A. Autocracy, no Democratic Tradition

    1.  Ivan the Terrible, 1500s

    2. Peter the Great - 1682-1725

a . Government tried to modernize society
b . Create Industry, build new cities

    1. Tsar Nicholas II - 1894-1917

        a. some efforts at industrialization
        b. 1905 set up a very weak parliament (Duma)

    2.  Destruction and disruption of World War I

        a. Russian government lost legitimacy
        b. Communists offered "bread, peace, land."
        c. Communists had effective organization, organized successful army.
        d. completely displaced old regime, executed the Tsar and his family
            set up new regime
        e. Leninist Communist Party controlled the government

NOTE: Similarity with China:
        a. autocratic tradition
            - imperial, bureaucratic rule
            - Confucian ideas of patriarchy, personal relations, no law
                Confucian sayings      life of Confucius
        b. some economic development, kept political dictatorship
        c. destruction and disruption of World War II

C. Communism under Lenin, Stalin

Totalitarian Control (meaning, it was "total") ("totalitarianism")

1. one leader, cult of personality
2. one party, the vanguard of the proletariat
3. one ideology (not a party of factions, as LDP)
4. command economy, government owns and manages the economy
5. state control over all media
6. terror, prisons
     http://members.aol.com/KatharenaE/private/Alsolz/alsolz.html
        http://www.mrdowling.com/707-solzhenitsyn.html

        Gulag in Kazakhstan

1. Separate, legally distinct state government and communist party
    each had its own constitution, principles of representation and control

2. The Communist Party had leadership and control over policy and personnel.

3. The Government had responsibility for day-to-day administration.

4. Methods of Party control:

    a. overlapping membership.
        Key government officials were party members/leaders.

    b. Party control over key appointments in government (nomenklatura).

    c. Party control over nominations in government elections.

    d. System of "indirect elections" have very little power to people

5. Result: This system failed to produce political legitimacy.  The people did not feel they had a government they had selected, or a government that deserved voluntary obedience.  It was based largely on terror.
 

    1. To some extent the system worked for some decades:

    created a strong, stable state after years or decades of warlordism, invasion, natural disasters (esp. China)
    substantial industrialization in 1930s-1960s in USSR, 1950's for China.
    strong enough to resist, help defeat, and survive Nazi Germany (USSR), block US in Korea 1951-53 (China)
    created very powerful military technology in 1950s, 1960s

    economy stagnated by 1970s
    legitimacy fell,  more dissidents in 1970s, 1980s
            linked to education, international communication, generation gap
    social collapse
            reduction in expected life time (USSR)
            health problems, family collapse, alcoholism (USSR)
            forced migration, violence, disruptions of constant political movements (China)
                    Anti-Rightist Campaign 1957, Great Leap Forward 1958, Cultural Revolution 1966-76
    nationalism, esp. in Eastern Europe and Central Asian republics
            rebellions in E Germany 1953, Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968
            cost of wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Armenia/Azerbaijan
    corruption and cynicism in leadership
    mass frustration over human rights
        arbitrary rule, lack of political, cultural, religious, economic freedom
            Solidarity (union backed by church) movement in Poland, 1980's (around 1990)
            Emigration, mass demonstrations in E. Germany, Czechoslovakia
            Student demonstrations in China
                    (1976 Qing Ming (1), 1979 Democracy Wall ( 1 | 2 | 3 )