Russia Essay Research Paper Modern Russia s

Russia Essay, Research Paper

Modern Russia s ever-changing political system and transitional periods have made it an interesting place to be. Russia has gone through many political challenges and changing agendas in its time. The state has gone from the Soviet Union, or the U.S.S.R., to today s Russia, or Russian Federation, in under one century. The government that was once communist is now semi-presidential, and with the hope of the United States will soon become a completely democratic state. In each form of government Russia has had its fair share of leaders. From the Bolsheviks came Vladimir Lenin with his democratic elements, then Joseph Stalin succeeding him and erasing any notion of democracy from the state. Mikhail Gorbachev followed them, leading the Communist Party into yet another reign, revamping the economic system of Mother Russia with his perestroika. Next, Russia s leader became Boris Yeltsin, who brought an end to the Soviet Union, creating the Russian Federation and its first multi-party system. Finally, today there is Vladimir Putin, former KGB leader and present advocate of democracy. All of these leaders are ingrained in the memories and history of the Russian people. On May Day 2001, they rallied for their leaders, remembering how their life was not as bad as is the utter confusion of today. Today s struggles motivate the people to show great nostalgia for the communist days of the past.

From 1917 to 1991, a great deal went on in the Soviet Union s political system. During most of this time, the state was entirely under the totalitarian rule of the Communist Party. Although they had seven decades of industrial control in the Soviet, fewer than ten percent actually joined the communists; unable to believe in the utopia they talked of. Totalitarianism is made up of a single dominant party with a utopian ideology. The state maintains control over all organized activity, both public and private, and makes mobilized participation mandatory. All of this state repression guarantees fear embedded in its citizens. In short, totalitarianism is ruling by fear and arbitrary terror. Politically, the Soviet Union was a party-state. Here all the members and the institutions of the state composed the U.S.S.R. They were all members of the same totalitarian party, and the leader makes up the entire party. The leader makes all the decisions and henceforth is the state itself. Under Stalin, from 1929-1953, the word totalitarian was made synonymous with the Soviet, and thusly Stalin too. Before taking office in 1929, Stalin made sure all opposition was eradicated. What taste of democracy Lenin gave to the Russian people was swiftly taken away with his death and Stalin s emergence on the political front. The reasoning for this was to insure all class gaps were closed; Communism takes care of that. His way of governing was comfortable and familiar to the people. What made Stalin happy made them happy. Although ultimately Stalin just craved political control, the good citizens of the Soviet Union were not going to be the ones to stop him.

Gorbachev took power as the Communist Party leader in 1985, post-Stalin, after a few unsuccessful attempts by others at de-Stalinizing the Soviet. Nikita Khrushchev, the first post-Stalin leader in 1955 only reinforced the values of Stalin in creating the KGB, or secret police of the Soviet. The KGB initiated a reign of terror, subordinating the Communist Party. They were there to protect the interests of the Soviet state, eliminating any party opposition or potential uprisings by anyone. With Gorbachev came new reform efforts and political renewal with the same communistic ideologies as there ever was. His introduction of glasnost, or openness, involved relaxing controls on the public actions, and demokratizatsiia, or democracy, was an effort to increase the responsiveness of political organs to public sentiment (Kessleman 435), in and outside party lines. Freer political expression was allowed with these reforms that both changed and challenged the traditional Soviet political system. Unfortunately, this stream of change threatened to destroy the Soviet and when the people began a rebellion against their leader to stop its demise, Gorbachev was forced out of office. Later that year, Yeltsin came to power, declaring himself the true champion of democratic values and Russian national interest (Kessleman 436), and with his rise came the collapse of the Soviet Union, putting an end to Stalinist ways. Yeltsin united Russia with Ukraine and Belarus, then Belorussia, to form the Russian Federation, one independent country. He then routed Russia on to democratization, declaring his role as the president.

In 1917, when the Bolsheviks took power of the Soviet, Lenin declared all people were to share everything. Prior to 1924, Lenin allowed market free trade, working nicely for the citizens. Sadly, all capitalistic activity was ended with Lenin s death. Stalin was the architect of the Soviet economic system. His immediate goal for the state was rapid industrialization in ten years or less, or economic failure would be inevitable. In the early twentieth century, heavy industry was everything to a state s economy. In 1930, Stalin promoted a propaganda film aimed at motivating workers to sacrifice them for the Soviet s industrial power. In order to reach his goal, Stalin proposed what he called a centrally planned economic system. Un