The giant ehap review outline
Twentieth Century Culture
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- The Russian Revolution
Twentieth Century Culture*Influences on Twentieth Century Culture* - In the twentieth century, small movements in new directions from prior decades became dominant in many fields. Psychology, literature and art probed the irrational and surreal. - Sigmund Freud’s discoveries had huge influence and implications. Freud stated that the mind was divided into the unconscious, the subconscious, and the conscious, and that people were driven by the id (instinctual urges residing in the unconscious), which is controlled by the ego, which is told to do so by the superego (conscience imposed by society). He also found that all memories were kept, in some from, and that repression of memories from the conscious mind led to neuroses. Freud invented psychoanalysis to cure patients of their neuroses. - From Freud’s discoveries, many inferred that greater candor in society would lead to a happier population (although Freud himself did not think so). Carl G. Jung broke from Freud and developed a theory of the collective unconscious (a common bond between whole peoples expressed in rituals). *Movements in Literature* - Surrealism à the surrealists applied Freudian ideas directly and believed art had to penetrate the subconscious. Both an artistic and literary movement, surrealism explored inner thoughts and dreams. - Other writers, though not necessarily surrealists, explored human irrationality. For example: Marcel Proust (who wrote Remembrance of Things Past and focused on interior monologue and the expression of the narrator’s feelings), Franz Kafka (who wrote descriptions of twisted fantasies), James Joyce (who wrote Ulysses, which told a day in the life of the average Dubliner on epic proportions) and Virginia Woolf (who was a political activist and feminist w/A Room of One’s Own). - In general, novelists turned away from the clear, chronological narratives of the past and focused more on controversial issues and the exploration of dreams and fantasies. *Movements in Art* - In all the arts, the new thing was to shock the audience by presenting absurd things, etc. The Dadaists were excellent and this, and used their bizarre routines to infuriate the proper Paris bourgeoisie. The Futurists in Italy were obsessed with speed, and the Fauvres in France and the Expressionists in Germany aimed to wildly break conventions. - In painting, the Cubists and Expressionists confused people with their strange designs, often incorporating violence and amorality. This scared most people. *Movements in Philosophy* - The big philosophical work of this time was by Oswald Spengler and was called the Decline of the West. He treated civilizations as living organisms and stated that WWI was the beginning of the end for Western Civilization. Jose Ortega y Gasset was just as pessimistic in The Revolt of the Masses, for he stated that the masses would use their rising power to destroy civilization’s achievements. - In Principia Mathematica, Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead stated that philosophers should only worry about things that were precise and empirically demonstrable. Ludwig Wittgenstein agreed in his related system of local positivism, and, in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus he tried to limit though by insisting on symbolic logic. These new analytic philosophers emulated science, and tried to get rid of any statements that did not have a precise meaning. Philosophy became more specialized. *Advances in Science* - By this time, science had become incomprehensible to the average person. It became increasingly specialized, and even though people generally knew the implications of the theories, they did not really understand them. Many laws were overturned during this time, as well. - Albert Michelson and Edward Morley in 1887 started one line of new thinking by challenging the theory that the universe was filled w/a substance called ether. Albert Einstein followed up on this (and then some) in his Theory of Relativity, which stated that space and time were not absolute. - Physicists were also finding a new understanding of matter. In 1895, Willhelm Roentgen discovered x-rays, and two years later J.J. Thomson proved that the electron existed. Researchers like Pierre and Marie Curie explored radioactivity and further proved the divisibility of the atom. Ernest Rutherford followed up on this by associating radioactivity w/the breakdown of big atoms. - This led to quantum physics, or the attempt to explain why Newton’s laws didn’t work for subatomic particles. Max Planck challenged Newton in 1902 by showing energy was emitted in quanta and had many properties of matter, and in 1919 Rutherford changed an atom by bombarding it w/subatomic particles. But they could find no unified theory to explain the subatomic world. - Werner Heisenberg then came up with the Uncertainty Principle, which stated they really couldn’t know anything for sure. By this time Newtonian physics (in some cases) and the old conception of the atom had been thrown out the window Science became ultra-complicated, and now there were no more popularizers like Voltaire to make it understandable to everyday people. - In biology, advances were made in the study of heredity and in the isolation of viruses (which led to new drugs like penicillin). In sociology, the big guys were Emile Durkheim (who used statistics to analyze customs) and Max Weber (the “ideal type”). They both were concerned w/the customs that held society together and were concerned about what happened when group norms broke down. *Popular Culture* - There were many new technologies (such as cars, radios, planes, etc.) and lots of excitement in the 1920s. New and daring styles of architecture became popular, as did advertising. - The big new thing was the movies. Movies took full advantage of the trend towards distortion sin time and perspective. They also became super popular as well as very profitable. All sorts of people, from the rich to the poor, attended the movies, although movies became more specialized to each country with the introduction of sound in 1929. Politics was sometimes there, too. The Russian Revolution*The Initial Revolution* - After 1905, Russia was a constitutional monarchy. But, because only the upper classes were allowed to vote, the conservatives pretty much dominated the Duma and blocked reforms. When the war broke out in 1914, the Duma was suspended and Tsar Nicholas II went to command the army. He left his wife (who was controlled by insane Rasputin) to run the country. - Throughout 1916, discontent mounted to an almost intolerable level. Transportation was poor, production low, war refugees were everywhere, there were terrible food shortages – and, to make it worse, the peasants (who wanted land) and the workers were already raging mad. - So, in March 1917 (called either the March Revolution or the February Revolution), strikers filled the streets of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and, led by the Soviet of Workers (a groups of workers) they joined with the Duma committee and formed a provisional government. Nicholas II, who couldn’t count on the army’s support, was forced to abdicate. - The provisional government was mainly moderate bourgeoisie (it was led by Milyukov and the only socialist was Kerensky, who was a social revolutionary and part of the Petrograd soviet) and it quickly established civil liberties, gave political prisoners amnesty, and stopped religious persecution. But, besides supporting the 8-hour-workday and ordering the abolition of class privileges, it left the other social issues to the constituent assembly it promised to call soon. - The revolutionaries were actually highly divided, for Russia had many revolutionary parties, such as:
- The Bolsheviks (led by Lenin) wanted a hard-core, ultra-organized revolutionary group to be the vanguard of the revolution and they did not want to cooperate w/the Cadets. The Mensheviks wanted a larger party of part time revolutionaries and wanted to cooperate w/the Cadets. *The November Revolution* - While the first revolution occurred in Russia, Lenin, in exile in Switzerland, was organizing his party and formulating a new version of Marxism. Lenin stated that there was not going to be a spontaneous awakening of class consciousness (instead, the only result would be “trade union consciousness” and becoming middle class wannabes) and that an energetic party of revolutionaries was needed to divert the proletariat and take them towards the real revolution. - In April 1917, however, the Germans (who hoped, since Lenin thought that WWI was an irrelevant civil war between the capitalists, that Lenin would disrupt the war effort) let Lenin back into Russia though a closed railroad car. He issued the April Theses (a masterpiece of propaganda), which supported “Peace, Land, and Bread” and “All Power to the Soviets”. - Meanwhile, the provisional government was collapsing. There were disagreements over war policy and strikes. Kerensky became the leader, but his gov’t was attacked from left (the Bolsheviks and their failed revolution in the July Days) and right (the Kornilov Coup). Kerensky still focused on the war, and in his attempt to get just one more great offensive (it never worked) he lost much public support. - Because of the Kornilov Coup, Kerensky asked the left to help defend the gov’t, so all the Bolsheviks were let out of prison. They won control of the Moscow and Petrograd soviets, and Trotsky was elected president of the Petrograd soviet. - On November 6th, Lenin seized power in Petrograd and Moscow, and announced to the Congress that the Bolsheviks held power and were taking control of the armies. Although Kerensky tried to gain support, the armies were not interested in fighting for him. - Congress approved a one-party cabinet: the Congress of Soviets replaced the parliament; they elected a Central Executive committee, which advised the cabinet. There was no real elected body – though elections were held for the constituent assembly (otherwise it would appear that the Bolsheviks were afraid of the results), it was dismissed after one day. *Communist Russia* - First, the Communists declared that land, livestock, and farm equipment belonged to the state but could be temporarily held by peasants. They also stated that no peasant was to work for hire, and that committees of the poor would supervise the allocation of land. There would be worker’s committees controlling the factories, and all ranks were abolished. People’s tribunals were established as well. - In the next few months, everything was nationalized: railroads, banks, foreign trade, etc. A new secret police, the Cheka was established as well. - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk à in February 1918 Russia just stopped fighting, and in March Russia surrendered to the harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which forced Russia to surrender more than one million square miles of territory to Germany. The communists tolerated the harsh terms because they felt that a revolution would soon occur in Germany as well. - In July, Russia was declared a federation and political power was given to the local soviets, organized by occupation and elected by universal suffrage. The soviets elected delegates, who elected more delegates, up until the all-Russia Congress. The Communist party was not mentioned, but it really ran the show, for its Central Committee elected the Politburo, which shared power with the Council of People’s Commissars (but in reality it was all the Politburo). - Red/White Civil War à then, from 1918 to 1921, there was a brutal civil war of Communists vs. Everyone Else. Since the troops weren’t committed to fighting the Bolsheviks, the Red Army won out, but at enormous cost (the policy of War Communism, which was stealing food from the peasants to feed the cities, caused agriculture to drop to 1/5th of its former level). After the civil war, there was the Communist-run Red Terror. - Then, rising discontent caused Lenin to introduce the NEP (New Economic Policy), which is Bukharin’s pet project. The NEP is basically a retreat back to capitalism (private enterprise was encouraged, only enterprises with 60+ people were state-run, peasants allowed to grow and sell their own grain). IT WORKS! *Stalin’s Rise to Power* - So all is going well until Lenin gets a stroke in 1923. Now there is a power vacuum in the party, and all five other members of the Politburo wonder who will fill it. The candidates are:
- They see the parallels to the FR, and they are all wondering who Napoleon will be. Everyone thinks it will be Trotsky who they dislike as he joined the party late and is not trusted. - So Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev form a STOP TROTSKY movement. They also form a Lenin Cult (a Cult of Personality), which turns Lenin into a God of Communism. Trotsky hates this, since he knows Lenin wasn’t infallible. But Stalin and co. use the Lenin Cult to prove all the times that Trotsky was supposedly wrong (whenever he disagreed with Lenin). - On his deathbed, Lenin realizes what Stalin is doing and writes in his will that Stalin should be expelled. But when they open the will, Kamenev and Zinoviev leap to Stalin’s defense and say (believe it or don’t) that this one time Lenin made a mistake, and vote to suppress the will and win. - Meanwhile, several ideological debates continue:
- By 1925, Trotsky is forced to step down from the army (he could have pulled a coup d’etat, but he hated dictatorship, as it was against his principles) and is exiled by 1927. *Russia Under Stalin* - A new term, totalitarianism, was invented to describe Stalin’s control over Russia (and Hitler’s over Germany, etc.). Stalin controlled everything: education, propag - In the 1920s he made his enemies look bad in the history book, and then in the 1950s he wiped them out of the books altogether. He assassinated Trotsky in Mexico City to prevent him from telling the truth about the oppressive nature of his regime. - After eliminating Trotsky Stalin moved against Kamenev and Zinoviev. He kicked them out of the party and replaced them with loyal supporters. In 1927, Stalin attacks Bukharin and proposes collectivization (as his own idea, of course). Bukharin (finally) gets the idea. Then in 1928, Stalin proclaims that he is “the Lenin of today” and turns himself into a living God of Communism. A new Cult of Personality is born. - Collectivization à a.k.a. the First Five Year Plan (1928 to 1932). Peasants were forced off their land or whole villages were destroyed. Then, they were forced onto state run farms. Although it was absolutely brutal, it worked! Industry grew tremendously. Still, agriculture declined. - Then, Stalin began a series of purges after the assassination of Serge Kirov (a popular Stalinist who was actually killed on Stalin’s orders as a pretext and also b/c he was becoming too popular). He used the NKVD – in a series of show trials he had all the old Bolsheviks (anyone who was around at the Revolution) “confess” to crimes against the state – Bukharin, Zinoviev, all the army officers, etc.
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