Questions
1. Who are the bourgeoisie and how did they abuse the working
class?
2. What were the problems of the industrial revolution?
3. What is the theory of class struggle? What does a
communist revolution it depend on?
4. Why was Russia considered ready for a communist
revolution?
5. What are ideas separate the Bolsheviks from the
Mensheviks?
6. According to the Bolshevik, Lenin, why was War
Communism necessary for the revolution?
7. How does the NEP represent a reversal of Lenin’s
communistic goals? How does the NEP compare to
capitalism?

Answer no 1:

Bourgeoisie is a French word which is loosely translates as 'Middle Class'.

The Bourgeoisie emerged as a distinct social class during the middle ages and by the 17th Century, had significant cultural influence in Europe.

They played a major role in the French revolution and were seen as a more educated class that could topple royalists. However, in reality, with their wealth, they became more opulent, and gave very little rights to the working class and the poor.

Therefore, most historians agree that they did abuse the working classes.

Answer no 2:

The Industrial revolution resulted in 4 major problems:

Rapid Urbanization: In order to make a living, people started to move from villages to urban areas. They wanted to work in factories and support their families. This rapid urbanization and influx of tens of thousands of people began to crumble infrastructure. No government was prepared for this and this lead to other problems including the development of slums and crime.

Crime: As people moved to cities, they mostly had very little belongings and had to share an apartment with 5-6 families members and sometimes with other families. Most families could not afford anything more.

Crime began to grow in these areas as they became easy places for theft, extortion and prostitution.

Disease: Due to overcrowding and very little social space, diseases such as malaria, flu, typhoid easily spread through communities leading to the deaths of many infants and even adults.

Pollution: The waste generated from factories including garbage, smoke and chemicals devastated the natural environment. Apart from that, slums became dangerously polluted as there was no proper sewerage systems.

Answer 3:

According to the theory of class struggle, every society is divided into social classes based on a person's wealth, education and background.

Every class as their own sets of beliefs, needs and wants which are mostly at odds with one another. Hence, there is an underlying class struggle going on in every society.

Communist revolutionaries believe that such class struggles should be removed from the society to create a more 'equal' and 'just' society where people can live in harmony and have similar goals and aspiration. Without the theory of class struggle, communist revolution does not have any merit.

Answer 4:  

Russia had a huge feudal society and a powerful royal family. However, the working class remained in abject poverty with little rights if any.

Before the revolution, it was clear that the powerful will not make any real reforms to help the poor and the Bolsheviks, by then, had a strong agenda, that resonated with millions of people.

The royal family gradually lost both popularity and power and the revolutionaries, led by Lenin believed that it was the right time to take the country froward.

Answers 5:

Both, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks believed that Russia needed a new form of social government to help the masses.

However, the differences actually originated between two leaders of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

Vladmir Lenin, who lead the Bolshevik movement began to have a difference of opinion with Julios Martov. The differences started from something as little as party governance model and eventually began to grow into two distinct thoughts within the social movement.

The biggest difference however was that while Lenin's Bolsheviks believed in extreme revolution including violence and civil disobedience, the Mensheviks were more moderate in their stance and had a liberal view of how to work for their cause.

Answer No 6:

Lenin was a strong believer in class struggle and saw violent struggle as the long way to change the society for good.

In this regard, enforcing strict communist laws during a period of war was seen as a way to 'shock' the established system and completely change the way things were done.

For example, they nationalised of large companies and restricted any private businesses.

Answer 7:

The new economic policy also known as NEP was a set of financial reforms instigated by Lenin. Implementing NEP meant that peasants had to pay a considerable amount of tax if they were to cultivate and trade their products.

This was a reversal of Lenin's communist goals because he wanted to make a system in which grain requisition could be practiced and every body be given an equal share to it.

The NEP can be considered as a modified form of capitalism as the lower class had to pay taxes for what they produced. Today, most historians agree that NEP was a threat to communism and a a repackaged version of capitalism.

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