Bolshevism Post-Lenin Lenin’s legacy is one of the most important and significant pieces of socialist history and the project itself. In some way or another, people know Lenin as the one who built the party, rearmed it, and led it towards revolution. For many, he was a titan, having been depicted by such in the … Continue reading Life After Lenin →
Category: Second Research Digest
Opium of the People
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The Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks in 1922 was the first state with the goal of being ideologically atheist, eliminating their existing religion (Russian Orthodoxy) and other religions practiced throughout the Soviet Union, as well as efforts to diminish future religious activity. Throughout the 1920s, religions were targeted based on State interests, and while not … Continue reading Opium of the People
Where is your God now?
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What role did nationality and religion play in the formation of the Soviet State? The concept of religion in the Soviet Union is interesting, primarily because it wasn’t just the idea of a God that the Bolsheviks disagreed with, but also the concept of any power or authority above themselves. The challenge for them was … Continue reading Where is your God now?
Saying Yep to the NEP
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The New Economic Policy (NEP) was supposed to be a stabilizer while the government struggled to meet the demands of the ongoing Civil War. The policies of War Communism that had been instituted after the October Revolution were inadequate for overcoming the chronic shortages that plagued the Soviet Union. This forced the Bolsheviks to relinquish … Continue reading Saying Yep to the NEP →
The First Five Year Plan, Collectivization, and the Kazakh Famine
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The First Five Year Plan lasted from 1928-1932. Generally speaking, it was the goal of Joseph Stalin to transform the USSR from a predominately agrarian society, into an industrialized one. One of the key pillars of this first plan involved a process called collectivization. During this period of collectivization, a great deal of anti-religious sentiment … Continue reading The First Five Year Plan, Collectivization, and the Kazakh Famine →
The Dead Road to Stalin’s Heart
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Many of the horror stories propagated about the Soviet Union revolve around the legends of the labor and prison camps known as Gulags. They stand today as a testament to the sufferings of the Soviet people under the totalitarian state and remind us of the dangers of consolidated power. Few instances of the usage of … Continue reading The Dead Road to Stalin’s Heart →
The Interesting Case of Soviet Central Asia
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The image above of an Uzbek town square donned with soviet flags and a Soviet speaker, visualizes the process of making these central Asian part of the Soviet Union. The way in which the Soviet Union went about this directly dealt with an intertwinement of nationality and religion. I found an interesting parallel to some … Continue reading The Interesting Case of Soviet Central Asia
Kollontai Paving the Way
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There were some major breakthroughs for women’s rights following the revolution, and Aleksandra Kollontai fought for those rights. One of these rights being the ability for a woman to divorce her husband without “obtaining his or any other permission.” (The New Woman) Social norms would be changed for women at home and in the workplace, … Continue reading Kollontai Paving the Way →
Lights… Camera… REVOLT!
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How did the party sell this dream world to its citizens? The answer is in Movie Magic. From its conception, the art of cinema has been a whirlwind force of cultural change. That is exactly why the Bolsheviks utilized cinema as much as possible to allow for maximum possible influence. War films and exciting promises […]
Down with Easter: Up with Industry
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“Religion is the opiate of the masses” – Karl Marx
