Karl Marx Theory and the Russian Revolution Essay

Introduction

The term Russian revolution refers to a series of revolutions that took place in 1917 that eventually destroyed the Tsars autocracy. The series of revolutions had begun in February 1917 whereby the Tsars autocracy was destroyed and replaced by a Provisional Government which had the soviets selected by the low class and the peasants. This Provisional Government was overthrown later by the Workers Union which was led by Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik party.

Lenin had based his ideas on Karl Marx’s ideas which were against capitalism. It was the interpretations of Marxism theories by Lenin that were the force behind the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union (West). This essay will summarize the role that the Karl Marx Theory played in the 1917 Communist Revolution. It will then show how Lenin modified the Marxist theory in the years after the revolution.

Led revolt against the government

Lenin led his party into a revolt against the then Provisional Government which the party had said was not effective. The liberal monarchist through their organized Army (White Army) fought this revolt. This white Army could not maintain Industrial peace, that plus the fact that Russia was losing the war in the continuing World War I led the army to be defeated. At the same time, the Bolshevik Army was gaining in support and therefore the revolution, however, resulted in a freely elected Soviet membership though with opposition from the Socialist Revolutionary Party (Wittfogel). These oppositions led to the later resolutions between the years 1919-1921.

Development of modern communism

Karl Marx’s ideas played an important and significant role in the development of modern communism. Marxism is the economic and political theories based on theories thoughts and believes by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel. Marx had argued that capitalism would create internal wrangles which would lead to its destruction. He had believed that there was a possibility that Russia would change to socialism without necessarily passing through the process of capitalism.

According to Marx capitalism, the worker was separated from his efforts because; the worker would produce more in order to increase his wage from this production. As a result, the production would increase leading to a balance which would be taken as a profit by the owner of the firm where the worker was working. This profit would be recapitalized in the business improving the efficiency in production which leads to a higher balance.

This process would continue resulting in exponential growth and even more profit. However, the benefits do not fall back on the worker but on the business owner, which would increase the gap between the worker and the business owner/ employer. Karl Marx interpreted this as exploitation of the workers. His idea of revolution was however did not indicate any preference in using war or terror but in reforming the beliefs of the working class. His beliefs had been based on the liberation of humanity from oppression by the governments.

Imperialism as a form of capitalism

Leninism is the doctrines by Lenin which though based on Marxism theory were modified with the emphasis that imperialisms the highest form of capitalism, this theory was called Marxism-Leninism. In this concept of imperialism, the attention is shifted from developed countries to underdeveloped countries. Marxism-Leninism saw the beginning of communism which was experienced in the twentieth century. Leninism believes that the only way that capitalism can be overthrown was by a revolution, that any attempts to reform within would not be successful. The theory believes in violent revolutions and it was through this belief that Lenin and his party formed the Russian Revolution.

The theory goes ahead and explains that after the revolution and forming the government that this new government would educate the working class to remove the ideas that had been planted in their minds, by the capitalist government, to ensure that they had remained docile so as to offer their services. They were then to hold democratic power through the soviets. Marx had argued that socialism which meant there were no different classes in the society, and that would be stateless would replace capitalism. He called this pure communism. He had believed that this is as a result of transitional processes from “dictatorship of the proletariat” where workers would be in a democracy, and the results would be the creation of a socialist class.

Conclusion

In diverging from Marxism Leninism the developments that had it necessary for Lenin to diverge was because the working class were adopting a conservative attitude and not he idea that Karl Marx time had anticipated where they would be taught to join in fighting communism. Lenin, in his book ‘What is to be done’ (1902), has implied disappointment in the working class character of non-revolutionalism, and says that a well organized revolution would have to lead the workers into a revolution.

In economics and in capitalism, Lenin preserved Marx’s theory on capitalism in a manifest by transferring of finances from the developed countries to the colonies and to the Third World countries. In summary those who support Leninism have argued that Lenin did not divert from the Marxist theories but he developed his theories based on the Marxism theories.

Works cited

West, Thomas. Marx and Lenin. 2006. Web.

Wittfogel, Karl. The Marxist View of Russian Revolution. 2010. Web.