DOCSLIB.ORG

Communism – the Failed Experiment, Part II |

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Communism – the Failed Experiment, Part II | act ing-man.co m http://www.acting-man.com/?p=6111 Communism – The Failed Experiment, Part II | January 17, 2011 | Author Pater Tenebrarum Dear Readers, We want to thank all of you who have donated to Acting Man. We are honored by your support. All donations will be used to optimize our services f or you. Should you wish to contribute, press the button below ... An Empire In Disarray – Russia Prior To The Bolshevik Revolution Just as the Marxian theory and ideology must be understood as a product of its time – it was conceived in a time of upheaval that marked the beginning of the end of the monarchies of old Europe, and made use of the statist philosophy of one of these monarchies to establish its scientif ic credentials – so must the actual Bolshevik revolution be seen in the context of its time and place. In hindsight, it almost strikes one as a deplorable 'accident of history', but if Lenin's Bolshevik party had not taken power on November 7 1917, it may well have happened at a later point in time. We will never know f or certain, but it is quite clear that the preconditions that were in place at the time of the revolution were well suited f or its success, even though the Bolsheviks' grip on power was tenuous in the f irst f ew years f ollowing the coup. In order to understand how the Bolsheviks were able to take power, one must look at developments both within and without Russia that ultimately combined to create the ideal environment f or the communist putsch. In the six decades preceding the revolution, the Russian empire became ever more unstable. Being the Czar of Russia meant that one was in one of the world's highest risk occupations – f ollowed closely by the post of Russian minister of the interior, which was at least equally risky. Ironically, the seeds of revolution were initially sown by the enactment of long overdue political ref orms – and a mistake by the czar's censors. The Reformist Czar In 1861, Czar Alexander II f inally ends the serf dom of Russian peasants. This emancipation has long been planned by the counts Michail Speransky, Nikolai Mordvinov and Pavel Kiselyov under Alexander I and Nikolai I's reigns, but is initially shelved in the 1830's due to the resistance of the land-owning nobility. Only Kiselyov lives to f inally see it implemented. What impels Alexander II to take this step is Russia's less than satisf actory perf ormance in the Crimean war. The war brings the backwardness of what is then the last f eudal system in Europe into sharp relief and Alexander hopes that the emancipation of the serf s will lead to the f ormation of a f unctioning market economy and more rapid economic development. As it turns out, the legislation is deeply f lawed. A compromise is struck that is designed to allow the nobility to retain its lavish and costly lif estyle. A complicated compensation scheme is established and the f ormer serf s on private lands f ail to gain enough land to escape their poverty; moreover, they have to repay the state f or the compensation it has paid to landowners. In addition, communal land ownership is established among small peasants, as a result of which small f armers can not dispose of their own small parcels of land, keeping them tied to the land. They can not produce enough to be able to af f ord repayment of the loans received by the government. The nobles in turn have been paid in the f orm of bonds that soon lose much of their value. The lack of education of the rural population proves an additional obstacle to successf ul economic development. In the end, the ref orm f ails to decisively mitigate the social and economic problems of the rural population. In 1872, the f irst f oreign translation of Marx' work 'Das Kapital' appears – in Russia of all places. The czar's censors allow it to be published, as they regard it as a 'strictly scientif ic work'. They don't recognize its potential to f oment resistance to the established power structures and f urther destabilize the political situation. Two years later the f irst socialist 'narodniky' – a movement of idealistic young people inspired by socialistic ideas – swarm f rom the cities to the rural areas to help educate the peasantry, which however does not understand their socialistic doctrines and has little use f or them. Lenin will later publish a paper critical of the narodniky f or their 'misguided romanticism'. One of the f ounders of the short-lived Northern Russian Laborers Association (f ounded in 1878), the carpenter Stepan Khalturin, in 1880 becomes employed at the court of Alexander II. One year earlier, the NRLA has been disbanded by the authorities, upon which Khalturin joins the Narodnaya Volya ('The People's Will'), an underground socialist terror organization. He plants a bomb below the dining room at the Winter Palace, and the czar and his f amily only escape because their guest f or the evening happens to be late. Khalturin thereupon f lees to Moscow and later Odessa. Another assassination attempt on czar Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya f ollows in 1881, and this time it is successf ul. The czar sits in a bullet-proof carriage he has been given by Napoleon III and survives the bomb thrown by the f irst assassin, but there are altogether three assassins armed with bombs in the crowd and as the czar leaves his carriage, the second attempt succeeds. Ironically, Khalturin is executed under orders of czar Alexander III only one year later, af ter his involvement in the assassination of a police general, without being identif ied. He gives his captors a f ake name and they hang him not knowing that he is the man behind the 1880 assassination attempt on Alexander II. Altogether f our assassination attempts were made on Alexander II during his reign, the f irst one in 1866 by the revolutionary Dimitry Karakozov of the Ishutin Society (so named af ter its f ounder Nikolai Ishutin, Karakozov's cousin) and the second one in 1879 by Alexander Soloviev, a f ormer student. The czar's was f ortunate as Soloviev proved very inept at handling a gun, missing in spite of getting of f f ive shots. Ref ormist Czar Alexander II in 1870, the prime of his lif e. He emancipated the serf s, but his land ref orm f ailed to alleviate the economic misery of the peasants. He survived three attempts on his lif e, but the f orth one in 1881 succeeds. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons) Lenin would incidentally later prove a big f an of Khalturin, hanging his photograph next to that of Karl Marx in his of f ice. In 1887, a f atef ul assassination plot on Alexander II's successor czar Alexander III is f oiled. One of the f ive conspirators executed f or it is Lenin's then 21 year old elder brother Alexander Ulyanov. It seems highly likely that Lenin regarded his brother as a role model. Alexander III, a reactionary anti-semitic autocrat, surprisingly manages to die in his bed in 1894, and reportedly asks his son and successor czar Nikolai II to swear that he will retain the Russian monarchy's absolutism. Early socialist revolutionary Stepan Khalturin in the late 1870's, about whom Soviet director Alexander Ivanovsky made a propaganda movie in 1925. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons) The Russo-Japanese War and the Revolution of 1905 Throughout 1903, Russia and Japan are negotiating over the status of Korea and Manchuria. Russia has leased Port Arthur, Talienwan and the surrounding waters f rom China to gain a warm water Pacif ic port, as Vladivostok can not be used during the winter. Meanwhile, Russian troops sent to Manchuria during the Boxer rebellion to ostensibly protect railway construction there, are kept hanging around. Japan wants to preserve its inf luence over Korea, regarding it as a vital security buf f er zone. Initially it seems that the two sides should be able to negotiate a settlement, as their positions are not very f ar apart – Russia is to retain its Manchurian presence, while Korea is to essentially become a Japanese protectorate – there are only dif f erences over details. However, Czar Nikolai II (whose of f icial title is 'Emperor and Autocrat over all the Russians') believes that by delaying the negotiations and driving Japan to declare war, he may be able to create an upsurge of Russian patriotism and nationalism in an ef f ort to suppress the increasingly evident revolutionary tendencies. Nikolai reportedly at f irst does not even expect Japan to attack – and in the event of such an attack, he is convinced that Russia will prevail. Both notions prove to be grave miscalculations. For one thing, Nikolai underestimates the logistical dif f iculties of waging war in the Russian f ar East, especially as the Trans-Siberian railway has yet to be f inished. Secondly, in a twist that f oreshadows the dif f iculties Russia will f ace in World War I, the Russian people turn out to be not exactly supportive of war. On the contrary, the war – and the f act that Russia is losing it - provokes an uprising. Nikolai is suddenly f aced with a rising tide of demands f or the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Russian Revolution: a Wider Perspective
    - THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: A WIDER PERSPECTIVE PREFACE to the Source Collection on the Russian Revolution This is a collection of sources provided by members of the Euroclio network and curated by three members of the Historiana team. It Insert Source here: is not a comprehensive overview of the Russian Revolution. Its purpose is to provide some insights into how politicians, diplomats, senior military officers, other officials, revolutionaries, eye witnesses, bystanders, newspaper editors and journalists, ordinary people and even children perceived some of the key events in Russia from January 1917 through to December 1922. We hope that this transnational and multiperspective collection will widen students’ understanding of what happened in Russia in those critical years. The sources have been provided by history teachers and historians from 13 countries, including the Russian Federation, neighbouring states that in 1917 were part of the Russian Empire, states that were then allies or enemies of Russia and even states which were neutral non-combatants in 1917. To obtain these sources the contributors turned to their own national digital and physical archives. Where necessary, contributors summarised texts in English. Painting by British artist David For EUROCLIO this was a pilot experiment in collecting historical Jagger, entitled The Bolshevik sources and we are very grateful to everyone who took part. We (1918). The image combines the think the experiment was successful and EUROCLIO will be planning features of several Bolshevik further crowd-sourcing of collections on other significant moments leaders. and developments in world history in the future. Source: Canadian War Museum Bob Stradling, Louise Sträuli and Giulia Rossi Public Domain Summer 2019 THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT This collection is divided into four Introductionsections.
    [Show full text]
  • Welfare Reforms in Post-Soviet States: a Comparison
    WELFARE REFORMS IN POST-SOVIET STATES: A COMPARISON OF SOCIAL BENEFITS REFORM IN RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN by ELENA MALTSEVA A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Political Science University of Toronto © Copyright by Elena Maltseva (2012) Welfare Reforms in Post-Soviet States: A Comparison of Social Benefits Reform in Russia and Kazakhstan Elena Maltseva Doctor of Philosophy Political Science University of Toronto (2012) Abstract: Concerned with the question of why governments display varying degrees of success in implementing social reforms, (judged by their ability to arrive at coherent policy outcomes), my dissertation aims to identify the most important factors responsible for the stagnation of social benefits reform in Russia, as opposed to its successful implementation in Kazakhstan. Given their comparable Soviet political and economic characteristics in the immediate aftermath of Communism’s disintegration, why did the implementation of social benefits reform succeed in Kazakhstan, but largely fail in Russia? I argue that although several political and institutional factors did, to a certain degree, influence the course of social benefits reform in these two countries, their success or failure was ultimately determined by the capacity of key state actors to frame the problem and form an effective policy coalition that could further the reform agenda despite various political and institutional obstacles and socioeconomic challenges. In the case of Kazakhstan, the successful implementation of the social benefits reform was a result of a bold and skillful endeavour by Kazakhstani authorities, who used the existing conditions to justify the reform initiative and achieve the reform’s original objectives.
    [Show full text]
  • Jan Sobczak Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia
    Jan Sobczak Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia Echa Przeszłości 12, 143-156 2011 ECHA PRZESZŁOŚCI XII, 2011 ISSN 1509-9873 Jan Sobczak ALEXEI NIKOLAEVICH, TSAREVICH OF RUSSIA This article does not aspire to give an exhaustive account of the life of Alexei Nikolaevich, not only for reasons of limited space. The role played by the young lad who was much loved by the nation, became the Russian tsesarevich and was murdered at the tender age of 14, would not justify such an effort. In addition to delivering general biographical information about Alexei that can be found in a variety of sources, I will attempt to throw some light on the less known aspects of his life that profoundly affected the fate of the Russian Empire and brought tragic consequences for the young imperial heir1. Alexei Nikolaevich was born in Peterhof on 12 August (30 July) 1904 on Friday at noon, during an unusually hot summer that had started already in February, at the beginning of Russia’s much unfortunate war against Japan. Alexei was the fifth child and the only son of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna. He had four older sisters who were the Grand Duchesses: Olga (8.5 years older than Alexei), Tatiana (7 years older), Maria (5 years older) and Anastasia (3 years older). In line with the law of succession, Alexei automatically became heir to the throne, and his birth was heralded to the public by a 300-gun salute from the Peter and Paul Fortress. According to Nicholas II, the imperial heir was named Alexei to break away from a nearly century-old tradition of naming the oldest sons Alexander and Nicholas and to commemorate Peter the Great’s father, Alexei Mikhailovich, the second tsar of the Romanov dynasty that had ruled over Russia for nearly 300 years from the 17th century.
    [Show full text]
  • East View Research Collections: Ukrainian Studies
    East View Research Collections: Ukrainian Studies East View produces a variety of valuable collections for researchers and graduate-level students in Ukrainian studies. Covering the period from 1830 to 1945, the collections include primary source documents on uprisings against the Russian Empire; the Prosvita Society (a pro-Ukrainian cultural organization); the Stolypin assassination; the short-lived government and secret police of Hetman Skoropadsky; Ukraine under Nazi occupation; and more. Collections are available online, in full-image, text-searchable files, providing researchers with convenient access to rare, primary source materials. See below for detailed collection descriptions; please inquire for pricing and availability. Collection Spotlight: The Chernobyl Files, Declassified Documents of the Ukrainian KGB The Chernobyl Files collection contains reports prepared for and by a variety of Russian and Ukrainian government agencies, including the KGB, that document and detail the most important developments in the wake of the disaster, as well as internal reports and investigations on its various causes. Learn more at https://www.eastview.com/resources/e-collections/chernobyl-files/ Collection Spotlight: Judaica Digital Collections Features a collection of eight resources from the State Archives of Kyiv Oblast’, covering the period from the Russian Empire of the 1850s to the early Soviet era of the 1920s. The collections include documentation from important historical events, such as Kyiv’s Bloody October of 1905 and the Beilis Case. Topics covered include: emigration from Ukraine, before and during the Soviet era; anti-Semitic groups, ethnic tension and the resulting pogroms; Jewish societies and education programs; and more. Learn more at https://www.eastview.com/resources/e-collections/judaica-digital-collections/ Other Featured Collections Assassination of Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, 1911.
    [Show full text]
  • Download PDF (670.8
    Chapter 3. The Formation of the Ideology of Antisemitism in Europe 3.1. Theoretical Framework The exact chronology of the rise of modern Antisemitism as ideology and move- ment remains unfathomable. Historians mention various insufficient and debatable factors. Hostility toward Jews links not with their numbers, economic standing, or political substance, because the birthplace of modern Antisemitism saw little of Jewish population or influential. Instead, the areas with the largest and most culturally distinct Jewish communities experienced the anti-Jewish movement at a later stage in the form of a secondary phenomenon, which does not mean they held an unequivocally positive image of the Jew. Hannah Arendt in The Origin of Totalitarianism (1951) associated the rise of Antisemitism with the role played in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries by the “Court Jews” and, later, the wealthy bankers who funded monarchs and governments. Although the fig- ures of the Rothschild’s or Baron Hirsch strongly influenced the imagination of the public and the Jews themselves, their actual influence was not significant enough to cause such a strong response in the political life of several European nations.104 Instead, the Jewish tycoons symbolized the audacious “insolence,” with which these few families exceeded their role of pariahs and entered universally accepted positions in the society. In other words, they either drawn opposition against the principle of equal opportunities or demonstrated its absence. As soon as the idea of the inevitability of Jewish emancipation spread, the names of the tycoons lost their importance, even though they did not completely disappear from Antisemitic rhetoric.
    [Show full text]
  • Running in Place: the Latest Round of Russian Economic Modernization
    Russia Political Economy Project RUNNING IN PLACE: THE LATEST ROUND OF RUSSIAN ECONOMIC MODERNIZATION RUSSIA POLITICAL ECONOMY PROJECT F OREIGN P OLICY R ESEARCH I NSTITUTE 1 M ARCH 2 0 1 8 The Foreign Policy Research Institute thanks the Carnegie Corporation for its support of the Russia Political Economy Project. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. © 2018 by the Foreign Policy Research Institute COVER: Matrioshka with coins, Adobe Stock. FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE MISSION The Foreign Policy Research Institute is dedicated to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the foreign policy and national security challenges facing the United States. It seeks to educate the public, teach teachers, train students, and offer ideas to advance U.S. national interests based on a nonpartisan, geopolitical perspective that illuminates contemporary international affairs through the lens of history, geography, and culture. EDUCATING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC: FPRI was founded on the premise than an informed and educated citizenry is paramount for the U.S. to conduct a coherent foreign policy. Today, we live in a world of unprecedented complexity and ever-changing threats, and as we make decisions regarding the nation’s foreign policy, the stakes could not be higher. FPRI offers insights to help the public understand this volatile world by publishing research, hosting conferences, and holding dozens of public events and lectures each year.
    [Show full text]
  • Industrial Revolution Russia(2)
    Making of Modern Europe: State, Economy and Empire Module 8 Industrialization in Russia: Role of Russian State Script The Role of the Russian state in Russia’s Industrialisation Despite the abolition of serfdom, tight regulation by the Mir prevented any growth in the mobility of labour. Thus the industrial activities meant to meet the demand generated by the demands of the agrarian communities themselves, which characterised developments in Britain and other parts of Western Europe, was virtually inexistent in the adverse conditions of the Russian countryside. As a consequence, the principal stimulus behind industrial development had to be provided by the Russian state itself. The policy of state patronage for commerce and industry to aid industrialisation in the Tsarist domains was followed by Reutern, Bunge and Vsyhnegradskii. It was finally given major thrust by the policies of Witte, Kokovstov and finally Stolypin. As a cumulative consequence of these policies, Imperial Russia was transformed from the most backward economy to one of the fastest emerging industrial economy when the Great War broke out in 1914. Till 1860, the state had not undertaken any direct measures for the promotion of trade and industry. Industry tended to be confined to gilds in the old towns of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa etc, among the Old Believers (i.e. those who refused to conform to the reformed Orthodox Church of Peter the Great) and then among the among the Armenians and Georgians. The Crimean War changed the entire mindset of the Russian ruling elite in this respect. Inspired by the role played by railways in the course of German industrialisation, the newly appointed Minister of Finance, Reutern emphasised on the need for railway development to overcome the military backwardness that had come to plague imperial Russia.
    [Show full text]
  • Romanov News Новости Романовых
    Romanov News Новости Романовых By Paul Kulikovsky №89 August 2015 A procession in memory of Tsarevich Alexei was made for the twelfth time A two-day procession in honor of the birth of the last heir to the Russian throne - St. Tsarevich Alexei, was made for the twelfth time on August 11-12 from Tsarskoye Selo to Peterhof. The tradition of the procession was born in 2004 - says the coordinator of the procession Vladimir Znahur - The icon painter Igor Kalugin gave the church an icon of St. Tsarevich. We decided that this icon should visit the Lower dacha, where the Tsarevich was born. We learned that in "Peterhof" in 1994 was a festival dedicated to the last heir to the imperial throne. We decided to go in procession from the place where they lived in the winter - from Tsarskoye Selo. Procession begins with Divine Liturgy at the Tsar's Feodorovsky Cathedral and then prayer at the beginning of the procession. The cross procession makes stops at churches and other significant sites. We called the route of our procession "From Sadness to Joy." They lived in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, loved it, there was born the Grand Duchess Olga. But this palace became a prison for the last of the Romanovs, where they then went on their way of the cross. It was in this palace the Tsarevich celebrated his last birthday", - says Vladimir. The next morning, after the Liturgy, we go to the birthplace of the Tsarevich - "Peterhof". Part of the procession was led by the clergy of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Peterhof, Archpriest Mikhail Teryushov and Vladimir Chornobay.
    [Show full text]
  • Territory, Enclosure, and State Territorial Mode of Production in the Russian Imperial Periphery
    Geogr. Helv., 74, 13–25, 2019 https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-74-13-2019 © Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. supported by Territory, enclosure, and state territorial mode of production in the Russian imperial periphery Vera Smirnova Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 24061, Blacksburg, VA, USA Correspondence: Vera Smirnova ([email protected]) Received: 30 April 2018 – Revised: 22 October 2018 – Accepted: 9 December 2018 – Published: 16 January 2019 Abstract. After the imperial land consolidation acts of 1906, the Russian land commune became a center of territorial struggle where complex alliances of actors, strategies, and representations of territory enacted land enclosure beyond the exclusive control of the state. Using original documentation of Russian imperial land deals obtained in the federal and municipal archives, this study explores how the Russian imperial state and territo- ries in the periphery were dialectically co-produced not only through institutional manipulations, educational programs, and resettlement plans but also through political and public discourses. This paper examines how coalitions of landed nobility and land surveyors, landless serfs, and peasant proprietors used enclosure as con- duits for property violence, accumulation of capital, or, in contrast, as a means of territorial autonomy. Through this example, I bring a territorial dimension into Russian agrarian scholarship by positioning the rural politics of the late imperial period within the global context of capitalist land enclosure. At the same time, by focusing on the reading of territory from the Russian historical perspective, I introduce complexity into the modern territory discourse often found in Western political geographic interpretations.
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Famine in Ukraine from 1930 to 1933
    THE GREAT FAMINE IN UKRAINE FROM 1930 TO 1933: AN INSTRUMENT OF NATIONALISM THEN AND TODAY By Helen Fisun Submitted to Professors Linda Gerstein and Paul Smith In partial fulfillment of the requirements of History 400: Senior Thesis Seminar 22 April 2011 ABSTRACT The Great Famine in the Soviet Union lasted between the years of 1930 and 1933. The devastation peaked in winter of 1932 and continued throughout 1933. Statistics which accurately represent the tragedy are impossible to find due to Stalin's deliberate erasure of records. These records would have depicted a scene of mass murder. It has been estimated that the Famine took around eight to ten million lives. Five to six million of these citizens belonged to the Ukrainian SSR. This occurred because of Stalin's direct targeting of the Ukrainian state in order to industrialize and modernize the Soviet Union in an unrealistic time frame. Thus, for maximum results, he instituted a system of collective farming throughout the USSR which most severely affected the peasants of the Ukrainian country side. When the peasants rebelled, refusing to be manipulated by the Soviet Regime, Stalin punished the peasantry for their defiance by instituting a man made famine through the exportation of harvested crops out of Ukraine. Furthermore, he prohibited the provision of aid, as well as the emigration of Ukrainian peasants from the countryside. This resulted in the mass starvation of the Ukrainian peasantry, killing millions of innocent victims More recently, the topic of Holodomor, the Famine in Ukraine, has resurfaced as a politically polarizing issue. Russia refuses to accept its role in the mass murder of Ukrainian people, while Ukraine asserts the Russian role as an intentional exploiter of Ukraine.
    [Show full text]
  • The Russian Revolution a Beginner's Guide
    The Russian Revolution A Beginner’s Guide Abraham Ascher A Oneworld Paperback Original First published in North America, Great Britain & Australia by Oneworld Publications, 2014 Copyright © Abraham Ascher 2014 The right of Abraham Ascher to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78074-387-5 eISBN 978-1-78074-388-2 Typeset by Siliconchips Services Ltd, UK Cover design by vaguely memorable Printed and bound in Denmark by Norhaven A/S Oneworld Publications 10 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3SR England Stay up to date with the latest books, special offers, and exclusive content from Oneworld with our monthly newsletter Sign up on our website www.oneworld-publications.com A note on dates Until January 1918, Russia retained the Julian calendar, which means that the dating of events appears to be thirteen days earlier than in the Western (Gregorian) calendar in use throughout most of Europe at the time. I use the Julian calendar for all events before 1918 and the Gregorian calendar thereafter. Contents Introduction ix 1 The road to revolution 1 2 1905: dress rehearsal for 1917? 23 3 The collapse of tsarism 54 4 The Provisional Government 72 5 Bolsheviks in power 99 6 The struggle to retain power 121 7 Stalin’s completion of the revolution 150 8 Whither the Soviet Union? 172 Afterword 184 Timeline 187 Bibliography 191 Index 198 Russia, 1914 Introduction In 1919, John Reed, a young American journalist fervently committed to socialism, published a stirring eye-witness account of the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks late in October 1917.
    [Show full text]
  • The Assassination of Pyotr Stolypin
    The Assassination of Pyotr Stolypin Fond 2. Opis' 227 Fond 183. Opis' 5 Fond 189. Opis' 1 Fond 864. Opis' 10 1 By Vladimir Danilenko Director of the State Archive of the Kiev Oblast The State Archive of the Kiev Oblast (GAKO) contain materials pertaining to investigations into the assassination of Stolypin. Petr Arkad’evich Stolypin was one of the prominent and controversial political figures in the early 20th-century Russia. Some hailed him as the savior and mainstay of Russia, while others condemned him as the chief hangman and one of the Black Hundreds. Stolypin (1862-1911) was born into an old noble family known as early as the 16th century. Graduating from St. Petersburg University in 1884, he joined the Ministry of the Interior. He was governor of the provinces of Grodno (1902) and Saratov (1903-1906). In April 1906 he was appointed Minister of the Interior and in July 1906 he was named chairman of the Council of Ministers (i.e., prime minister) in which capacity he served until his assassination. As head of the Russian government amid massive protests of workers and peasants against the autocracy, Stolypin not only was firm in suppressing the protests but he also began reforming the government system and economy and, first and foremost, the country’s farming community. The reform he launched in the countryside aimed at creating a numerous class of prosperous farmers, the mainstay of existing system. Addressing members of the State Duma he once said: “You are after great upheavals, we are after a great Russia.” This was believably his battle cry.
    [Show full text]