The Global Influence of the Russian Revolution and the USSR

5 The Global Influence of the Russian Revolution and the USSR Existing socialist parties in Europe did not wholly approve of the way the Bolsheviks took power – and kept it. However, the possibility of a workers’ state fired people’s imagination across the world. In many countries, communist parties were formed – like the Communist Party of Great Britain. The Bolsheviks encouraged colonial peoples to follow their experiment. Many non-Russians from outside the USSR participated in the Conference of the Peoples of the East (1920) and the Bolshevik-founded Comintern (an international union of pro-Bolshevik socialist parties). Some received education in the USSR’s Communist University of the Workers of the East. By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, the USSR had given socialism a global face and world stature. Yet by the 1950s it was acknowledged within the country that the style of government in the USSR was not in keeping with the ideals of the Russian Revolution. In the world socialist movement too it was recognised that all was not well in the Soviet Union. A backward country had become a great power. Its industries and agriculture had developed and the poor were being fed. But it had denied the essential freedoms to its citizens and carried out its developmental projects through repressive policies. By the end of the twentieth century, the international reputation of the USSR as a socialist country had declined though it was recognised that socialist ideals still enjoyed respect among its people. But in each country the ideas of socialism were rethought in a variety of different ways. India and the Contemporary World Box 5 Writing about the Russian Revolution in India Among those the Russian Revolution inspired were many Indians. Several attended the Communist University. By the mid-1920s the Communist Party was formed in India. Its members kept in touch with the Soviet Communist Party. Important Indian political and cultural figures took an interest in the Soviet experiment and visited Russia, among them Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote about Soviet Socialism. In India, writings gave impressions of Soviet Russia. In Hindi, R.S. Avasthi wrote in 1920-21 Russian Revolution, Lenin, His Life and His Thoughts, and later The Red Revolution . S.D. Vidyalankar wrote The Rebirth of Russia and The Soviet State of Russia. There was much that was written in Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. Fig.20 – Special Issue on Lenin of the Indo-Soviet Journal. Indian communists mobilised support for the USSR during the Second World War. Source F An Indian arrives in Soviet Russia in 1920 ‘For the first time in our lives, we were seeing Europeans mixing freely with Asians. On seeing the Russians mingling freely with the rest of the people of the country we were convinced that we had come to a land of real equality. We saw freedom in its true light. In spite of their poverty, imposed by the counter-revolutionaries and the imperialists, the people were more jovial and satisfied than ever before. The revolution had instilled confidence and fearlessness in them. The real brotherhood of mankind would be seen here among these people of fifty different nationalities. No barriers of caste or religion hindered them from mixing freely with one another. Every soul was transformed into an orator. One could see a worker, a peasant or a soldier haranguing like a professional lecturer.’ Shaukat Usmani, Historic Trips of a Revolutionary. Source G Rabindranath Tagore wrote from Russia in 1930 Activity Compare the passages written by Shaukat Usmani and Rabindranath Tagore. Read them in relation to Sources C, D and E. Ø What did Indians find impressive about the USSR ? Ø What did the writers fail to notice? Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution ‘Moscow appears much less clean than the other European capitals. None of those hurrying along the streets look smart. The whole place belongs to the workers … Here the masses have not in the least been put in the shade by the gentlemen … those who lived in the background for ages have come forward in the open today … I thought of the peasants and workers in my own country. It all seemed like the work of the Genii in the Arabian Nights. [here] only a decade ago they were as illiterate, helpless and hungry as our own masses … Who could be more astonished than an unfortunate Indian like myself to see how they had removed the mountain of ignorance and helplessness in these few years’. Activities 1. Imagine that you are a striking worker in 1905 who is being tried in court for your act of rebellion. Draft the speech you would make in your defence. Act out your speech for your class. 2. Write the headline and a short news item about the uprising of 24 October 1917 for each of the following newspapers Ø a Conservative paper in France Ø a Radical newspaper in Britain 3. Imagine that you are a middle-level wheat farmer in Russia after collectivisation. You have decided to write a letter to Stalin explaining your objections to collectivisation. What would you write about the conditions of your life? What do you think would be Stalin’s response to such a farmer? Activities Ø a Bolshevik newspaper in Russia Questions 1. What were the social, economic and political conditions in Russia before 1905? 2. In what ways was the working population in Russia different from other countries in Europe, before 1917? 3. Why did the Tsarist autocracy collapse in 1917? 4. Make two lists: one with the main events and the effects of the February India and the Contemporary World Revolution and the other with the main events and effects of the October Revolution. Write a paragraph on who was involved in each, who were the leaders and what was the impact of each on Soviet history. 5. What were the main changes brought about by the Bolsheviks immediately after the October Revolution? 6. Write a few lines to show what you know about: Ø kulaks Ø the Duma Ø women workers between 1900 and 1930 Ø the Liberals Ø Stalin’s collectivisation programme. ?