The first significant attempt to implement communism on a large scale occurred in Russia following the February Revolution of 1917, which resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. The Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, capitalized on the discontent with the Provisional government and successfully seized power in the October Revolution of the same year. Lenin's government began to transform Russian society through policies such as land redistribution, nationalization of industry, and withdrawal from World War I. After Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin's rise to power brought about rapid industrialization, forced collectivization, and widespread political repression, which solidified the Soviet Union's status as a major world power but at a tremendous human cost.
Throughout the 20th century communism spread to various parts of the world, largely as a result of Soviet influence, often through revolutionary movements and post-World War II geopolitical shifts. The Cold War period saw a global ideological struggle between the communist bloc, led by the Soviet Union, and the capitalist West, led by the United States. The eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked a significant decline in the global influence of communism, though the ideology persists in some countries and continues to inspire political movements worldwide.[1]
The First World War placed an unbearable strain on Russia's weak government and economy, resulting in mass shortages and hunger. In the meantime, the mismanagement and failures of the war turned the people and importantly, the soldiers against the Tsar, whose decision to take personal command of the army seemed to make him personally responsible for the defeats. In February 1917, the Tsar first lost control of the streets, then of the soldiers, and finally of the Duma, resulting in his forced abdication on 2 March 1917.[2]
On 26 February 1917 citywide strikes spread throughout Petrograd. Dozens of demonstrators were killed by troops. The crowds grew hostile, so the soldiers had to decide which side they were on. As the situation became critical, soldiers refused to work for the Tsar.[2] On 26 February 1917 the Army abandoned the Tsar; the soldiers mutinied and refused to put down the riots. By 27 February 1917 the workers were in control of the entire city.[2]
On 24–25 October 1917 the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries organized a revolution, occupying government buildings, telegraph stations, and other strategic points.[3] On 24 October 1917, the Red Guards took over bridges and telephone exchanges.[3] On 25 and 26 October 1917 the Red Guards took over banks, government buildings, and railways stations. The cruiser Aurora fired blank shots at the Winter Palace signalling the start of the revolution. That night (9:40 pm), the Red Guards took over the Winter Palace and arrested the Provisional Government.[3]
On 27 October 1917 Lenin proclaimed that all power now belonged to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies.[3]
After Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin took over the Soviet Union, many people still opposed the communist party. This led to the Civil War between the White Army and Red Army. The White Army included the opposition party, while the Red Army included the armed forces of the government and people that supported Vladimir Lenin. The Civil War resulted in the deaths of 10–30 million people.[4]
Lenin argued that in an underdeveloped country such as Russia the capitalist class would remain a threat even after a successful socialist revolution.[5] As a result, he advocated the repression of those elements of the capitalist class that took up arms against the new soviet government, writing that as long as classes existed a state would need to exist to exercise the democratic rule of one class (in his view, the working class) over the other (the capitalist class).[5] Lenin wrote that "[d]ictatorship does not necessarily mean the abolition of democracy for the class that exercises the dictatorship over other classes; but it does mean the abolition of democracy (or very material restriction, which is also a form of abolition) for the class over which, or against which, the dictatorship is exercised."[6][7] After World War I, Karl Kautsky became a critic of the Bolshevik Revolution, and was famously denounced by Lenin as a "renegade".[8]
Soviet democracy granted voting rights to the majority of the populace who elected the local soviets, who elected the regional soviets and so on until electing the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Capitalists were disenfranchised in the Russian soviet model. However, according to Lenin in a developed country it would be possible to dispense with the disenfranchisement of capitalists within the democratic proletarian dictatorship as the proletariat would be guaranteed of an overwhelming majority.[13] The Bolsheviks in 1917–1924 did not claim to have achieved a communist society. In contrast the preamble to the 1977 Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the "Brezhnev Constitution"), stated that the 1917 Revolution established the dictatorship of the proletariat as "a society of true democracy" and that "the supreme goal of the Soviet state is the building of a classless, communist society in which there will be public, communist self-government."[14]
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. It began shortly after World War II and lasted until the early 1990s; this era was marked by ideological, political, and military rivalry between the two superpowers and their respective allies. One of the most significant flashpoints of the Cold War was Cuba. After Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959, Cuba became a close ally of the Soviet Union, aligning itself with communist ideology. This alliance was pivotal during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuban soil brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The crisis was ultimately resolved through a tense negotiation, resulting in the removal of the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba and the secret removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey.
Modern Russia
Soviet nostalgia remains prevalent among the Russian populace. Per the Levada Center in 2018, 66 percent of Russians said they regretted the Soviet break-up[15] highlighting the enduring impact of this historical period on the collective memory of the nation.[16]
