Foundation of communist ideology

Mid. XIXth century 2 german philosophers: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels They believed in materialism, an ancient dogma During the French Revolution, the materialism propagated throughout France Materialism was against religion, and stated that conflict and violence were situated at

the base of nature The ideology that Marx and Engels followed was the dialelictical materialism They visualised the working class rise up Family, religion found no place in the communist society Darwin formulated a theory about how living things came to being, reffering to

materialism, but having had no scientific foundation he was not regarded with high credibility

Marx and Engels believed in Darwin’s theory, and so darwinism soon became associated with marxism

During the franco-prusian war of 1871, France was defeated and this was seen as an opportunity for the communist experiment

Paris became a city of terror, the experiment having caused 18000 deaths among citizens

Darwin denied the idea of Creation, believing humans were descendants of apes

The Bolshevik Terror

Beginning 20th century: tzarist regime in Russia (tzar Nicholas II) Vladimir Lenin was the leader of the communist movement, being known as the

Bolsheviks, who were trying to create a bloody revolution Along with the I WW outbreak in 1914, there came an opportunity for the Bolsheviks

to pursue their wishes Russia was defeated 3 years in a row, and so in feb 1917 began the revolution in

Petrograd, the army taking over the city Nicholas II set out to leave Russia by train, but was stopped by soldiers and arrested The symbols of the tzarist regime had been removed, people believing this would

bring happiness and fulfillment in their lives, but they were absolutely wrong While Lenin was in exile, he continued to organise the Bolsheviks for his own

revolution In oct 1917 Lenin’s army attacks the Winter castle, the place of the government which

brought up a lot of soviet propaganda Soldiers began to terrorize the country, which led to a 3 years civil war The bolsheviks=Red Army, leader of which was Leon Trotsky There had been a secret soviet police: CEKA Tzar Nicholas II and his family were executed All those who opposed the communist regime were arrested, tortured or executed

Lenin brought savagery over Russia along with his ideas

Famine caused by Lenin

The people of Russia had a miserable standard of living even before Lenin In 1918 Lenin decides to disable private property and to confiscate lands and crops

from peasants, which brings disaster among them So the famine and starvation began, which was seen as a positive fact by Lenin Lenin felt a great amount of pleasure from the deaths of peasants, believing these

would destroy people’s faith in God and the tzar, ushering in socialism the entire country