World History

World History 3201 Learning Outcomes вЂ" Unit 2

1.) Marxism : The body of philosophical, political, economic and sociological ideas associated with Karl Marx (1818-1883) and his life-long collaborator Frederick Engels (1820-1895). The term is also used more generally to refer to work in the social sciences and humanities that employs key ideas and concepts from Marx and Engels' original writings. The core of Marxist ideas is the claim that each historical period has a distinct mode of production that rests upon particular forces - or technological organization - of production and distinct ways of organizing social relationships between people in the economy. This mode of production then exerts the primary influence in shaping social relations within the society in general as well as its politics, law and intellectual ideas.

Bolsheviks : Led by V. I. Lenin, the Bolsheviks were a centralized, disciplined party of professional revolutionaries. They dedicated themselves to overthrowing the Czar--the emperor of Russia--and to the establishment of a classless society. After their successful revolution in November 1917, however, the Bolsheviks were often ruthless toward those they considered enemies of the revolution, including many groups who had fought for decades against Czarist rule and in support of a revolution. Emma Goldman, an early supporter of the revolution, was especially troubled by the Bolsheviks' suppression of free speech and the political activities of the Russian anarchists.

March Revolution : The February Revolution of 1917 (March 1917 of the Gregorian calendar), which led directly to the fall of the autocracy of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last Tsar of Russia, and which sought to establish in its place a democratic republic. Kerensky released Bolshevik leaders hoping they would join the provisional government but instead they became the Red Guards (later the Red Army). Vladimir Lenin created ten Bolshevik policies, among them "Abolish all State Debt," meaning any international debt the country had previously held was now considered eliminated..

Provisional Government : A temporary government assembled during times of change

Petrograd Soviet : The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, usually called the Petrograd Soviet, was the soviet (workers' council) in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), Russia established in March 1917 after the February Revolution as the representative body of the city's workers.The Petrograd Soviet became important during the Russian Revolution leading up to the October Revolution as a rival power center to the Provisional Government.

The October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, refers to a revolutionвЂ"as part of the Russian RevolutionвЂ"that began with a coup d'etat traditionally dated to October 25, 1917 (November 7, N.S.).[1] It was the second phase of the overall Russian Revolution of 1917, after the February Revolution of the same year. The October Revolution overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and gave the power to the Soviets dominated by Bolsheviks. It was followed by the Russian Civil War (1917вЂ"1922) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

Collectivization : A change in property relations from private ownership to group ownership, a step below ownership by the state. Policy of compulsory collectivization of agriculture was announced on December 27, 1929, by Stalin; it began on February 1, 1930. At the time the kulaks had seized the Soviet state by the throat, organizing a veritable strike against food supplies for the cities.

Kulaks : A Russian term meaning fist, popularly used to refer to rich peasants who owned land and hired poor peasants to work it. Lenin described the kulaks as "exploiters and profiteers who used their surplus grain to enrich themselves at the expense of the starving non-agricultural parts of Russia."

Stalin “Purges” : Under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, tens of millions of ordinary individuals were executed or imprisoned in labour camps that were little more than death camps. Perceived political orientation was the key variable in these mass atrocities. But gender played an important role, and in many respects the Purge period of Soviet history can be considered the worst gendercide of the twentieth century.

2.) For Marx, the analysis of social class, class structures and changes in those structures are key to understanding capitalism and other social systems or modes of production. In the Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels comment that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

The bourgeoisie or capitalists are the owners of capital, purchasing and exploiting labour power, using the surplus value from employment of this labour power to accumulate or expand their capital. It is the ownership of capital and its use to exploit labour and expand capital are key here. Being wealthy is, in itself, not sufficient to make one a capitalist (e.g. managers in the state sector or landlords). What is necessary is the active role of using this wealth to make it self-expansive through employment and exploitation of labour

The proletariat are owners of labour power (the ability to work), and mere owners of labour power, with no other resources than the ability to work with their hands, bodies, and minds. Since these workers have no property, in order to survive and obtain an income for themselves and their families, they must find employment work for an employer. This means working for a capitalist-employer in an exploitative social relationship.

3.) Russia entered the first World War with great hopes of victory over Germany. However, when the czar led his nation into the cataclysm, he exposed his long suffering people to a series of bloody defeats that revealed too clearly the backwardness of the regime, the economic weakness of the state, and the incompetence of the leadership. By 1917, Russian soldiers had lost the will to fight and Russia was on its knees. During the war, Grigori Rasputin, a peasant Monk who claimed mystical powers, appeared to exert powerful political influence over the czar’s German born wife. While Czar Nicholas was away at the front, Russia fell into anarchy. Rasputin was brutally murdered but his personal excesses and ties to the monarchy further destroyed the image of the czar in the eyes of his people and provided much gossip for his critics. At home, starving citizens began to riot for an end to the war and the desperate poverty. An expanding middle class felt it had little future and railed against the