5min chapter

11.1 Why the Russian Revolution Failed: When Rich Kids do all the Socialism

WHAT IS POLITICS?

CHAPTER

Marxist-Leninist One-Party Authoritarian System

Karl Marx and his followers thought that socialism was not possible in poor countries with majority peasant populations, like Russia. What you did have was a country made up of 85% peasants with the rest being a risk to credit landlords or bureaucrats plus a teeny tiny proletariat. And according to Marx, the peasants were just too ignorant and isolated to be capable of intelligent political action. So why would they try to start a socialist party there in the first place? To answer these questions, we need to understand the history of the socialists and Marxist movements in Russia.

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