mass reforms given to the Plebeians, and in 44 B.C. they assassinated Caesar. It has been shown that the lower class has not been cared for, especially in the United States; however, communism was not going to work like the way Marx had planned, many communist leaders in these newly formed communist countries would take power for themselves, a prime example being Joseph Stalin or Kim Il-Sung. When being under communism there are several different views of governing under Communism, Marxism some of which being Stalinism, Leninism, Maoism, and even Trotskyism. Stalinism, being to rule with extreme force and to be forceful when removing the bourgeoisie and to make quick industrialization, many things Stalin had done in his reign. Leninism is to have a dictatorship primarily led by the Proletariats. Trotskyism, similar to Leninism when being a proletariat dictatorship, instead disapproves of the Stalinist ways and favors anarchism and syndicalism; however, Trotskyism is primarily based upon Marxism. All of these theories of governing under communism are all connected of course to Marxism, the main theory of living under the communistic rule. Many living under communistic rule at the time of the USSR’s existence would describe themselves to share one of these ideologies or, secretly, none at all; however, the way communism was supposed to work and was stated in the Communist Manifesto was much different from how it was performed. The Communist Manifesto had some dramatic inspiration, thus why it spread so vastly, an example being the very end when it states, “WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES UNITE!” Inspiring many proletarians to turn towards the Communist theory. The result of the Communist Manifesto had been the Russian Revolution and Russia’s two-year-long civil war. Russia’s fate had been in the hands of the Communist Manifesto, the manifesto had started and inspired the rise of communism and communist regimes all over the world; however, communism, although flawed, contains truth within it. The rich upper-class always have power and influence and have entitlement amidst all of us commoners, a clear example being during the Covid-19 outbreak as they try to appeal to the fans and people while they make themselves look like fools. The rich are always going to be in power using the money they have to influence others. Some are humbler, not showing off wealth to the poor or normal class; however, the rich are still existing, and depending on the person they will be entitled. The theory that the rich are favored in capitalist societies is true, however; capitalism has proven more effective than communism, shown by the famines and many failures in the Soviet Union; however, despite these failures, many socialists exist today including, Bernie Sanders, Tony Blair, Jeremy Corbyn, and Cherie Blair. There are many more than this; however, these are the famous socialists today, clearly, most of these socialists are not liked by many. These people claim to be Democratic socialists or just socialists, thus these people are disliked by many in England and the United States as many of the socialists listed are indeed English. Jeremy Clarkson is a famous British show host for the Grand Tour and earlier in his career Top Gear, Clarkson was asked for the opening of the Grand Tour’s new season, “Seamen'' about Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy had mocked him and told how communism does not work and never will, stating, “Communism doesn’t work, it dangerously doesn’t work." This statement, though irrelevant to Marxism, shows the view of these socialists, socialism and Communism are generally hated ideas, and quite frankly the Communist Manifesto had started the spread of them. If the Communist Manifesto never existed, Bernie Sanders would not either, and thus, in reality Bernie Sanders is related to the Communist Manifesto, Sander’s ideologies are Marxist. Though the book is stated as being the “Communist Manifesto'' it does state the ideas of socialism in it. Not only did the Communist Manifesto result in the Russian Revolution but it had resulted in the creation of these many socialists today; however, as we know Communism does not work, and it is affecting relations with China, due to its Communist government. The Communist Manifesto had resulted in other things apart from socialists, that being communists. There are communist parties in many places, even in America, even one of my Lithuanian relatives was a communist, the Communist Manifesto was an important thing not only for Russia, but important for many countries, one of them being China, during the 1920s Chinese communists fought against the Chinese Republic after the Communist Manifesto caused the rise of Communism in the Eastern Asia. The Communist Manifesto had resulted in these parties forming in the first place. These communist parties would exist throughout the world. The Soviet Union had influenced Mongolia to become communist after its independence was gained in 1921. The Communist Manifesto had caused and resulted in many things happening, the Communist Manifesto made its mark and impact on the World; however, this was not the only book Karl Marx and Frederick Engels had planned to write. The Communist Manifesto stated in its pages how many languages it would be translated in, showing Karl marx's confidence in the manifesto's spread, which it clearly did. The Communist Manifesto was translated in many languages, and of course was translated into English, and during the 1930s the communist party in America was growing during the Great Depression. The communists in America were inspired by the Communist Manifesto, years earlier than the Great Depression. They founded their party known as the CPUSA. The CPUSA was formed in 1919, three years before the creation of the Soviet Union and is a strong believer in Marxism-Leninism. It, like mentioned, grew highly in the 1930s during the Great Depression due to the struggling economy. The CPUSA has a website and still talks about the Communist Manifesto and still, 170 years later the Communist Manifesto is referenced and spoken about. The rise of CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) is influenced by the Communist Manifesto. In reality, many things are a direct result of the Communist Manifesto’s popularity, including the BLM movement which is a Marxist movement, directly the ideology that Karl Marx himself had. Though the Communist Manifesto mainly served its purpose influencing Europe the ideologies it created caused many events to happen in the United States, especially recent modern American History. The Communist Manifesto will forever remain in history as one of the most influential pieces of writing ever, no matter your view on communism. However, even the Communist Manifesto was caused by something, and that was Industrialization. Industrialization led to the socialist rise because of the class division it had created. The industrial revolution made it clear to people, who were poor and who were rich. Especially in Russia, which was still performing serfdom, centuries after the Middle Ages ended. The working class, or proletariat were working under aristocratic businessmen, these men would be the primary source of the economy at the time of the Industrial Revolution. People who owned factories were usually very aristocratic. This industrialization led to the creation of the Communist Manifesto. If the world had not gotten through the industrial period, we would not have the technology we have today. We also would not have Communist countries either. The Industrial Revolution caused many breakthroughs including the socialist ideology, the problems the United States is having now would not be possible without the Industrial Revolution, and industrialization in general. These factories have died down and these working-class problems are gone, socialist problems have only spanned out of the radical liberals within the Democratic party, CHAZ, and other radical leftist rioters; however, if any socialist problems exist in the USA, they are usually caused by ignorant people hopping upon a bandwagon. . Industrialization is the cause of socialism in the world, without the Industrial Revolution the rise of the Soviet Union would not be able to happen at all, and thus, its rise is very important in modern society and history. Industrialization is also a big part of Stalin’s ideology; however, his way of industrialization would be towards everyone and not only the aristocrats. Trump, the President of the United States, and an excellent businessman claims that China has taken many jobs from the US. This is not entirely false as China is a big producer, and has industrialized since its beginning in Communism. Trump’s expertise in business has caused the striving of the Economy. Trump had made the risk to shut down the economy and it was a risk worth taking. The Communist Manifesto created a whole nation, the Communist Manifesto would cause the rise of Lenin, Lenin was the leader of the Bolsheviks, and the leader of the Russian Revolution in the first place. Lenin, in the eyes of the Russian peasants, was a glorious leader who would lead the Russians to very good things. The Russian Monarch was slowly falling apart, and the main reason was the continuation of Serfdom and economic troubles, and though the Middle Ages ended long ago, Russian Society was still in serfdom. The economic trouble had caused strikes; but even before Lenin had come to lead, revolutions and strikes had begun in Russia. None of them had succeeded, and even during the 1600s, there were strikes. Tsar Alexander II had tried to reform Russia and move away from Serfdom while the rest of the European countries had already industrialized.; however, lords wanted compensation in which these farmers could not afford His son, Alexander III would take over and would suppress the nation only subtracting from what his father had done. After his reign and death, Nicholas II would take over and openly admit his utter misunderstanding of rule, and frankly he misunderstood rule, and under his rule, the country spiraled into chaos, and the primary revolution before Lenin’s great revolution was the 1905 Revolution which was sparked when peaceful protesters led by Father Gopan were shot and killed by the military, after they wanted to deliver a petition to the Tsar requesting peace for reform, this had been known as Bloody Sunday, and in the eyes of the poor, the Tsardom was extremely outdated, and it showed in Russia’s failing economy as it fell quickly behind the success of industrial countries, while Russia had still been relying on agriculture, out of this chaos many began to think about how to solve the issue. This is where communism in Russia came into play; while others were thinking of a government similar to many western European nations, other radicals like Vladimir Lenin were thinking of implementing Communism. Lenin had read the Communist Manifesto and was very supportive of the Marxist ideology, and after he was discovered to be anti-tsarist, he was punished by being exiled to Siberia, afterward, he moved to Europe where he would meet with other Marxists and eventually be exiled to Switzerland, he would also write many socialist newspapers that were exported to Russia. In Europe, he would join many socialist parties, and in the Russian Socialist Democratic Labor Party would cause a divide, creating his party the Bolsheviks (большевики) or “majority” in Russian, and the rival of the Bolsheviks was the Mensheviks (меньшевики) meaning “minority” in Russian, and were the less radical faction that split as a result of Lenin. Lenin would continue to write his socialist newspapers even after the split. Lenin thought it would only take one revolution to completely take over the Tsarist government and change it completely, while in St. Petersburg Nicholas II’s advisor Sergei Witte had begun industrialization and many factories had begun to be built. Many of the poor Russian workers had been working in terrible conditions under the rich Russian “Bourgeoisie,” and despite this industrialization, it changed nothing. People were still starving, poor, and angry. Nicholas II wanted a quick way to improve on his growing negative image, his father, Alexander III wanted to expand into Manchuria, as well as to build a railway to warm water for economic maritime trade; however, the railway went straight through Korea which was controlled by Japan and would eventually cause war, the Russo-Japanese war. Alexander II would see the finished product of the railroad, and it would be under him that the Japanese declared war. The Russian Empire wanted to keep expanding into Manchuria while Japan was invading Korea, and tensions were high as both countries wanted to invade similar territories. The Emperor of Japan, Emperor Meiji, in order to dissipate tensions, wanted to negotiate, and his statesman, Itō Hirobumi began to negotiate with the Russians. They stated that Japan would not interfere with anything Russia was doing in Manchuria if Russia did not interfere with Korea. Nicholas II and Sergei Witte, his advisor, did not think Japan was able to win a war if Russia was to finish the Railway. In 1891, the construction of the railway began, and in 1904, when construction was done, three hours before an official declaration of war, Japan attacked a Russian fleet in Port-Arthur, officially starting the Russo-Japanese war. Nicholas saw this as a way to redeem himself in the eyes of the Russian people, as he thought the war would be over quickly with a Russian victory; however, this did not come. The Russian Empire quickly began losing the war, and eventually, the Japanese would win the war, descending the Russian people into more hate for the Tsar, and the Russian Empire was disastrously humiliated by the Japanese. After this Bloody Sunday would occur starting the 1905 Revolution. Strikes throughout the nation had begun, peasants, liberals, and workers were all striking for reform, and soon sailor mutinies began to erupt. Marxists began to exploit the revolution. Leon Trotsky and other Marxists began creating elected councils which they called “Soviets,” which supplied workers and planned strikes, and in order to save the Tsar, Sergei introduced a manifesto creating the Duma, a liberal assembly meaning the liberals would get what they wanted, governmental power. The Duma was a parliament-like meeting, Duma derives from “думаъ” (dumat) which means to “think.” The Duma started in the Tsardom of Muscovy during the Middle ages with Boyars, these Boyars were the lords of Russia and most Baltic areas. Boyars were highest on the social scale under the Tsar, and it would be under Nicholas II that the Duma would be constitutional. The Duma dissipated after the rise of the USSR and communism in the Russian Empire, but in 1993 the Duma was reinstated by Boris Yeltsin. In the Russian 1993 constitution, 450 members would be in the Duma each having a four-year term. After the Russo-Japanese war, the military dismantled the Soviets and arrested the leaders of them including, the infamous Leon Trotsky. Many uprisings were soon put down with military force. Nicholas II would create the “Fundamental Laws” before the creation of the Duma in 1906, which stated that the Duma had no effect on actual government and was only to be used to consider, and he would barely call upon the Duma in his reign, only once in 1906, twice in 1907, and once in 1912. During the revolution in his exile in Europe, Lenin tried to radicalize the revolution to create a bigger change using his newspapers; however, as the Duma was weak and did nothing, Lenin’s radicalization could never have worked. Lenin felt an armed revolution would finally implement his communist society. That same year Sergei Witte had passed away, due to a brain tumor, and thus Pyotr Stolypin would replace Witte before him. Pyotr Stolypin would reform agriculture to prevent a future uprising against Tsar Nicholas II, anyone against the Tsar would be killed. Stolypin also introduced harsher crackdowns on possible revolutionaries. The nooses had been renamed to “Stolypin’s Necktie” a sign of oppression and fear under Stolypin, despite the oppression, the economy began to increase. This would discourage any revolution attempt, if people were not suffering, there would be no reason to turn to communism. The Bolsheviks were not able to do anything, that same year Lenin met Joseph Stalin, a young Georgian. Stalin was a criminal, robbing banks for Lenin’s party, the Bolsheviks. He had been arrested several times and eventually exiled to Siberia, the two had met at a Soviet convention in Finland. Lenin liked Stalin at the time and greatly saw him as an asset for the Bolsheviks. Eventually however once the Civil War had ended Stalin was promoted to General Secretary, by Lenin; however, Stalin used his power to gain much support after the Civil War. Stalin wanted more power and he used his high rank to get it. As the economy continued to rise Nicholas II met Rasputin, who was a poor peasant who was said to have magic healing powers; he became famous as he ventured into the capital. Rasputin was of great mystery and interest to Nicholas and his wife Alexandra. Their son, Alexei had hemophilia, a rare condition in which blood doesn't clot normally, Alexei had inherited it from his mother who had gotten the disease from Queen Victoria, her maternal grandmother. Alexandra requested help from Rasputin for Alexei in 1906, Rasputin did in fact help Alexei, by supposedly taking Alexei off Aspirin which was prescribed by Alexei’s doctor. Aspirin worsened the condition as it interfered with “the stickiness of blood pallets.” Aspirin is also known for being a blood-thinning agent. After Rasputin used “magic” to heal Alexei, Rasputin became close to the Royal family over the next few years things improved until 1914. In Austria Archduke Franz Ferdinand was driving in an open top car, parading. Serbian nationals including Nedeljko Čabrinović threw a bomb missing Ferdinand and blowing up a car behind him. After missing and taking a wrong turn, Gavrilo Princip shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Russia had entered the war as it was an ally to France and Serbia, which Austria declared war upon, thus, Russia and France are dragged into WWI against Germany and Austria, St. Petersburg was soon renamed to Petrograd due to its Germanic name. Many were patriotic including Marxist extremists. Marxists did not want German imperialists to win, and thus many were patriotic despite the war being mainly imperialist, and would rather have Russian imperialists win, despite many supporting Russia, Lenin did not. Lenin thought that if Russia was to lose, he could overthrow the Tsar. World War I was going badly for Russia, soldiers were deserting in high numbers, and the economy struggled. Peasants were starving once again, and anger started to sweep the nation as the country continued to fail the people. Nicholas thought that he could win the war if he was leading the military in the eastern front. Tsar Nicholas II declared himself the Commander in Chief and had left to lead the military; however, he was failing to lead them. Queen Alexandra was left to lead the government. Due to Rasputin’s close relationship with Alexandra many thought that Rasputin was influencing the Queen and deliberately trying to destroy Russia. Rasputin would be murdered when two Russian nobles had invited him for a drink of wine laced with cyanide. Of course, Rasputin had no idea, he drank several glasses of the wine with no visible effect, until they shot him after falling to the ground, one of the men had dressed in Rasputin's clothes and was leaving. They had returned only for Rasputin to jump on one of the men, still alive only to be shot a few more times than thrown in a freezing cold river. Some still suspect that he was alive when they threw him in. Rasputin had destroyed the Tsar's already terrible reputation, and more anger erupted in the country. Suffering had begun, Lenin’s dream of a radicalized revolution could happen. On March 8th, 1917 women peasants started a strike and the next day many men joined in as well. Soldiers also began striking as food in Russia had dissipated. Many workers re-introduced the Soviets creating the Petrograd Soviet, and many liberals wanted Tsar Nicholas to abdicate. Soon enough the rioters took complete control of Petrograd, the capital. Nicholas soon tried to return to Petrograd however, he was stopped by generals and liberals. Liberals had convinced the generals that if Nicholas was to abdicate, rioters would calm down and the revolution would end. Nicholas reluctantly obliged and abdicated; however, the issue was to figure out who was to replace him, Alexei was not ready and Nicholas’s brother, Michael Alexandrovich declined, Micheal would later be murdered by Bolsheviks in 1918. This second revolution was called the February Revolution, and unlike the 1905 Revolution, the February Revolution had finally removed Tsar Nicholas II from power, and despite the revolution being perfect for Lenin to take over, he was not able to return to Russia; however, Germany had a plan to take down Russia. They set Lenin on a train to Petrograd; without a Tsar there had become an empty position of power, therefore, the country continued to spiral into chaos without leadership and a power-vacuum had opened. Liberals had declared power and had created the provisional government. However, many soviets had begun to be established by many Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries. Despite two powerful types of government, the Provisional Government was declared the official government, while the Soviet would direct the military and workers, when Lenin returned, he was extremely angry at the events that had passed while he was in exile. In Lenin’s April Theses, he had disapproved of the Provisional Government and the Soviets, despite the Tsar’s abdication many were still hungry, and Russia was still in WWI. However much good came out of the provisional government and soviets, elections would be held, secret police disbanded, and the death penalty eliminated. Lenin had little influence as the government improved on some issues. However, Lenin’s Bolshevik decree would appeal to many starving peasants, “Peace, Land, Bread” was the Bolshevik decree which was promised to all who joined the Bolsheviks, all of these three things had not been done or given with the Provisional Government and the Soviets, as well as the decree, Lenin wanted all power to the Soviets, which meant removing the Provisional Government from power. The decree improved the Bolsheviks' popularity as more and more joined them as everything they wanted, Peace, Land, Bread, were not going to be provided from the Provisional Government or the Soviets. Mensheviks began to switch sides including Leon Trotsky. Alexander Kerensky, the minister of war continued Russia’s involvement in WWI. He thought that more Russian victories would result in a boost of Russian patriotism, however, the Russians continued to be defeated by Germany on the eastern front, and as more defeats occurred, the economy continued to worsen. Many started to revolt once again as strikes began to occur. Bolsheviks stayed out of the chaos however many of the revolutionaries had many Bolshevik statements like, “All power to the Soviets” on them. Thus, Kerensky who became prime minister arrested Bolshevik leaders. Leon Trotsky was one of them. Lenin was seen as a German agent, he fled to Finland. Kerensky had managed to survive and end the violence. However, the revolution was not over. Many were still angry liberals and Bourgeoisie were among them, Kerensky in order to appease them promoted, Lavr Kornilov to a general, who was very anti-socialist and anti-revolutionary. However, Kornilov was more interested in power, hated liberal reforms and hated the socialist army divisions Kornilov and his army headed towards Petrograd to remove the Soviet and take power. Kerensky soon released Bolshevik leaders to help him. Many workers also joined in the defense of Petrograd. Workers re-directed the railways, cut communication, and encouraged soldiers to desert. Kornilov’s coup dissipated and he was killed, after the Bolsheviks had defended Petrograd and the revolution, Bolshevik popularity increased even further than before, many peasants had also armed themselves during the Kornilov’s attempt at a takeover, and once again, Bolsheviks became in control of the Petrograd Soviet with Trotsky as the Soviet’s Chairman. Lenin returned, and the Bolsheviks planned their attempt of takeover, after the two previous revolutions Lenin’s great revolution was almost ready; some Bolsheviks were worried, and published newspapers about the revolution, giving Kerensky knowledge of the revolution that was soon to come, Bolsheviks were beginning to disappear as they were being arrested. Though Lenin had returned he was still hiding, thus Leon Trotsky armed the workers for the revolution which Lenin thought had to occur immediately, the revolution began, and quickly, many Bolsheviks stormed buildings, and took control, no one had been disrupting their attempt. They soon arrived at the Winter Palace, the main governmental building and surrounded the building laying siege, Kerensky had left earlier before anyone had arrived. Lenin finally made a public appearance and led the workers into the palace to arrest the Provisionals inside. Kerensky had introduced the Battalion of Death made up by Russian women, who surrendered immediatly when the Bolsheviks stormed the Palace. The Provisionals were arrested, and Lenin got his power. He was finally in control of the entirety of Russia, afterward Lenin established the Council of Commissars, he allowed elections in which they lost to the Social Revolutionaries, claiming that the elections were unethical and unfair. Lenin claimed that the Social Revolutionaries were anti-revolutionary, and soon after Bolsheviks stormed their assembly and closed the assembly down. Many saw him as a dictator, when many went to protest similarly to Bloody Sunday, they were shot. Lenin had denied working with other socialist parties. He began to crack down on opposition and in 1918, Lenin visited a factory and was shot two times, he had almost died, however, miraculously he survived. He had become very paranoid, and after his near-death, Lenin established a secret police called “Cheka,” further continuing to suppress the people, Lenin had not forgotten of his promises of peace, and he soon promoted Trotsky to Commissar of Foreign Affairs, and sent Trotsky to establish a peace agreement with Germany. Germany wanted the land the Russians had captured, many were split on whether to agree or disagree with the terms. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a meeting in which he stated that the Russians were done fighting but were not going to give up land to Germany. Trotsky thought that Germany had been militarily drained; however, he was incredibly wrong, and the Germans invaded more of Russia and thus, Lenin moved the capital from Petrograd to Moscow as the Germans moved closer to Petrograd, the capital, soon after the Bolsheviks were soon forced to give close to half of their European territories to Germany in order to make peace, a part of their decree. Many people were now against Lenin, and these groups would form a coalition against the Bolsheviks, and these groups included were: Social Revolutionaries, Liberals, Cossacks, Separatists in several countries, Anarchists, Caucasian states, the Baltic States, The United Kingdom, America, Japan, and France. All of these groups would cause the growth of the Whites, the enemy of the Bolshevik Reds, and the combined enemies of the Reds. Lenin and Leon Trotsky established the Red Army the official army of the Bolsheviks. The Russian Civil War had officially begun. Lenin’s fear had become a reality as the Whites moved towards Moscow, the new capital of Russia, soon enough the Allied powers would leave after its failed intervention, leaving the battle and the war to the Bolshevik Reds and the Russian Whites. The war was leaving the country devastated people were starving and food was diminishing. A famine had occurred during the civil war in 1921, known as the Russian Famine of 1921. The civil war had devastated the country but in Lenin’s eye’s it was necessary to keep the country alive. The Whites had controlled large amounts of land, much more than the Reds, but despite the large amounts of land, they were under-developed, and thus, were not able to produce supplies and weapons for the war effort. Despite the amount of groups against Lenin, they were all fighting for themselves, opposed to fighting Lenin together. They were all very unorganized. While the Reds controlled much smaller amounts of land the industries were located in many Red territories. Leon Trotsky’s expertise and the Whites' disorganization caused the Bolsheviks to win the war. The Red Terror occurred during the Civil War, and was a period in which the Cheka increased arrests and executions for supposed counter-revolutionaries. The number of killed is debated from 12,000 up to 1,000,000, this had been similar to Hitler's own Gestapo. Lenin’s loss of power would begin in the 1920s when he would have several strokes, rendering him unable to speak. Lenin was finally in secure control despite his decline in health. The Soviet Union was formed in 1922 towards the end of the Civil War. The Royal Family had also been brutally murdered during this period. As the White Army approached closer and closer, they were sent into a room where they were told they were to be “safe," but insetad, Bolsheviks had decided to execute them all. A few Bolshevik soldiers had entered the room and fired upon them all. Killing all of the royal family. Before killing them, a man named Yurovsky declared that they had decided to execute them. Nicholas, stunned, asked, “What did you say?” Than proceeded to be shot by Yurosky and the other Bolsheviks. Yurovsky would later die in 1936. Bones and bodies had been found of the Royal Family in the 1990s and many were furious, they had not known how they died or where they had been. They would be put in St. Petersburg attended by very high officials including Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation. The full extent of fury in the Russians had shown indefinitely to the world, as White had also committed atrocities. They had arrived in town killing every single Bolshevik supporter, some of which had their eyes poked out by the Whites, and due to the White’s atrocities, many people sided with the Red’s as the Whites murdered more and more innocent civilians. The Whole Revolution had occurred because of Nicholas II’s incompetence and failure to lead. After he declared himself the leader of the military, his wife had become the leader of the government for a short period of time, Nicholas’s military failure would cause anger and revolution against him. Lenin would finally die in 1924 because of a hemorrhagic stroke. Before he died, he apparently said that Stalin should not be in control. Stalin and Lenin’s relations would deteriorate as Stalin insulted Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya saying that Lenin paid too much attention to her, and before Lenin died, he did not want Stalin to succeed him, despite Lenin promoting him to a powerful position. Lenin ruled pretty strongly and was fairly glorified in his rule. When he died many mourned, he had freed them from the Tsar, murdered millions and now he had died. His body would be preserved in Lenin’s mausoleum. Over the decades his body would be repaired using plastics to replace the decaying part of his body, although disgusting in many eyes, it showed Lenin’s ultimate god-like status among the people of the newly formed Soviet Union. Lenin’s body remains on display, despite the dissipation of the Soviet Union. Many want him to be buried while many who remain in the Russian Communist Party want his body to remain on display. Before his death Lenin promoted Leon Trotsky as Commissar for War and Stalin as General Secretary. Stalin wanted a better rank and more power. However, Stalin soon found that he could use his position to gain much more power. He gave powerful jobs to powerful people who gave him their support. Now control of the newly formed Soviet Union was in between the hands of Trotsky and Stalin, and despite Trotsky’s superiority in intelligence, Stalin would force Trotsky’s exile as he gained more power, and in 1940 Trotsky was assassinated, ordered by Stalin. Stalin was now in control and now he would perform terrible things, Stalin would perform Purges, which was the elimination of people who supposedly disapproved the communist party. Thus, he was deporting or executing people, this was horrible as in total he murdered 17 million people. Stalin would also perform collectivization. Which is the act of taking other people’s food, people, mostly poor people, were working on farms. Communism would make it that these poor people would work for the government. People who would fight back to keep the food that they were growing were killed. Stalin ruled with utter authoritarianism and fear. Stalin’s real name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, but he soon later adopted the last name Stalin, meaning man of steel. He was a very glorified man. Stalin had posters of himself everywhere. Stalin, in the 1930s purged even military officers making his army significantly weaker than normal. Anyone who opposed him would be killed or sent to Siberia. When the USSR went to war with Finland, called the Winter War, they were decimated. Many thousands of Russian soldiers were killed in the Winter war, and it was a devastating loss for the Soviets, which was partly due to Stalin's purges, Stalin had a whole list of people he wished to be killed. In 1939, Hitler made a pact with Stalin, and the both invaded Poland, both taking half. In 1941 Hitler made a surprise invasion of the Soviet Union, known as Operation Barbarossa. The Soviets, completely unprepared, were decimated just as they were in Finland. The Nazis almost made it to Moscow when the winter struck and they were defeated at the Reichstag, the government building in Berlin. On May 8th, May 9th for the Russians, WWII in Europe had officially ended when Hitler killed himself in his bunker. Russians today still say that Stalin was a good man because he had defeated the Nazis, not considering all the people he had murdered. Stalin had defeated the Nazis, but had murdered millions for his incompetence, even his own soldiers. The 17 million people killed, included his soldiers. Stalin, Truman, and Churchill would have a meeting in which Truman told Stalin to have elections for Lithuania, Poland, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Latvia, Slovakia, Georgia, Estonia, and the Ukraine. After Stalin’s death the Soviet Union would annex Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Bringing 15 countries to the Soviet Union Stalin would make all of the Baltic, or east European countries communist, completely unfair, and free like it was requested to be. Stalin would deport many from these countries. He had imprisoned some of his doctors, many left, were too scared to treat him, thus, in 1953, he would die of a Cerebral Hemorrhage, known as the worst man alive. Many people mourned his death crying at the sight of him dead. Stalin had ruined the country for millions. He had industrialized the majority of the country; peasants usually worked on farms that are agricultural, Stalin had replaced much of them with factories making the country more industrial. Stalin’s name described what kind of person he was, the Man of Steel, and he was feared, he was glorified, and Stalin knew this. The USSR faced many new changes including exclusion from N.A.T.O. and World politics. Stalin’s Five-Year Plan changed the country from an agricultural country to an industrial country. The farmers and the poor had become poor. Though the Great depression happened while the communist regime still existed, nothing happened to the Soviet countries because of the communist belief. Russia alone is a big country. But when communism was introduced, the span of Russia had increased. Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, and Kazakhstan. Romania, which is in the area where some of these countries are, never involved the USSR. And Bulgaria, also near these countries had been a separate communist country, though they were separate they were heavily influenced by the country and had established a good relationship with the Soviet Union. But the size of the Soviet Union was huge. The population though, not as big as the US, even though the Soviet Union was much larger. In modern-day Russia, the population is lower than the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was established in 1922 and was completely excluded from trading or selling products. Ruining the economy even more. But as well as that they were excluded from N.A.T.O. and was similar to being excluded from the whole world. Due to being excluded from N.A.T.O. the Soviet Union had created the Warsaw Pact, made up of mostly the Baltic States. But other communist countries were also a problem to the Soviet Union, as when the Sino-Soviet split occurred, a period of tensions between China and the Soviet Union.