Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

After Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924, the two major contestants of political power were Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was a gifted orator and a dedicated communist. Stalin was a talented organizer. Although Trotsky was a popular choice for the job of leader as the head of the new communist state, Stalin was also the party’s General Secretary. This job held a lot of power because Stalin appointed regional and local party posts in the government which allowed him to appoint those who would support his bid forever. By setting his minions deep into the political ladder, Stalin eventually became the official dictator of the Soviet Union.

Totalitarianism is the operating of a centralized government system in which a single party without opposition rules over political, economic, social, and cultural life. Basically, its dictatorship or tyranny. In the case of Stalin, he was totalitarianism. He controlled all details of public and private life. He made all the decisions. Stalin made the “Five Year Plans”. The goal of this plan was to transform the Soviet Union from an agricultural state to an industrial one within five years. This plan emphasized maximum production of capital goods. It succeeded in quadrupling the production of heavy machinery, doubled oil production, increased steel production and hard copal output. The cost of this, socially and politically, was quite heavy. Due to industrialization, many families lived pitiful lives, wages declined; there was child labor and strict laws limited workers’ freedom of movement. Also, since they were industrializing, the goal was to stop private farming and introduce collective farms. Farmers who resisted this program only led Stalin to be stricter with his policies. Many people died due to starvation because of the hoarding of food and slaughter of livestock.

The “Great Purge” was basically another Reign of Terror. Stalin killed anyone who opposed him. He became paranoid and killed important members of his party, people he once called supporters. Most of the people shot were colleagues of Lenin, original members of the party. Stalin’s dictatorship held great control over the general population of the country. Propaganda campaigns were made to indoctrinate the country with Communist thoughts and Stalin wanted to convert everyone into “Soviets”. He wanted everyone alike, to the point where he converted all languages into Cyrillic alphabet. Stalin had “secret police” known as the NKVD hunt down anyone who he suspected of “counter-revolutionary crimes. Stalin died of a stroke at age 73 on March 5th, 1953.

The film “Dr. Zhivago” was very powerful in its depiction of the Russian Revolution. Russian’s wanted change. They didn’t like the unfair rulings of czars. Widespread inflation and food shortages in Russia contributed largely into the Revolution. In the beginning of the film, you saw an important event in the Russian Revolution known as “Bloody Sunday”. “Bloody Sunday” happened on January 22, 1905, when peaceful demonstrators who were marching to present a petition to the czar, Nicholas II, were gunned down by the Imperial Guard. “Bloody Sunday” and the development of revolutionary ideas and movements led to the Russian Revolution. Going more into the film, you saw that the Russian’s began to leave their stations on the Eastern Front and return back home. They saw no point in fighting a losing battle. When Doctor Yuri Zhivago, also a poet, went back home to Moscow, he saw the dramatic changes. His home used to be his own, but after the Russian Revolution and the following of communism, seven families shared his home with him, and his personal belongings were taken away from him. Communism is a classless society in which capitalism is overthrown by a working class revolution that gives ownership control of wealth and property to the government. That basically means that everything was owned by the government and no matter how hard or little you worked, everyone made the same amount of income. Everything was “fair”, in a sense. Dr. Zhivago was surprised to see so many people in his home. Due to communism, many people starved or froze to death. Dr. Zhivago had to go out and pull wood out of a fence to keep his family warm. That was against the belief of communism.

Causes of WW I

World War I, known as the Great War at that time was very complicated. The actual origin of the war was very deep. It had been building up, tensions of Europeans states increasing, until finally a chain of events led to the outbreak of fighting. The primary causes of World War I have been identified as Nationalism, Militarism, the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand, and the collapse if the alliance system.

Nationalism, as we know, is extreme loyalty to ones nation and concern for its welfare. After Napoleon’s exile, the Congress of Vienna in 1815, delegates from various European countries came together make peace. The principle of nationalism was ignored, leaving Germany and Italy as divided states. Also, large areas of Austria-Hungary and Serbia had many nationalist groups that all wanted independence from the states they lived in and were willing to fight for it.

Militarism is a nation’s policy to maintain armed forced, and in the beginning of the 2oth century and an arms race had begun. European countries began building large armies and navies. Germany had the largest military buildup, and Great Britain was following, with its own military buildup. Britain presented the “Dreadnought”, an advanced battleship, and Germany then followed suit, with their own battleships. Germany also made pre-war battle plans to attack France through Belgium if Russia attacked Germany. The thought of secret battle plans only caused anger and fear in other nations.

Another cause could be recognized as the collapse of the alliances. The Bismarckian diplomacy made two opposing alliances after the Franco-Prussian War. Bismarck formed the Three Emperor’s League in 1872, which was an alliance between Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary, to isolate France. Then Bismarck took advantage of Italy’s bitterness towards France while France occupied Tunisia and created the Triple Alliance between Germany, and Italy, and Austria-Hungary in 1882. This alliance meant that Germany and Austria-Hungary would protect Italy from France if war broke out between Austria-Hungary and Russia. In time, Austria-Hungary and Russia grew suspicious of each other over conflicts in the Balkans, so Bismarck fixed the damage to his alliances with the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia. This permitted both powers to stay neutral of the other was at war. However, due to so many different powers involved in mutual defense agreements, when the war began, it involved nearly ever country. Secret alliances also led to suspicion and the belief that other secret agreements existed.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is known as the immediate cause of WWI. On June 28, 1914, the Archduke and his wife were shot to death by Serbian nationalist of the Black Hand, Gavrilo Princip. The Archduke was shot because he wanted to turn Austria-Hungary’s monarchy into a triple monarchy and planned to include Serbia. Serbia wanted to take over Bosnia and Herzegovina. This assassination led to Austria Hungary declaring war on Serbia. Russia, who had an alliance to Serbia, began to mobilize, which made Germany declare war on Russia if the Russians didn’t demobilize. France acted in its own interests and mobilized, which made Germany declare war on France. Germany’s invasion of Belgium to attack France violated Belgium’s official neutrality, and led to Britain declaring war on France. Thus began the Great War.

The Opium Wars

Asia became an important area of international competition in the 19th century. For many years, China had remained isolated from the very world it was in. They believed that they were superior to everyone else. Sounds familiar? They were not impressed by the European culture. The Finally, China began to trade. The Chinese exported tea, a very trendy leaf, to Britain. Britain was left to only trade gold and silver with China since China was a self sufficient country.

Eventually, Britain began running out of gold and silver, and tried to trade any other product with them, whether it be new inventions or food, but the Chinese weren’t impressed and said no. Britain then did a very sneaky thing. They introduced the addicting narcotic opium to China. Opium was already sold in China, but not for the reasons the Britain wanted. In China, opium was a medicinal product, used for headaches and the such. The British introduced it as a drug, and the Chinese were addicted. Now, the British could trade something other than silver and gold with the Chinese.

Chinese naturally was a very populated country, and opium was killing off most of the population. About ten percent of China was addicted to opium, and China needed a more variety of products to trade with the British. Eventually, the Chinese emperor was sick of it. Opium was weakening them. He sent a letter and asked Britain to stop trading opium with them. The British refused and continued trading opium, even after laws were set up making it illegal to smoke opium.

War ultimately broke out. The Chinese were no match for the British. The Chinese only had old-style weapons and artillery which the British had gun ships and steamboats. The Chinese weren’t prepared for Britain’s technological superiority and faced a humiliating defeat. In 1842, they were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking. This treaty let Britain use five of the Chinese ports instead of one, gave control of Hong Kong to Britain, and forced the Chinese to legalize opium.

"The White Man's Burden"

The concept of the “White Man’s Burden” is a belief that the superior race, the “white man”, is obligated to teach all other inferior races the practice of a higher level of organization. It is associated with imperialism. The poem “The White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling illustrates that belief. Imperialism was linked to social Darwinism, which was the belief that in the battle of nations, only the most fit will triumph and will survive. It was believed that the superior race was to dominate the inferior races by military force and show how strong they are. Europeans also took a religious point of view of this. They believed it was their Christian duty and moral responsibility to civilize these “ignorant” people. However this concept was believed, it would always be a manifestation of racism.
I don’t completely believe in this theory. In a sense, we should help other countries in their struggles to modernize. We should help them civilize, but if anything we should only counsel them on what to do. After they have gotten down how they want their government to be, we should guide them in their decision making. If we just start to try to change them and their own beliefs, their will be war, and that id proved by U.S. imperialism in the Philippines.
The U.S. is still imperialistic. That can be justified by our presence in Iraq. We still carry out the “White Man’s burden” today, thinking that it’s for the good, and it is, at times. We should help other countries out that are on the verge on self-destruction. But after we get the basis down, we should guide them in a slightly aggressive way to show those countries what is for the better, but still listen to what those countries beliefs are.

The Scramble for Africa

In the beginning of the 1880’s, European states engaged in a fierce competition for oversea territories. Many believed in social Darwinism, thinking that the superior races must dominate and civilize the inferior races to show how strong they are. One Englishman once wrote, “To the development of the White Man, the Black Man and the Yellow must ever remain inferior, and as the former raised itself higher and yet higher, so did these latter seem to shrink out of humanity and appear nearer and nearer to the brutes.”
Before this time, the Europeans didn’t control much of Africa, having only been established in southern Africa. The “scramble for Africa” was a race against Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal to control parts of Africa as their own. Each of these countries wanted Africa for their own reasons. For example, Britain wanted Africa so they could control the significant sea route to India, and France was interested in the slave trade. Most of the nations were looking for good, silver, and other valuable goods. Africa had an enriched amount of natural resources, and was known for its diamonds and ivory. Not to mention the slave trade.
The British policy in Africa was mainly controlled by Cecil Rhodes in the 1880’s. Rhodes had the control of many diamonds and gold mining companies. He was known as the great champion of British expansion and even named a country in Africa after himself. It was fairly easy to dominate Africa. The country wasn’t united, and they weren’t exactly modern in the sense of that time. The Europeans had many advantages. They had advanced weaponry, superb planning, and many great inventions such as the steam ship. The scramble largely affected the African people. They were being controlled by foreigners. Also, as said before, the country wasn’t united. Many of the tribes had grudges against each other, and when the Europeans took over, they made boundaries putting fighting tribes together. But the Europeans didn’t stop with just Africa, they had a “burden”, and with that burden came “responsibilities”.

Film Lesson" "Mountains of the Moon"

Europeans faced a lot of problems while in Africa. This can be seen in the film “Mountains of the Moon”. The two main characters, Sir Richard Burton and John Speke didn’t know what was in store for them on their journeys. It was a simple enough goal, to find the source of the Nile River. But hardships occurred along the way. Their first journey into Africa was a short one. The Africans had never seen white men before. With their unique appearances, the African tribes weren’t reluctant to attack them. Burton barely got away, having a javelin, or a spear, inserted through his cheeks. Speke was captured with a few other of their slaves, but he got away in the middle of being tortured. Then they return to England, failing in their expedition, but start again.
This time they are funded by the Royal Geographic Society and are fully equipped. Of course this helps, but there are still many hardships they go through. In the course of their second trip, they are attacked by tribes as well as bugs. A bug went into Speke’s ear and to take it out they had to drop candle wax into his ear, ruining his ears. Also, the slaves they hired weren’t trustworthy, many fled in the middle of the night with a lot of equipment. There were other hardships such as lions, depletion of food and water, and diseases. Somehow, when Burton was walking on rough terrain, his legs weakened and he couldn’t walk anymore. Last but not least, they were captured by a tribe and were held hostage until the tribe received goods. Burton and Speke gave the tribe some of the last of its possessions. Finally, at the end, Speke found the source of the Nile River, Lake Victoria.
Lake Victoria is a very odd name to give to a lake in Africa. If the lake was in Europe, it would be typical, but this lake was a in Africa. The Europeans immediately thought it theirs, thinking they were the first people to discover it and named it after their queen, when in reality, many Africans knew about the Lake. The Europeans had many advantages over the Africans. Firstly, they had a technological advantage over the Africans. The Europeans had advanced weaponry, superb planning skills, and plenty of inventions to help them, as to the Africans who had spears and knifes in the least. Also, the Europeans had a major advantage over the Africans due to no unity. Africa was set up with many different tribes that fought against each other, so it easy to defeat them.