POL 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Lenin, Great Purge
27 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Russia has 1/10th of the railway network of germany and france. There is no middle class, there are radicalized workers in cities. From a wealthy middle class family, radicalized after his brother gets hanged by the tsarist regime. Developed the idea that a small group ( vanguard") of communist party should lead revolution. Absolutist monarchy: powers not limited by institutions or law, control over wealth, land. Russia never experienced a religious reformation, scientific/ enlightenment revolution, or individualism. Serfdom (not slavery as in slavery was sold, people were born into villages and were bound to work in these villages for the nobleman who owned the land/ village) abolished only in 1861 (38% of population) A history of totalitarianism: russia was ruled by tsars for centuries until the bolshevik revolution. Tsars to the very end ruled as absolutist power, control over anything they like, no parliament/ restraints. At the beginning of the 20th century, russia was backward.
