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Paper Abstract: Analysis of the American Revolution and the Russian Revolution. Achievement of territorial sovereignty by the American Revolution. Ensuing economic and political problems. Revolutionary visions and the U.S. Constitution. The Russian Revolution's mobilization and transformation of a society. Affect on Russian infrastructure and global geopolitical system. Marx's social theory and Communist Manifesto. Factions. Paper Introduction: The impulse to revolution may reside in the felt need of a mass of people to respond to their experience of tyranny by declaring themselves sovereign. However, the revolutionary visions of those who transform their political situation may differ dramatically, with significant consequences. That was the case with the 18th-century American and 20th-century Russian revolutions. In the American case, revolution guaranteed the new nation a significant degree of territorial sovereignty. The geographic isolation of North America from Europe fostered political isolation, which is partly why the taxation by the mother country was so onerously felt and so earnestly criticized in the Declaration of Independence. But isolation and independence had a double effect because they were successful. In the postwar period, United States economic structure could not be supported by the structure of confe Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Thatincluded Lenin, long exiled in Germany. Lenin's faction became the Bolsheviks, and they were effectivefactional players. On theother hand, Loyalists' property was routinely confiscated and "sold for thebenefit of the new State Governments" (Becker, 1915, pp. Ten days that shook the world. . But the revolt againstthe tsar had a much more international flavor to it than did the revoltagainst England. The impulse to revolution may reside in the felt need of a mass ofpeople to respond to their experience of tyranny by declaring themselvessovereign. New York: NAL/Mentor. Eau Claire, Wisconsin: E.M. 275-6). Tsarist response to revolutionary sentiment,however, was not in the form of taxes but in the form of physicalpenalties. Another vision was more decentralized in outlook. (196 ). Slavic Review, 46, 193-213.Miller, J.C. (196 ). Whitman (Ed.). But the whole point was to changethings. W. New York: Harper Torchbooks.Reed, J. Federalist era. (1987). New York: Bantam. 159-6 ). One vision was avowedly nationalist and was represented mainly byAlexander Hamilton, who laid out a rationale for national Constitutionalgovernment in the Federalist Papers based on the problems of state-to-stateand sectionalist rivalries (Hamilton, 1961, pp. As in theAmerican case, the Russian Revolution had founding documents, and a cadreof skilled political operatives led the revolution. . . A history of Russia. L. In thepostwar period, United States economic structure could not be supported bythe structure of confederation, and the country was hardly financiallyindependent. He advocated "a strong and activerevolutionary Marxist group which would lead the proletariat in theirstruggle for an immediate social revolution" (Vernadsky, 1961, p. The Bolsheviks were not able to avoid civil war, but the one-partyrevolutionary vision prevailed. And when it finally did come, it was fought overthe single issue that the founding documents tolerated and that blotchedthe revolutionary vision of individual liberty: slavery. But isolation andindependence had a double effect because they were successful. Hale and Company. 36-7.Kelly, A. 157-62.Jefferson, T. Political credibility was also at issue. Growing pains: Letter to Colonel Monroe, August 28, 1785. Hamilton arguedthat to avoid sectionalism (north-south, east-frontier economic rivalries)and civil war, a strong central government and a strong central bank werethe only pathway to "a more perfect economic union without which politicalunion could not endure" (Miller, 196 , p. Thishelps explain fierce Russian factionalism before, during, and after the1917 revolution. (1915). Self-censorship and the Russian intelligentsia, 19 5- 1914. "Should a bad government be instituted for us infuture," wrote Jefferson, "it had been as well to have accepted at firstthe bad one offered to us from beyond the water without the risk andexpense of contest" (Miller, 196 , p. 65). Jefferson's Letters. The Russian Revolution in many ways was more effective than itsAmerican counterpart because it mobilized and transformed a society thatinvolved millions more people and that affected the infrastructure not onlyof Russia per se but of the global geopolitical system as well. 26 ). Writing in 1785, two years after the war was over,Jefferson (1943) says that English reports about anarchy in America arelies but are widely believed in Europe. For all its confusionsand embedded contradictions, including periodic attempts to flout ordiscredit political pluralism, the American revolutionary vision was onethat anticipated the demise of tyranny and the permanence of politicalrivalries that are typical of republican governance. In any case, many Loyalists fledtheir property, preferring Canada or Britain to the new nation. (1943). To be sure, indigenous Russian revolutionaries operated inside thecountry through the 19 s. Jefferson's originalrevolutionary vision, codified in the Declaration of Independence,valorized a politics of trust in citizen behavior and a skeptical attitudetoward government, especially a grasping national government forever"extracting money from the great mass of the people, especially farmers"(Miller, 196 , p. Unlike the intellectual rivalry between Jefferson andHamilton, or for that matter unlike the sectional rivalry between America'sAtlantic ports and the frontier, Russian factionalism was physical andovert. There seems to have been relativelylittle of that. There was a persistent, self-protective conservatism at thegovernance level, where "arrest and exile threatened anyone havingindependent political views" (Vernadsky, 1961, p. Many Russianliberals and moderate reformists, as well as revolutionary intellectuals,left Russia for Western Europe. 72). 356-7). What madeconfiscation problematic was the fact that the states retained theproceeds, while the national government teetered on the brink ofbankruptcy: "Congress, unable to collect its requisitions, was forced torely upon ever-increasing issues of paper money" (Becker, 1915, p. The narodniki and the Democratic Workers' Party,influenced by Marxism, radicalized some of the intelligentsia. The Bolshevik innovation was to transferMarxist social theory to the Russian case. 259-6 ). However, the revolutionary visions of those who transform theirpolitical situation may differ dramatically, with significant consequences.That was the case with the 18th-century American and 2 th-century Russianrevolutions. (1961). The compromise of this fundamental debate was reached in the USConstitution, which fundamentally limited government intervention and gavespecific guarantees of individual freedom in the Bill of Rights that hadbeen called for by the Declaration. New York: Random House.Vernadsky, G. The novelist Dostoevsky was exiled toSiberia in 1849 for espousing French socialism articulated in theRevolution of 1848. Debates over the proper economicstructure for the US continued after ratification, but civil war wasavoided for some 7 years. ReferencesBecker, C. The geographic isolation ofNorth America from Europe fostered political isolation, which is partly whythe taxation by the mother country was so onerously felt and so earnestlycriticized in the Declaration of Independence. 2). When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark time; one must always go forward--or go back (Reed, 196 , pp. The Federalist Papers, By Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay. That is because, after therevolution was over, there was a possibility that Loyalists would betargeted for violence by Patriots. As Lenin put it, whenwithdrawing freedom of the press: We Bolsheviki have always said that when we reached a position of power we would close the bourgeois press. Clinton Rossiter (Ed.). Thus one major challenge for the United States was to develop a self-sustaining economic system. The entrenchment of Bolshevik power, whichsurvived Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and sundry short-term headsof state until Gorbachev and the Soviet demise, can be interpreted as thereplacement of one kind of despotism with another. As Becker points out, "French gold financed the war" (1915, p.259). No. Lenin called for "civil war of the lower classes against the higherclasses to end the 'imperialist' war between peoples," and the Bolsheviksdivided, conquered, and ultimately suppressed competing legislativefactions in the duma, as well as dissent (i.e., individual freedom ofexpression) from both left and right (Kelly, 1987). Depriving Russia of a moderate reformist political base, the tsaristgovernment lent force to revolutionary activity in many different quarters.Many different elements of society--workers, intellectuals, liberallandowners, peasants, duma legislators and the military--were opposed toNicholas II's policies for reasons of their own (Vernadsky, 1961). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.Hamilton, A. Itis at this point that the intersection of postrevolutionary economics andpolitics becomes relevant, as well as competing visions of theaccomplishments of the revolution. 24. (1961). 222). Beginnings of the American PEOPLE. Marx's social theory and Communist manifesto, on whichLenin and the Bolsheviks relied for their ideology, came from a Germanexpatriate living in England. In the American case, revolution guaranteed the new nation asignificant degree of territorial sovereignty. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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