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 * __ The Communist manifesto __**

“workers of the world unite’

 **__Summary __**

The communist manifesto is one of two books written by Karl Marx, the father of communism. Published in 1848, it is one of the most politically influential books in history. It outlines the goals of communism, the problems with capitalism and the class system. Ideas such as the abolition of the class system and no private land ownership sparked revolutionary thinking in many countries where the lower class, or Proletarians were repressed by the rich, Bourgeois. Marx believed the communist revolution would happen first in the west. Countries where the workers had been in the factories for the longest. He assumed that the Workers who had been in the factory the longest would be the first to start a workers revolution. He predicted west because that is where he saw the conditions of which he thought were necessary for a communist revolution, nationalism, urbanization and class warfare for example. Russia however, would be the first to feel the effects of the communist manifesto first hand. The book itself is composed of four parts.  The first is called “**Bourgeois and proletarians**” this opening section explained the class struggle between the poor workers, and the oppressive rich who exploited the workers for cheap labour. It discusses the eventual uprising of the proletarian to power, and how communism is the only way to achieve class equality in Europe.  The second part deals with the differences and similarities between communists and proletarians. “**proletarians and communists**”

“ // 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletarian, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.” // (page 17, communist manifesto)

In essence, the difference is that the communist is the driving force that will lead the proletarians of all nationalities towards revolution. This chapter also goes through some common criticisms of communism and addresses them. One of these that it deals with is the idea of private property abolition, Marx compares his revolution to the French revolution, in which feudal property was changed to be owned by the bourgeois. He makes his point by claiming that property ownership has been subject to historical change long before communism  Part three is titled “**socialist and communist literature**”. In this Marx takes time to distinguish communism from socialist ideas of his time. He dismisses them because none of them believe that reform will be achieved through a revolution, they all have reformists policies.  The final fourth part is called “**position of communists in relation to the various opposition parties**” This short two page section of the book, are devoted to explaining how communists feel about political reform movements in other countries of the nineteenth century. He declares his support for any communist revolutionaries world wide.

 **__ How it influenced Russia’s 1917 revolution __**

Vladimir Lenin was an avid believer in the teachings of Karl Marx and the communist manifesto. Lenin did not follow the teachings of the manifesto exactly. Instead of the abolishment of private land ownership, he gave all of Russia’s land to the farmers and workers of the country. A decision that made him very popular among the people. He called his adaptation of communism, Leninism. He was forced to change the parameters that the communist manifesto laid out so that it would fit to serve the mostly agricultural economy of Russia. The decision to change the idea of land ownership was to accommodate for the fact that the workers of Russia were not in factories for the most part. They were working the land that they lived on, Lenin felt that the proletarian of Russia should own their land. Lenin followed the Communist manifesto to overthrow the tsarist regime and raise the workers to power.

**__ The End of Serfdom in Russia __**

// "it is better to liberate the peasants from above than to wait until they won their freedom by risings from below." //   ** Tsar Alexander II (1861) **  **__ Serfdom __** Serfdom is a class system in which a lord will own a plot of land, and he will have many peasants, or serfs, working his land. Serfs are bound to the lord and the lords land. They may not come and go as they please and almost all crop produced on the land is given straight to the lord, the only difference between a serf and a slave is that a serf keeps what he needs to feed his family while the rest is for the landowner. In 1854 the number of serfs in Russia was around twenty three million. Serfdom was commonplace in Russia until 1861. Before then (1818-19), in several Russian regions, serfdom had been abolished. The land however was still in the hands of the rich lords and not those who worked it.

 **__ The emancipation manifesto __** In 1861, Tsar Nicholas II was becoming fearful of a future uprising and his advisors were telling him that a serf based economy could not stand up to other powers like Britain and France, as Russia was one of only a few remaining feudal countries. His only option was the abolishment of serfdom. The emancipation manifesto was signed on February 19 1861. This document gave serfs the free rights of a full citizen, they could freely marry, own land and businesses and travel as they wished. Although in theory all of this was good for the serfs, a few key things were implemented poorly and lead to more anger and unrest among the peasants. Serfs that were not working on a lords land, but were working in their house, were given their freedom but nothing else. While other serfs on private land were given a plot of their own, it was not enough for them to survive. Many landowners found themselves under massive debts because of the introduction of the emancipation manifesto. Many serfs at this time were owned by the state, this document did not help them. In 1866 state owned serfs were freed and unlike the privately owned serfs, these ones were given larger plots of land. All free serfs were forced to pay redemption payments to their landowner, plus interest for their allocation of lands. This payments only stopped in 1907.

 **__ Serfdom after 1866 __** In Kalmykia, a republic under Russian control on the northern shore of the Caspian sea, serfdom was abolished in 1892. The abolishment of serfs did not stop the tensions between the proletarians and the upper class. The lower working class was still exploited by the rich and that would eventually boil over in the later revolution.

**//__ Mir System of Land Ownership __//** **//__Summary__//**

The Mir system is quite simple and was the basis of the pre-Revolutionary farming in Russia. It was quite simply a community of farmers who together help each other out when need be. Each Mir had an elected leader that headed up any problems or needs the community needed.

**//__ Industrialization of Russia for the Proletariat __//** **//__Summary__//**

The industrialization of Russia started to evolve and affect the common peasant or farmer leading up to the reign of Tsar Nicholas II rule. During this time Russia was evolving from a farm based and more agrarian society into a developing industrial nation. More and more workers were moving into towns and cities and working in factories as a result of a hope for a better life. These factories were owned mainly by foreign investors, this meant that there were a smaller amount of Russian factory owners and a smaller middle class. Between 1890-1900 Russia made an extreme step forward in the mining of materials such as coal and iron increasing their coal production by 170pct and their iron by 1.1 million tones. By 1913 before WW1, Russia had 2.3 million industrial workers. This date would prove to be a date that in future would be hard to be surpassed by the sheer amount of resources produced and refined during this year. During the outset of WW1 Russia’s industrial output was still far behind their enemies like Germany and Austria-Hungary. During the war their output dropped 50pct due to the amount of people that were conscripted into the army to help fight on the Eastern Front. Now factory workers were essentially still peasants and lacked the skills to properly operate the machinery. During this period not only did the Russian system of government get overthrown but between 1914-1918 all progress that Russia had made in becoming a fully fledged industrialized nation was completely wiped out. By the end of WW1 and the Bolshevik revolution Russia’s large scale industries, such as coal, iron, etc, was only producing 18pct of its 1913 production numbers. The next major economic or industry based move occurred after the Russian civil war in the year 1925. The policy of War Communism was introduced that gave the state all surplus crops to the government to feed the Red Army. It also nationalized all firms with more than 10 workers. However, some firms were renationalized that only had 1, 2 or 3 workers. In 1925 Lenin then introduced the policy of NEP (National Economic Policy). It stated that a certain amount of a farmer’s crop would go as a fixed tax to the state to be used by the government. Due to the NEP most firms were returned to the previous owners and it saw the grain harvest yield move up 22 million tones from the 50 million in 1922 to 72 million in 1925. With the emergence of Joseph Stalin we saw the reverse of what Lenin was doing by letting peasants own land and sell it for themselves, he was making all farmers who worked on another persons land move to massive communal farms where no-one owned it but the state. Even though the NEP had boosted Russia’s 1928 grain harvest, it was still 7 million tones off the 1913 figure which Stalin believed needed to be surpassed. All people who owned a farm were told to give up their land for the good of the economy. They would rather burn their fields and kill their livestock than do this. It was the start of one of Stalin’s first reigns of terror, in which he killed thousands upon thousands of people. It would take farmers and Russia as a whole until 1953 to regain those previous figures that existed before he forced the landowners to give up their land. One thing he did do was really help industrialize farming by helping the peasant by increasing the amount of tractors in use from 2500 to 200 000 in 1933 and the amount of combines from 1000 to 25 000. Stalin, in 1928, introduced his first of two 5 year plans. These plans imposed ridiculously high goals for factories and mines to reach in order to be successful. The first 5 year term had every industry tripling their previous totals. In the end only oil production came really close to making their specific number. This was made possible by the formation of hundreds upon hundreds of new factories, mines, and oil rigs and oil drilling equipment. In his second five year plan starting in 1933, Stalin wanted the previous numbers from his first plan doubled or tripled once again. In the end only iron mining and production reached its goal. This had a profound affect on the Russian people, the workers quality of life was steadily increasing during the 1930’s. Finally by 1940 Russia had overtaken Britain in iron and steel output and was only 20pct away from catching Germany. All in all Russia has had many leaps forward and back during the course of the years leading up to WWI and after leading towards WWII. The main reason for the constant change was the constant change in the government and its policies that ultimately influenced industrialization and the common person role and comfort in Russian society.