Creation Of Totalitarian States Essay Research Paper

Creation Of Totalitarian States Essay, Research Paper

The two totalitarian states that can be most obviously compared in terms of

similarities and differences are China and Russia.. During the course of this essay I will attempt to compare and

contrast the individual contributory factors that led to the setting up of

these Communist states.. Perhaps the

most important similarity between the two revolutions is the ideology, Marxism,

on which they claimed to be based. ........... Karl Marx

was a German revolutionary who came up with a theory, Marxism, which was later

used as a basis for the Communist states. He advanced the idea that the

character of human society was determined by scientific laws that could be

studied, understood and then applied..

His own perception of history was a continuous struggle between those

who possessed economic and political power and those who did not.. He referred to this continuous class

struggle as the dialectic.. Marx.s

assertion that the contemporary industrial era marked the end of the

dialectical class struggle was the grounds for revolution.. Marx talked of a victory of the proletariat

over the bourgeoisie, a victory of the workers over the exploiting, capitalist

class.. However, Russia.s social conditions were not those

described by Marx, considered necessary for the creation of a Communist state.

When we look at Russia in the context of social conditions before the revolution,

we see a rapidly industrialising power with the highest economic growth rate in

Europe. However, Russia was industrialising, and was not already

industrialised.. Socially, though, there

was a dramatic shift from an entirely agricultural society, towards a fully

industrialised, modern society.. This

shift was conducive to revolutionary forces as the influx of workers headed for

the city caused the cities to become overcrowded, working conditions were poor

and wages were low.. However, as

peasants this had been tolerated.. The

difference was that in the cities political unrest developed more rapidly, when

people were living in close proximity to one another, they realised that their

were others who felt as they did about the way they were treated, this led to

discontent among the workers who began to look towards revolutionary parties

such as the Social Revolutionaries (SR.s), the Bolsheviks and the

Mensheviks.. The result of this was that

these revolutionary parties rapidly gained and became stronger and more

influential.. The war also played a

vital role in the people.s discontentment. The grouping of soldiers together in

close proximity to one another, watching as their compatriots died in agony

before their eyes for no real benefit to them, led them to believe that the war

was pointless, and with Bolsheviks in particular encouraging desertions, and

with the promise of land at home, many of the peasant soldiers left the

trenches for the farm land.. In the case of Russia, the grouping of people in the

cities and in the trenches led to a revolutionary spirit and a political

consciousness that was difficult to suppress. Particularly in the years leading

up to 1917, the people of Russia began to see the Tsar less as their .little

father. and more as the weak, suppressive dictator he really was. Mistakes such

as taking direct control of the army, thereby causing himself to be blamed for

any defeat led to a loss of faith in the ability of the Tsar to rule

Russia.. Perhaps for the first time, the

population of Russia became interested in the running of their own country, and

instead of leaving all government to the Tsar, began to look for alternative

forms of government.. This social change

was demonstrated in the massive increase of party memberships during this time. In China, however, the social change was not so

dramatic.. The GMD had overthrown the

Manchu dynasty in 1911 amid a clamour of public opinion in favour of

revolutionary political change.. The

result was that the Chinese Nationalist Party (the GMD) under Sun Yatsen came

to power.. In this way, the initial

overthrow of the monarchy could be directly compared with that of Russia, the

problem was that the regime was too conservative and reforms did not go far enough.

However, the communist revolution came about in very different circumstances to

that of Russia.. In contrast to Russia,

China was still a very agricultural, economically backward, socially unchanged

power in 1949 when the communists came to power.. The industrial revolution seen in Russia in the early 20th

century was not repeated in China, and indeed it was not until after the

communists came to power that anything like industrialisation took place.. However, there was much discontent among the

peasantry.. Exploited for centuries by

autocratic system of land ownership, they had become politically c

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