The Russian Revolution

The first major event of the 17th Century was the Russian Revolution.  This was a chaotic event and the culmination of over a century of civil and military unrest. The causes of this unrest of the common people towards the Tsar and aristocratic landowners are too many and complicated to neatly summarize, but key factors to consider were ongoing resentment at the cruel treatment of peasants by patricians, poor working conditions experienced by city workers in the fledgling industrial economy and a growing sense of political and social awareness of the lower orders in general (democratic ideas were reaching Russia from the West and being touted by political activists). Dissatisfaction of the proletarian lot was further compounded by food shortages and military failures.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - aka Vladimir Lenin a known Socialist and enemy of the Tsarist regime. However with the Tsar under arrest and Russian politics in chaos, Lenin saw the opportunity to lead his party, the Bolsheviks, to power. From his home in Switzerland he negotiated a return to Russia with the help of German authorities. (As a proponent of withdrawing Russia from the Great War, the Germans were willing to facilitate Lenin's passage back via a 'sealed train'.)

Lenin's return in April of 1917 was greeted by the Russian populace, as well as by many leading political figures, with great rapture and applause. However, far from uniting the fractious parties, he immediately condemned the policies and ideologies of both the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet.

Overthrow of the Czar

I learned from Professor Roepnack's lecture and our assigned readings that the use of Marx’s dialectical materialism holds the world, including human beings, is "matter in motion" and that progress occurs through struggle. It follows the Hegelian principle of the philosophy of history,  namely the development of the thesis into its antithesis, which is in turn superseded by a synthesis that conserves aspects of the thesis and the antithesis while at the same time abolishing them.

While Lenin used this theory as opportunity to seize power as he soon discovered that his support was far from absolute. His Peace Policy with the Germans was particularly unpopular as it seized large amounts of Russian territory.   The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 was initiated by millions of people who would change the history of the world as we know it. When Czar Nicholas II dragged 11 million peasants into World War I, the Russian people became discouraged with their injuries and the loss of life they sustained.

The country of Russia was in ruins, ripe for revolution.
While retaining Hegel's dialectical method, however, Marx and Engels reacted against Hegel's idealism.  Though history is not the result of the progressive unfolding of the spirit , but of class struggle in society, in which economics is the determining factor. Moreover, while changes may have been gradual, qualitative change involved an abrupt, violent leap to a higher stage. In society, this means that only violent revolution can bring about the shift from private ownership to socialism and communism which Marx and Engels envisioned.

Soon after, Lenin joined the Bolshevik party as a means to overthrow the Provisional Government aka the Czarist regime and created a government for the proletariat. When this failed, Lenin once again empowered the Bolshevik party. Once the Provisional Government had officially fallen to the Bolshevik regime now Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, announced his attempt to construct the socialist order in Russia. 

After the October Revolution, the Russian Civil War broke out between the Reds' (Communists) and the 'Whites' (Nationalists, Conservatives, Imperialists and other anti-Bolshevik groups). After a bloody four year struggle.  Lenin and the Reds won, establishing the Soviet Union in 1922, at an estimated cost of 15 million lives and billions of roubles. In 1923 Lenin died and Stalin took over the Communist Party, which continued to rule Russia until 1991 when the USSR was dissolved.   

The Begin of Hitler's Reign

Although Hitler was not involved in the Revolution of 1917 Germany was.  "Negotiations with the German side were conducted by a delegation of Bolsheviks. Historian Oleg Platonov insists that part of them (to be exact, Leon Trotsky, Adolph Yoffe and Lev Karahan) were directly involved with German intelligence."  They eventually had a treaty with Germany and without this treaty the Bolsheviks could not have survived financially. 

In 1923, Hitler organized a putsch (a take-over of a government) on the city of Munich which failed soon after Hitler and his followers were arrested and charged with treason. Hitler turned his trial into a propaganda triumph and received a great deal of publicity when he pleaded guilty, not of treason, but of being a patriot. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but he never served his full time because no one in authority truly believed him to be any kind of a threat.

Hitler learned many lessons from the failed Munich putsch; prison gave him time to think and set goals. While imprisoned, he wrote a book entitled Mein Kampf, meaning, my struggle. In his book he explains his ideas on race, and describes his ideas for his Two Thousand Year Government moving into the east and taking over Russia. It completely explained all of his plans, which he would eventually follow .

Treaty of Versailles Signed

After the Treaty of Versailles was signed,  ending World War I, Corporal Hitler went to work for the Weimar (democratic) government, as a spy. His job was to observe the new political parties starting up in Germany and his orders were to watch and attend the meetings of the German Workers party in Munich.  

In February of 1920, Adolph Hitler gave his first recruitment speech, one which would become familiar. He spoke about anti-Semitism, anti Treaty of Versailles, anti democracy. One week after this meeting, the party changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party -- NAZI.

In April of 1920 Hitler resigned from the German Army. He now would devote all his energy to politics and the Nazi party. Hitler did research on German mythology and adopted the Swastika as the symbol of the party because, according to myth, it is the symbol of the beginning of all creation. Hitler was beginning to create his ideal world.  Once out of jail, Hitler started to rebuild his party and was secretly receiving subsidies from the German army in support of the Nazi party.

This picture represents President Woodrow Wilson about to deliver his 14 points as a means to obtain permanent world peace.  Due to his failed campaign for ratification of the peace treaty of Versailles.  This was extremely sad as so many lives were lost due to an unnecessary war, just like we are facing today in Iraq and Afghanistan today for the control for democracy, land and oil.

Strufthof Concentration Camp

During our visit to the Struthof concentration camp we saw firsthand how Hitler's powerful propaganda that would eventually become known as The Big Lie began to take shape.  The theory behind the Big Lie was that the masses would believe a big lie more than they would believe a little lie, if they heard it often enough. Hitler bombarded the people with talk of peace, nonviolence and a strong unified Germany, while all along he was systematically planning to attack Russia and purge Germany of all non-Arians. 

The Struthof concentration camp was built in 1940 on Mount Louise as a major construction quarry project planned by the Third Reich.  The decision was made to have a camp built there by deportees, as the labor force of the DEST, as this site was subjected to harsh weather conditions and the winter temperatures dropped  down to -20 degrees celsius and would reach 30 degrees celsius in the summer.  The camp was isolated and became a prohibited zone as it was surrounded by three barbered-wired fences.  Many of the deportees were Jewish political leaders. 

Hitler would use barbaric means of tourture such as "roll call" which was also called the hanging square.  All of the deportees were forced to watch.  One prisoner was give 100 blows with clubs by four SS officers on the roll call square in front of all the deportees gathered one evening under the floodlights.  He was taken half dead to the prisoner block which he only left to be hanged on Christmas day 1943. 

Political Instability in Europe Post WWI

After WWI Germany suffered many losses not just economically put politically as well.  Political leadership was weak and uncertain. There was a lack of political stability in Germany following the end of World War I because of some political, economic and social reasons. There were many reasons for the lack of political stability in Germany.

The biggest problem was the Weimar Republic itself which was one reason for political instability. The democratic government allowed the people to choose their own leaders and it also allowed the existence of many parties, and the Republic instituted the method of voting in which the Germans practiced was better known as "proportional representation."

While Hitler’s reign continued, he adopted the philosophy of fascism in Germany.  This philosophy gave Hitler the power in the start of his Dictatorship. Fascist leaders such as Hitler encouraged extreme nationalism to build up unity and obedience among the nation’s  people.  Hitler often encouraged racial emphasis beliefs in the systematic way of one’s nation and racial group. 

In 1948 Winston Churchill set up the European Assembly which meets four times a year in Strasbourg, Germany.  Winston Churchill also created the Court of Human Rights.  The Court of Human Rights and the law regarding human rights was created in-part that "none should be subjected to torture" after so many Jews were tortured in the concentration camps by Adolf Hitler.  He vowed to bring unity to Europe after the devastation of the WWI and WWI in Germany.

Economic Conditions in Germany Post WWI and the 21st Century

            When thinking about the post economic conditions of WWI which were devastating to not only Germany but Europe in general.  Germany was the poorest country in Europe at the time and once Hitler and the German Socialist party took charge, the first thing they did was to throw out German J private Central Bank and Germans and for the first time started printing its own Marks. International bankers placed an embargo for defaulting and printing its own money.

Germany was forced to instead accept humiliating demands and make painful concessions: the Versailles Treaty held Germany responsible for the war, parts of the nation’s territory were craved off and handed to neighbors, and - most devastatingly - the nation was burdened with obscene financial “compensation” it had to pay to the victors, particularly France. The obligation to accept guilt for the European war was painful for German pride, but it was the latter which would be most consequential.

 

Economist Keynes saw the financial reparations Germany had to pay and predicated economic hardships for the nation. His prediction was restrained. The Wiemar Republic failed above all not due to fractional politics or Nazi agitation, but due to hyperinflation. In fact a chart of Nazi representation in the Reichstags compliments inflation and unemployment levels in Germany. In other words, Nazis rose and fell with popularity in parallel to economic conditions. Had the Germany economic not been shackled by France’s undue demands, the Nazis would have remained a fringe party unable to connect with middle class Germans. But economic destitution was able to convince many normal Germans that the Nazis were right: their problems were due to the fact that the Germans have been unfairly made to pay the costs of the War, unfairly asked to accept sole guilt.


Most recently Europe is facing 440bn in debt.  They are in desperate need of a financial bailout to safe guard the Euro.  Greece may be the first country in need of being rescued by this bailout.  This monumental debt will have a major effect on international financing today and will have major challenges that go along with the debt crisis not only in Europe but in the United States as well.  This fund can only be used as a last resort to rescue the euro zone country whose plight jeopardizes the stability of the Euro. This could trigger a cascade of losses and freeze financial markets.