Why was Russia the first country to experience full-scale communist revolution, contrary to Marx’s expectations? I

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  • Created by: Alasdair
  • Created on: 15-05-18 15:37
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  • Why was Russia the first country to experience full-scale communist revolution, contrary to Marx’s expectations?
    • Peter Waldron
      • Sergei White
        • Minister of Finance, 1892-1903
        • Put in place policies designed to create environment in which industry could flourish in Russia
          • Establishment of large factories and growth of towns and cities
            • Created concentrations of working people who often lived in difficult and unpleasant circumstances
              • Worried Ministry of Internal Affairs
          • Russian government never took overall view of consequences of industrial policy
            • Deficiency was to have serious repercussions for stability of regime
    • Peter Waldron
      • Ministry of Internal Affairs
        • Purpose
          • To maintain order in Russian Empire
          • To ensure Tsarist regime was able to control population of state
        • Growth in urban population
          • Welcomed by Ministry of Finance as evidence of Russia's growing economic strength
          • Caused concern to bureaucrats in Internal
            • Increased likelihood of discontent and disturbances
            • Posed questions about ability of government to deal effectively with outbreaks of social unrest
    • Peter Waldron
      • Ministers
        • Did not work closely together
          • Ministers shared different views and would often follow policies that conflicted
      • Difficult for ministers to develop power base
        • Tsars could dismiss them so easily
        • e.g. Sergei Witte
          • removed as Minister of Finance in 1903
          • Led Russia's peace negotiations after war with Japan
          • Played key role in gov response to 1905 revolutionary uprisings
            • Antagonised Tsar Nicholas II that monarch accepted Witte's resignation in April 1906 at first opportunity
              • gave Witte most perfunctory thanks for work he had done to save regime from collapse
    • Alan Wood
      • Inability of Alexander III (1881-1894) to implement reform
        • Against constitutional form of government
          • Called those who talked of it 'half-wits and perverted apes'
          • e.g. Loris-Melikov constitution
            • Minister of Interior, Count Loris-Melikov was authorised by Alexander II to prepare project which might have led to legislation
              • Barely a draft of constitution but scrapped by Alexander III and branded a 'criminal document'
          • Replacement Minister of Interior granted police extensive new powers of surveillance to purge country of subversive and untrustworthy elements
        • Traits of Alexander III
          • Bigot
          • Chauvinistic
          • Authoritarian
          • Suspicious of intellectuals
          • Anti-Semitic
        • Tried to reverse or weaken reforms of his father's government
          • More and more criminal cases were removed from jurisdiction of new courts
          • zemstva made subject of new legislation which drastically curtailed already limited areas of competence and independence
            • Most importantly, est. in 1889 of new corps of centrally appointed government officials with wide-ranging administrative powers over zemstva's activities more or less removed what little authority they had
              • Represented central governments authority over local and regional communities as whole
                • not restoration of land-owners' rights over peasantry

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