How About Russia

The government system in Russia has been called Marxist, but Karl Marx was a German who never lived in Russia. He was never the head of any nation. He was a political philosopher who wrote The Communist Manifesto and three volumes about how a communistic society should operate. He lived part of his life in Switzerland. He died in March of 1883 while living in London.

In 1898 in Minsk, Belarus, a new political party was formed and it was called the Bolsheviks (which means one of the majority). Belarus was one of the small nations on the Baltic Sea. The Bolshevik Party was getting organized and in 1903 at the Second Party Congress, one of the founders of the Bolsheviks named Vladimir Lenin was able to become the leader of the Congress.

The party changed its name to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union with plans to unite a number of nations under their belief. The early years had much political in- fighting between the factions of the leaders trying to establish control of the new group. Lenin was very strict on what he believed and did not compromise on many of the differences. He wrote a number of books to establish his views. The Bolsheviks were basically laborers and Lenin was attempting to protect and control them. In 1918 the party changed its name again to the Russian Communist Party after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia had given them control of the nation.

From 1547 to 1917 leading up to the time of the Bolsheviks, Russia was ruled by Royal Families and the Tsars. Tsar Nicholas II had been replaced during World War I by the Russian Provisional Government. In 1917, Lenin and his Bolshevik Party overthrew the government and took control of Russia. Lenin served as head of Russia from 1917 to 1922. In 1922, under Lenin’s leadership, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR) was formed with Lenin as the leader.

Lenin died in 1924. He had appointed Joseph Stalin as head of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate, who was able to take control of the government. Stalin’s strongest rival was Leon Trotsky, who was expelled from the Central Committee and forced into exile. Stalin decreed that the government of the USSR would be a version of Marxism- Leninism which Stalin created.

Stalin initiated a planned economy which was successful and created a rapid industrialization. In the late 1930s, Stalin instigated the Great Purge, which removed all of Stalin’s opponents. More than 600,000 people were killed. There was a severe famine in Ukraine, which caused the death of close to seven million people. Stalin signed a non- aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939. In 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The Germans first advanced into the USSR and killed a very high number of Soviet soldiers. As the United States entered the war, Germany had to give more attention to the European front and the Soviets began to capture more small nations and make them a part of the Soviet Union. The USSR eventually had 15 constituent republics.

In 1947, the Cold War emerged and there was political conflict with the Western Block under NATO. In 1953 Joseph Stalin died. He was eventually succeeded as the leader of the Soviets by Nikita Khrushchev. For a short period, the party was ruled by Georgy Malenkov but this failed quickly. When Stalin came to power, there were over 54,000 churches in the USSR. When Khrushchev came to power, there were only 500 still open. Stalin had executed 28 Russian Orthodox Bishops and more than 1200 Russian Orthodox Priests.

At the time Khrushchev assumed control, the USSR was the largest country in the world. It reached from the Bering Strait across from the state of Alaska on the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Atlantic Ocean bordering the Baltic States of Northern Europe. The total area was 8,649,500 square miles. All of China was bordered by the USSR on the north, which is Russia today. Khrushchev ruled until he was overthrown in 1964. Khrushchev put Russia into the space exploration and sent Sputnik orbiting the earth ahead of any flights by the United States. Russia also sent a cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, on an orbit around the Earth ahead of any United States activity. When Khrushchev was advised in 1964 that he was no longer the leader of the Soviet Union, he requested to be allowed to retire. He was given a cottage and an allotment for his livelihood for him and his wife. He died in 1971.

Leonid Brezhnev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1964. He was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Gorbachev became friends with President Ronald Reagan and he tried to move Russia toward a capitalistic society. In 1991 under Gorbachev, the USSR was dissolved into 15 separate independent Soviet states. Mikhail Gorbachev is still living and he visited the United States a number of times after his retirement. Boris Yeltsin, who was the Mayor of Moscow, became the first elected President of the Russian Federation. Many criminal and economic problems plagued Russia under President Yeltsin and on December 31, 1999 he unexpectedly resigned and handed the post to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Putin then won the Presidency by election in 2000. Putin promoted exporting of oil and the high prices helped the economy to grow. He returned stability to Russia and improved the economic station of the citizens. The Russian Constitution limited the president to eight consecutive years and in 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was elected president. He immediately appointed Vladimir Putin as the prime minister. At the next election in 2012, Vladimir Putin was again elected as President. He appointed Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister. The president is head of the state and the supreme leader. The prime minister is the head of the government and its operation on a day to day basis. Russia is divided into five regions and the leader of the region is appointed by President Putin.

President Putin is well liked and respected in Russia. He has stated that he is considering retirement at the end of his current term in 2020.