w. 37

On Thursday w. 37, we left the Russian Revolution and Soviet policies and totalitarianism and moved on. (To review the RR and totalitarianism, look at chapter 30, sections 1 and 2.)

We looked at events leading up to World War II /the Second World War.

1933 – Hitler rose to power (chpt. 31, section 3)

1938 –

-       Nazi Germany invaded and absorbed Austria (known as the Anschluss) (31, 4)

-       Nazi Germany invade  and occupied Czechoslovakia (31, 4)

-       Kristallnacht (32, 3)

1939 –

-       Molotov-Ribbentrop /Soviet-German Non-aggression Pact (31, 4)

This document is available on Vklass, under “Cold War Documents”

-       Nazi invasion of Poland (32, 1)

1940 –

-       Spring: Nazi invasion and occupation of Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France (32, 1)

After Germany occupies these countries, it is Great Britain fighting alone against Germany

-       Soviet massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn woods of eastern Poland (not in your book, see below)

1941 –

-       June 22, start of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union (which breached the pact that the two countries had agreed to in 1939). (32, 1)

Now Great Britain and the Soviet Union are fighting together against Germany

-       August – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt met on a ship in the Atlantic and came up with a general vision of how they thought the post–World War II world should look. (32, 1)

-       This document is available on Vklass, under “Cold War Documents”

-       Dec. 7, Japanese forces attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. As a result, the United States enters World War II, both against Japan, but also against Germany (and Italy). (32, 2)

Now Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States are fighting together against Germany

1944 –

-       June 6: D-Day, the Allied invasion of the beaches of Normandy (32, 4)

1945 –

-       May – Germany surrendered (32, 4)

-       August – the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japan surrendered. (32, 4)

 “The 14,500 Polish army officers, police, gendarmes, and civilians taken prisoner by the Red Army when it invaded eastern Poland in September 1939 were held in three special NKVD camps and executed at three different sites in spring 1940, of which the one in Katyn Forest is the most famous. Another 7,300 prisoners held in NKVD jails in Ukraine and Belarus were also shot at this time, although many others disappeared without trace. The murder of these Poles is among the most monstrous mass murders undertaken by any modern government. Three leading historians of the NKVD massacres of Polish prisoners of war at Katyn, Kharkov, and Tver—now subsumed under “Katyn”—present 122 documents selected from the published Russian and Polish volumes coedited by Natalia S. Lebedeva and Wojciech Materski. The documents, with introductions and notes by Anna M. Cienciala, detail the Soviet killings, the elaborate cover-up, the admission of the truth, and the Katyn question in Soviet/Russian–Polish relations up to the present.”

(taken from: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300195477/katyn - Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment)

Photo of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Josef Stalin

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

The Russian Revolution is discussed in chapter 30, section 1. This table that compares socialism and communism is from p. 872.

communism = classless society meant to develop after a workers’/proletariat revolution.

But the teachings of Marx were not implemented, because Lenin and Stalin did not see the proletariat as capable of running the country; they felt that a centrally run government controlled by a single part was necessary. And soon the Soviet Union became a totalitarian dictatorship.

From -Isms and -Ologies, by Arthur Goldwag, pp. 185–186

"Though there were a number Communist revolutions in the last century, none of them took place in economically developed countries. The mature capitalist economies that Marx had assumed would be the first to fall instead co-opted their workers' loyalties with such halfway measures as political liberalism, Democratic socialism, labor unionism, rising wages, subsidized health care, and easy credit. The poor, mostly rural countries that did have Communist revolutions -- Russia and China, Cambodia and Cuba -- had to crush internal resistance and defend themselves from external enemies, while simultaneously building industrial infrastructures from scratch, not to mention reeducating their citizenry -- especially their land-owning peasantry, who were illdisposed to the prospect of surrendering their property to a people's state. It's perhaps no wonder that their dictatorships turned out to be permanent affairs. Even under the best of circumstances, people are remarkably difficult to reengineer. It's much more efficient to kill them, and that's what Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot did, by the millions. Of course Marxist Leninism, Stalinis, and Maoism are by no means the same thing as orthodox Marxism; many ardent Marxists deplored the policies of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China from the beginning. Ironically, the devoutest Marxists were among the first to die in Stalin and Mao's purges."

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Information about the Holodomor:

On Thursday we’ll have a quick quiz on English words you’ve been given and Cold War terms we’ve worked with so far.

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We looked at a basic definition of totalitarianism – from the first two pages of chapter 30, section 2. (I didn’t require that you read the rest of the section, but it provides further information about the Soviet Union under Stalin.)

As a way of trying to understand issues connected with a totalitarian regime (which you see presented in the “wheel of totalitarianism” on p. 875), we discussed ways in which we as citizens in Sweden today can question or challenge our government/political power. We discussed a variety of methods, most importantly

-       free and independent journalism (with free meaning that there are not restrictions that favor the government and independent meaning that the various media sources are not run by the government).

-       free elections

-       and freedom of expression in general

One thing discussed with Sa2 but not Ek3: cultural expression not controlled by the government.

Look at your notes and reflect on these issues. We will return to many of these issues repeatedly throughout the year. It is very worthwhile to consider how you think a society should be organized and run. When is a society at risk of losing freedoms such as a free press, free elections, freedom of expression?

It is worth noting that Russia had never had any democratic institutions until 1991 – when the Soviet Union broke up and the Cold War ended. (No free elections, no free press, no freedom of expression). And even though there was then a move away from communism toward a more democratic system at that point, most of these institutions have never functioned well.

 

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Capitalism    (U.S. + Western countries)

Communism   (Soviet Union + Eastern Bloc)

Economic -        private ownership of businesses and property -         market economy - supply and demand drive the system (interaction between consumers and producers determines prices and volumes of goods) -        Competition between companies for consumers (by-product: tends to lead to innovations within specific industries) -        Minimum government interference – with the argument that restrictions and regulations decrease efficiency (However: All capitalist systems have a variety of restrictions and regulations, for example regarding what products can be sold (e.g., drugs, child pornography, tobacco . . .), the release of hazardous material into society/the environment (e.g., toxic waste, exhaust fumes, dangerous materials), threats to species (e.g., products or actions that threaten endangered species), and the types and amounts of products that can be imported (and taxes thereon). (Arguments for private ownership: Progress is more easily achieved and individuals’ rights are better met when individuals are allowed to pursue their own self-interests. By-product: There is always an unequal distribution of wealth within society. The degree of these differences is affected by a wide range of factors and can differ not only from country to country but also within a country at different times.) Upshot: The needs of the individual are focused on more than the needs of the collective.

Economic -        state owns industries, companies; limited private ownership (socialism aspires to collective ownership) -        critical of private ownership -        planned economy (a/k/a command economy) – state makes decisions, including prices and volumes -        5-year plans used to reach economic goals -        govt. makes all econ. decisions -        No competition (by-product: fewer innovations) -        Government has central role in regulating companies/industries. (Arguments for government ownership versus private: the needs of society can be better met if goods and services are distributed evenly/fairly throughout society. Capitalists systems seen to be exploitative – where one group (owners) exploits (takes advantage) of another (the workers/proletariat), creating an unequal distribution of wealth.) Upshot: The needs of the collective are focused on rather than the needs of the individual.

liberal democray    (U.S. + Western countries)

Communism   (Soviet Union + Eastern Bloc)

Political (Historically, capitalism has been married to a political system of liberal democracy. Note, though, that for each country, the application of these issues can vary) -        Free elections (different candidates that have competing political ideas, multiple political parties, secret ballots, open political debate, elections of parliamentary/legislative bodies representing various political parties) -        Various democratic institutions supported such as *freedom of expression (including freedom of speech and freedom of the press), *independent labor unions, *independent judiciary (judges)

Political -        1-party system, and, thus, no free-elections. (No competing political ideas allowed via political parties, political debates, political campaigning; no secret ballots; no parliamentary/legislative body representing various political parties) -        no democratic institutions, such as *freedom of expression (thus no freedom of speech or freedom of the press), *no independent labor unions, *no independent judiciary -        promises classless society -        seeks international revolution -        critical of the past

*Note: In the 1990s, China, which is a communist country, started using different economic policies. Otherwise, the above economic features of communism held for all communist countries.

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France, GB, and U.S. all have lib. dem. govts., but they did not operate identically – but they were able to cooperate.