Communism is a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state. This system has been enacted in Russia for many years and was live and well, until of course the 20th century. Many things have happened since the last Czar of Russia was crowned up until Communism in Russia fell, such as famine, civil war, revolution, political war, and many other events. All of these things are greatly beneficial to your understanding of communism and also the History of Russia.
Nicholas II was born in 1868 and died in 1918. Unknown to many, he was not only the last Czar of Russia, but also King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. Nicholas Commanded the Russian army in World War I, but his rule came to an end in 1917, a year before he died. On the Night of 16/17, Nicholas was shot along with his family by Bolsheviks. Nicholas was an autocratic ruler who loved his wife dearly. She had a strong influence on his rule. His rule also benefited Russia's transportation system. For instance, he highly influenced the build of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Unfortunately, Nicholas II helped cause the Russo-Japanese War. Pyotr Stolypin, his prime minister, attempted reforms, but Alexander and Grigory Rasputin influenced Nicholas to oppose him. After the setbacks Russia had suffered in to World War I, Nicholas replaced the grand duke Nicholas as commander in chief of Russian as advised by Alexandra and Rasputin.
Nicholas' absence from Moscow and Alexandra's mishandling of the Russian government caused a substantial amount of sedition and culminated in the Russian Revolution of 1917. In March 1917 Nicholas Abdicated and he and his family were detained by George Y. Lvov's provisional government. Nicholas and his family were to be sent to England but this option was brazenly overruled by local Bolsheviks. He and his family were instead sent to the city of Yekaterinburg. This was the place of their deaths in 1918 when they were brutally executed. Peasants under the rule of Nicholas II had miserable, agonizing, and often abrupt lives. Although the Industrial Revolution did not begin until the 1880's, Russia had the fifth largest economy by 1900. They had some of the largest factories in the world and produced more oil than any other nation. Despite this, Russia was said to still be living in the past. Eighty percent of Russia's population was peasants that lived in villages and used outdated methods such as wooden ploughs in order to farm, and approximately fifty percent of the population was illiterate. These peasants where not freed until 1861.
Their conditions had not improved very much even with Emancipation. Because of the rapid growth in population, their plots of land were to be divided among more people. Low agricultural productivity and the increasing sub-dividing of their land meant that fewer peasants were able to support their families on the land. When the crops did not grow the peasants faced starvation. Many peasants were in debt to their landlords. The poor's lives were made even harder when taxes were levied on goods instead of income. Many peasants searched for work in cities and towns in order to support their families. In 1894 Nicholas II acceded to the throne. Many believed he was not the most competent of political leaders. To make matters worse, the growing Russian presence in the Far East provoked Japan. In January of 1905, the Japanese attacked, and Russia went through a series of defeats that destroyed the tenuous support held by Nicholas' already unpopular government. Nicholas was made to grant concessions to the reformers, which included most notably a constitution and a parliament, or Duma.
The strength of the reform movement was brought up on a new and powerful force entered Russian politics. The industrialization of the main western cities along with the development of the Batu oil fields had brought together large concentrations of Russian workers, and they soon began to organize into small local political councils, or soviets. It was in large part the power of the soviets, united under the Social Democratic party that had made Nicholas accept reforms in 1905. Famine is known to be one of the worst of the disasters that afflicted Russia in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The people who were affected were reduced to ceaseless poverty and were in need. The Russian famine of 1891-92 affected an area of around 900,000 square miles in the Volga and central agricultural areas. These were once the known to be the most fertile and productive parts of Russia.
This area included the provinces of Nizhni-Novgorod, Riazan, Tula, Kazan, Simbirsk, Saratov, Penza, Samara and Tambov. It is believed to have affected between fourteen to twenty million people, of which about 400,000 died, mostly of disease. One of the largest relief campaigns in Russian history was conducted by the government to help mitigate the disaster in which eleven million people received an excessive amount of rations from the state. Count Leo Tolstoi was the government's main critic. The Russian famine showed without a doubt the internal weakness and complete backwardness of the Russian Empire. It also displayed the terrible standard of living and the medieval conditions that most of the population endured. The famine proved that the czarist government was incompetent and inefficient in a way that made it unable to foresee the disaster. The Russian Civil War between the Bolsheviks (Reds) and their political opponents (Whites) contributed as much to creating the USSR as the Revolution of 1917. The Bolshevik Party was strict and militarized, organized terror began, extreme economic policies were adopted, and hostility developed toward the West.
