Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution

Q.1. Who controlled economic and social power in Europe in eighteenth century?

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The aristocracy and church controlled economic and social power.

Q.2. How did socialism become one of the most significant and powerful ideas to shape society in the twentieth century?

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Through the revolution in Russia, socialism became one of the most significant and powerful ideas to shape society in the twentieth century.

Q.3. Who were liberals?

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One of the groups which looked to change society was the liberals. Liberals wanted a nation which tolerated all religions.

Q.4. Which religion did Austria and Spain favoured?

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Austria and Spain favoured the Catholic Church.

Q.5. Why did liberals opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers?

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Liberals also opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers. They wanted to safeguard the rights of individuals against governments. They argued for a representative, elected parliamentary government, subject to laws interpreted by a well-trained judiciary that was independent of rulers and officials.

Q.6. How can we say that liberals were not democrats?

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Liberals did not believe in universal adult franchise, that is, the right of every citizen to vote. They felt men of property mainly should have the vote. They also did not want the vote for women.

Q.7. How were radicals different from liberals?

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Radicals wanted a nation in which government was based on the majority of a country’s population. Many supported women’s suffragette movements. Unlike liberals, they opposed the privileges of great landowners and wealthy factory owners. They were not against the existence of private property but disliked concentration of property in the hands of a few.

Q.8. What were the ideas of the conservatives?

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Conservatives were opposed to radicals and liberals. After the French Revolution, however, even conservatives had opened their minds to the need for change. Earlier, in the eighteenth century, conservatives had been generally opposed to the idea of change. By the nineteenth century, they accepted that some change was inevitable but believed that the past had to be respected and change had to be brought about through a slow process.

Q.9. How did differing ideas about societal change clash with each other?

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The differing ideas about societal change clashed during the social and political turmoil that followed the French Revolution. The various attempts at revolution and national transformation in the nineteenth century helped define both the limits and potential of these political tendencies.

Q.10. What was Suffragette movement?

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It was a movement to give women the right to vote.

Q.11. political trends were signs of a new time. Explain.

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The political trends were signs of a new time. It was a time of profound social and economic changes. It was a time when new cities came up and new industrialised regions developed, railways expanded and the Industrial Revolution occurred.

Q.12. Why did liberals and radical groups receive support from the people?

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Liberals and radicals felt that such effort should be encouraged, that its benefits would be achieved if the workforce in the economy was healthy and citizens were educated. Opposed to the privileges the old aristocracy had by birth, they firmly believed in the value of individual effort, labour and enterprise. If freedom of individuals was ensured, if the poor could labour, and those with capital could operate without restraint, they believed that societies would develop. Many working men and women who wanted changes in the world rallied around liberal and radical groups and parties in the early nineteenth century.

Q.13. What changes were envisaged by the socialists?

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Socialists were against private property, and saw it as the root of all social ills of the time. Individuals owned the property that gave employment but the propertied were concerned only with personal gain and not with the welfare of those who made the property productive. So if society rather than single individuals controlled property, more attention would be paid to collective social interests. Socialists wanted this change and campaigned for it.

Q.14. Which English manufacturer wanted to build a cooperative community?

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Robert Owen a leading English manufacturer, sought to build a cooperative community called New Harmony in Indiana in USA.

Q.15. What did Louis Blanc demand?

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In France, for instance, Louis Blanc wanted the government to encourage cooperatives and replace capitalist enterprises.

Q.16. Why did Karl Marx oppose industrial capitalism?

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Marx argued that industrial society was .capitalist. Capitalists owned the capital invested in factories, and the profit of capitalists was produced by workers. The conditions of workers could not improve as long as this profit was accumulated by private capitalists. Workers had to overthrow capitalism and the rule of private property.

Q.17. According to Karl Marx, how could workers triumph in their conflict with capitalists?

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Marx believed that to free themselves from capitalist exploitation, workers had to construct a radically socialist society where all property was socially controlled. This would be a communist society. He was convinced that workers would triumph in their conflict with capitalists. A communist society was the natural society of the future.

Q.18. Which international body was formed by the socialists?

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By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe. To coordinate their efforts, socialists formed an international body, namely, the Second International.

Q.19. What did workers in England and Germany began to demand?

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Workers in England and Germany began forming associations to fight for better living and working conditions. They set up funds to help members in times of distress and demanded a reduction of working hours and the right to vote.

Q.20. Which party won the elections in Germany with the support of workers associations?

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In Germany, these associations worked closely with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and helped it win parliamentary seats.

Q.21. Which party was formed by workers in Britain and France?

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By 1905, socialists and trade unionists formed a Labour Party in Britain and a Socialist Party in France.

Q.22. When did the socialists took over the government in Russia?

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Socialists took over the government in Russia through the October Revolution of 1917. The fall of monarchy in February 1917 and the events of October are normally called the Russian Revolution.

Q.23. Who ruled Russia in 1914?

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In 1914, Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia and its empire.

Q.24. What did the Russian empire include during the rule of Tsar Nicholas II?

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Besides the territory around Moscow, the Russian empire included current-day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. It stretched to the Pacific and comprised toady’s Central Asian states, as well as Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Q.25. Which was the majority religion in Russia?

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The majority religion was Russian Orthodox Christianity which had grown out of the Greek Orthodox Church, but the empire also included Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Buddhists.

Q.26. What was the main occupation of people in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century?

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, the vast majority of Russia’s people were agriculturists. About 85 per cent of the Russian empire’s population earned their living from agriculture.

Q.27. Which were prominent industrial areas in Russia?

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Prominent industrial areas in Russia were St Petersburg and Moscow.

Q.28. Why did Government supervised large factories in Russia?

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Most industry was the private property of industrialists. Government supervised large factories to ensure minimum wages and limited hours of work.

Q.29. How were Russian peasants were different from other European peasants?

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Russian peasants were different from other European peasants in another way. They pooled their land together periodically and their commune divided it according to the needs of individual families. Russian peasants were deeply religious. But except in a few cases they had no respect for the nobility. In Russia, peasants wanted the land of the nobles to be given to them. Frequently, they refused to pay rent and even murdered landlords. In 1902, this occurred on a large scale in south Russia. And in 1905, such incidents took place all over Russia.

Q.30. When was The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party founded?

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The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party was founded in 1898 by socialists who respected Marx’s ideas.

Q.31. When was Socialist Revolutionary Party formed in Russia?

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The Socialist Revolutionary Party was formed in 1900. This party struggled for peasant’s rights and demanded that land belonging to nobles be transferred to peasants.

Q.32. Why did Lenin feel that peasants could not be part of socialist revolution?

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Lenin felt that peasants were not one united group. Some were poor and others rich, some worked as labourers while others were capitalists who employed workers. Given this differentiation within them, they could not all be part of a socialist movement.

Q.33. Why Liberals in Russia demanded constitution?

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Russia was an autocracy. Unlike other European rulers, even at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Tsar was not subject to parliament. Liberals in Russia campaigned to end this state of affairs. Together with the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries, they worked with peasants and workers during the revolution of 1905 to demand a constitution.

Q.34. Why was the year 1904 bad for industrial workers?

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The year 1904 was a particularly bad one for Russian workers. Prices of essential goods rose so quickly that real wages declined by 20 per cent. The membership of workers associations rose dramatically. When four members of the Assembly of Russian Workers, which had been formed in 1904, were dismissed at the Putilov Iron Works, there was a call for industrial action. Over the next few days over 110,000 workers in St Petersburg went on strike demanding a reduction in the working day to eight hours, an increase in wages and improvement in working conditions.

Q.35. Which incident is known as Bloody Sunday?

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When the procession of workers led by Father Gapon reached the Winter Palace it was attacked by the police and the Cossacks. Over 100 workers were killed and about 300 wounded. The incident, known as Bloody Sunday, started a series of events that became known as the 1905 Revolution.

Q.36. What steps were taken by Tsar during the revolution of 1905 to protect his authority?

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During the 1905 Revolution, the Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament or Duma. For a brief while during the revolution, there existed a large number of trade unions and factory committees made up of factory workers. After 1905, most committees and unions worked unofficially, since they were declared illegal. Severe restrictions were placed on political activity. The Tsar dismissed the first Duma within 75 days and the re-elected second Duma within three months. He did not want any questioning of his authority or any reduction in his power. He changed the voting laws and packed the third Duma with conservative politicians. Liberals and revolutionaries were kept out.

Q.37. When did the First World War begin?

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In 1914, war broke out between two European alliances Germany, Austria and Turkey (the Central powers) and France, Britain and Russia (later Italy and Romania). Each country had a global empire and the war was fought outside Europe as well as in Europe. This was the First World War.

Q.38. What made the autocracy unpopular in Russia during the First World War?

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In Russia, the war was initially popular and people rallied around Tsar Nicholas II. As the war continued, though, the Tsar refused to consult the main parties in the Duma. Support wore thin. Anti-German sentiments ran high, as can be seen in the renaming of St Petersburg a German name as Petrograd. The Tsarina Alexandra.s German origins and poor advisers, especially a monk called Rasputin, made the autocracy unpopular.

Q.39. How was The First World War on the .eastern front different from that on the .western front?

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The First World War on the .eastern front differed from that on the .western front. In the west, armies fought from trenches stretched along eastern France. In the east, armies moved a good deal and fought battles leaving large casualties.

Q.40. How did the First World War impacted the industries in Russia?

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The war also had a severe impact on industry. Russia’s own industries were few in number and the country was cut off from other suppliers of industrial goods by German control of the Baltic Sea. Industrial equipment disintegrated more rapidly in Russia than elsewhere in Europe. By 1916, railway lines began to break down. Able-bodied men were called up to the war. As a result, there were labour shortages and small workshops producing essentials were shut down.

Q.41. Why is 22^nd February celebrated as International Women’s Day?

Ans:

On 22 February, a lockout took place at a factory on the right bank. The next day, workers

in fifty factories called a strike in sympathy In many factories, women led the way to strikes.

This came to be called the International Women’s Day.