Ideology of Government

Question 1

Autocracy (tsars)

Answer 1

A system of government where one person has absolute Power

Question 2

Alexander III [1881-1893]

Manifest of Unshakeable Autocracy 1881

Answer 2

Alexander III introduced manifesto of unshakable autocracy after his father died in 1881

• this was to reinforce the autocracy of making sure everybody knew that the Tsar was above everybody else in terms of power

Question 3

Nicholas II [1893-1917]

Fundemental Laws 1906

Answer 3

• After the events of the 1905 Revolution the October manifesto (1905) was created which gave the illusion of a small hint of democracy
– with Recreation of four state dumas Who can implement policies and laws
– but only with the Tsars permision

• to ensure that the people did not overemphasize this democracy Nicholas introduced the Fundemental laws in 1906

• this reinforced the idea the tsar still had absolute Power

Question 4

totalitarianism

Answer 4

Totalitarianism

– is a system of government that is centralised and dictatorial and requires complete obedience to the state

– examples of this include Stalin’s USSR and Nazi Germany

Question 5

liberal democracy

Answer 5

Liberal democracy

– is a system of government where individuals rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected

– also the exercise of political powers is restricted by laws

Question 6

Constitutional government

Answer 6

A constitutional government is a government with a constitution which is laws, rules and freedoms.

Question 7

dictatorship

Answer 7

A dictatorship is a government that is governed by a dictator

– which is the ruler of a country with absolute Power usually being obtained by Force

– for example Lenin in October 1917

Question 8

Marxism

Answer 8

Marx beleives society is made of 2 componats: the Superstructure and the base:

Superstructure

The role of the superstructure is to maintain the base:
– institutions by rulers to establish order
– involves: education, family, religion, politics, Media etc

The Base

The bass is maintained and established by rulers to benefit them at the expense of others
– for example serfdom
– involves: the means of production (workers and dactory owners and such)

Marx believes that Society only needs to conflict and the solution to this is to destroy the base

Russian scholars believe that that meant to replace serfdom and capitalism with socialism

Question 9

Alexander II [1855-1881]

trial of 50

Answer 9

• this was after the 1866 attempted Assassination on Alexander II
– was a trial against key political opponents
– who had taken his reforms too far and began to oppose Tsarism

This shows how Alexander II was willing to enforce autocracy

Question 10

Alexander III [1881-1893]

reversal of reforms and suppress opposition groups

Answer 10

• after the death of his father in 1881, Alexander III reversed many of his father’s more liberal reforms
– went on to suppress opposition to Tsarism
– such as people’s will who had assassinated his father

• this included many executions and hunting of the opposition
– including Lennon’s brother

• he was influenced by his mentor pobedonostsev who did not believe in constitutional governments

Question 11

Marx’s Labour theory of value

Answer 11

• Marx’s labor theory of value suggests that in capitalism, workers are never paid the full value of their labor, only scraps

• this leads to frustration and then uprise

Capitalism
v
Dictatorship of the Proletariate
(workers have the political power during the transition)
v
Socialism

Question 12

Lenin [1917-1924]

Marxism-Leninism

Answer 12

• Marxism–leninism involved attacking the base of society to overthrow the rulers in the superstructure

• this was outlined in his book: ‘what is to be done’ in 1902

• lenin’s interpretation of the dictatorship of the proletariat involved:
– the parties central committee led by professionals governing in the interest of the workers until they were ready for it themselves

• this led to such outrage that’s the SD party in Russia split in 1903 into the bolsheviks and the mensviks and others

• trotsky believed that they should have a permanent Revolution which involved:
– spreading communism around the world

• Stalin disagreed and said that they can’t spread communism until it is firmly established in the USSR which was established in 1922

Question 13

Lenin [1917-1924]

Marxism-leninism

How he tries to Attack the Base

Answer 13

• Lennon attempts to attack the base of society by introducing war communism
– which involved nationalising Industries
– forcing Grain requisition from peasants to feed the Red Army during the civil war

• this results in a famine

• to combat the issue of this failure he introduced the NEP which allows for some small non-nationalized businesses

• with this greater freedom came criticisms from within the party as some believe that this moved away from the original communist mission lenin set out

Showing that Lenin had to lessen the extent of his dictatorship to ensure the survival of the Bolsheviks

Question 14

Stalin [1929-1953]

Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism

Answer 14

Marxism-leninism-stalinism was stalin’s interpretation of marxism-leninism and put power in the hands of the individual

• he realised in order to change the base a certain superstructure was required
– to implement this superstructure he created his cult of Personality reinforced by propaganda and repression to center Society around himself
– failure to agree with stalin’s view usually led to being accused of being bourgeoisie and then being purged or killed

• this is reinforced by the 1936 Constitution which states the party and Stalin are leaders of the USSR

• then he used a command economy and collectivization to solve the ussr’s economic problems of increasing the industrialization of Russia to catch up and outbeat the West

• he creates the party central committee to control his new superstructure

• he used the Checka and nkvd and later other versions of the secret police to deal with opposition and stabilize the economy

• stalin’s USSR was a totalitarian system in which he ruled with terror in absolute Power

Question 15

Khrushchev [1956(3)-1964]

De-Stalinisation

Answer 15

• Khrushchev’s Policy of De-Stalinisation involved:
– at the 1956 Secret Speech, he denounced the actions of Stalin and claimed that he killed many in the war and purges
– He lied, the figures be used was far lower than the real ones as not to cause too much outcry

• next he reduced censorship, released political prisoners and attempted to remove stalin’s Cult of Personality:
– he removed Stalin from the national anthem
– he removed his body from Lenin’s Mausoleum and moved his ashes to the Kremlin wall
– he changed Stalingrad to volgograd

This shows how Kay was willing to reduce the favorability of the previous leader
– established himself as the new leader
– maintain the power of the party in the progress (whithout damaging the parys image)

Question 16

Khrushchev [1956(3)-1964]

collective leadership

Answer 16

K introduced collective leadership
– which put power in the hands of a collection of individuals
– including k and malenkov, who was deemed as bad as he almost started a conflict
– was therefore replaced by Bulganin

• collective leadership was very similar to the dictatorship of the proletariat but instead of workers members of the party

• he also did decentralization to increase his control over the corners of the USSR by increasingly power of the local soviets (105 eco zones in Russia)
– this was done without reducing the power of the central party

• this collective leadership reduced the idea of a dictatorship and was more along the lines of totalitarianism with a group rather than individual

• there was still however only one party and it’s policies were very close to Marxism

• k did not repress as much as Stalin as he believed that this would reduce his image International

All this shows how k:
– was able to maintain the power of the central committee
– increase his influence over the USSR as a whole
– become slightly more in line with the dictatorship of the proletariat
– without sacrificing the power of the party

Meaning he reinforced the ideology of the USSR, in a non-obvious way

Question 17

Provisional Government [1917]

Answer 17

The provisional government had the ideology of creating a constitutional government

however it never got around to doing this due to remaining in the war