Deck 22: E: Revolution, Socialism, and Global Conflict the Rise and Fall of World Communism 1917-Present

Question 1

Personal Reflection: Do you think that the communist legacy was only negative?

Answer 1

•An assessment of the communist era's legacy
•Recognition of its abuses
•Recognition of some of its accomplishments
•A reasoned set of conclusions about the communist legacy
A really good answer will engage directly with the issues raised in Reflections: To Judge or Not to Judge.

Question 2

Historical Comparison: Compare and contrast the course of the Russian and Chinese communist revolutions.

Answer 2

Similarities
•Both revolutions ousted old ruling classes and dispossessed landed aristocracies.
•Both involved vast peasant upheavals in the countryside.
•Both found their vision of the good society in a modernizing future,not in an idealized past.
•They took inspiration from the ideas of Karl Marx.
•They pursued both economic and political equality.
•Both sought the abolition of private property.
Differences
•The revolutionary struggle in China lasted decades rather than a single year.
•Unlike Russia,where intellectuals had been discussing socialism for half a century or more before the revolution,the ideas of Karl Marx were barely known in China in the early twentieth century.
•Chinese communists faced a far more formidable political foe than the weak Provisional Government over which the Bolsheviks had triumphed in Russia.
•Whereas the Bolsheviks found their primary audience among workers in Russia's major cities,Chinese communists increasingly looked to the country's peasant villages for support.
•Chinese peasants did not rise up spontaneously against their landlords,as Russian peasants had.
•Chinese communists ultimately put down deep roots among the peasantry in a way that the Bolsheviks never did.
•Whereas the Bolsheviks gained support by urging Russian withdrawal from the highly unpopular World War I,the Chinese communists won support by aggressively pursuing the struggle against Japanese invaders during World War II.

Question 3

Historical Comparison: Compare and contrast the French,Russian,and Chinese revolutions.

Answer 3

•All three revolutions
oousted old ruling classes and dispossessed landed aristocracies.
oinvolved vast peasant upheavals in the countryside and an educated leadership with roots in the cities.
ofound their vision of the good society in a modernizing future,not in an idealized past.
•Differences include the following:
oThe French Revolution was inspired by Enlightenment ideals,while the Russian and Chinese revolutions were inspired by Marxism.
oThe Russian and Chinese revolutions were influenced by the Industrial Revolution and were committed to an industrial future.
oThe French Revolution focused on political equality,while the Russian and Chinese revolutions pursued both economic and political equality.
oThe Russian and Chinese revolutions sought the abolition of private property.
oThe middle classes,who were the chief beneficiaries of the French Revolution,numbered among the many victims of the Russian and Chinese revolutions.
oA political party led the Russian and Chinese revolutions,while the French Revolution witnessed many changes in political leadership.
oThe Chinese Revolution was more focused on the countryside than was the Russian and French revolutions.