Question

[DoctorWho]

I'm writing an essay and the prompt is: 'To what extent had the original ideals of the Bolshevik party been altered by 1924?'

Sooo I'm trying to argue that the Bolshevik/Marxist vision of a 'classless utopian society' was compromised as they basically replaced the class system under tsarism with a new class system which had Bolsheviks and workers at the top, with bourgeois and kulaks at the bottom... I feel like it's a legitimate claim but I can't really think of any evidence I could use to support this. Help??

[Cort]

I'm writing an essay and the prompt is: 'To what extent had the original ideals of the Bolshevik party been altered by 1924?'

Sooo I'm trying to argue that the Bolshevik/Marxist vision of a 'classless utopian society' was compromised as they basically replaced the class system under tsarism with a new class system which had Bolsheviks and workers at the top, with bourgeois and kulaks at the bottom... I feel like it's a legitimate claim but I can't really think of any evidence I could use to support this. Help??

Well, you can use:
Factory Workers were given independent autonomy over their committees with the Worker's Control (14 November 1917)
1918 Kulak Laws targeted the Kulaks during the Red Terror
Women were given legal and civic equality through Zhenotdel(early 1918), a women's government created by Alexandra Kollontai.
Decrees on Nationalism (June, November 1719 & december 1920): nationalization brought centralization to the economy, but most of all, it removed the incentive for the 'bourgeois capitalist' to remain in Russia. This had some devastating effects, however.

[biggs026]

You could talk about Lenin's Hanging Order of the Kulaks. It was a pretty violent and full on response to the kulaks revolt and a good example of how Lenin heavily discriminated against them.

I'm afraid I can't be much help as I'm not doing the essay on Russia, but good luck! 

[Lolly]

And there's the NEP of course! A fair turn away from war communism if you ask me.  iirc gross industrial output rose 200% or some such silly number.


Also re: claim about bourgeois and kulaks at the bottom of the pecking order, it was basically because their money was useless under war communism and Lenin wanted to create warfare in line with his beliefs with inevitable class dialectics (so Marxist theory) the bourgeois were forced to turn to the mesochiniki (black market) starve, or flee because rations were prioritised for workers ( and rations were down to 40g a day in 1918 anyway) hope you can glean something from this and write  an amazing essay good luck tomorrow.

[DoctorWho]

Thanks guys! Great ideas