When did the socialist movement start becoming noteworthy in Russian history?

Upvote:-2

I would say shortly after Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto he began to influence the modern form of communism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto

You can look further back in history to see other examples of Communistic societies. There was the French Commune during the Franco-Prussian War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune

Even in early US history some of the colonies, such as Jamestown, experimented with Communism.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2120669/posts

Karl Marx argues that private property is used as leverage against the proletariat and without private property and classes society would function on a more equal footing.

The reason communism was able to thrive in Russia was due loss of confidence in the Monarchy. You had the massacre know as Bloody Sunday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29

You had the Russians who lost to the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese war. The final blow was when the Russian Czar mismanaged WWI. Also, the serfs in Russia had had nothing to show for their life's work for hundreds of years. They were receptive to hearing life would be better with no private property, no classes and equality for all. However, they were duped and as one yoke was thrown off the yoke of the Bolsheviks replaced it.

Upvote:5

According to this Wikipedia page on the Revolution of 1905 (Bloody Sunday), socialism became important politically in Russia shortly after the accession of Tsar Alexander II in the 1860's and 1870's. A few reasons are offered:

  1. Agricultural policy. The Tsar ended serfdom making a class of tax-paying peasants. The taxes were too high and the amount of land given to each peasant too small however to allow them make a living and in many cases even feed their families. A famine began in the 1890's.
  2. Industrial policy. The Tsar spent great sums on new infrastructure projects and gave money to industrialists to build factories in Russia. Peasants moved to work in these factories where they came in contact with new socialist ideas, such as striking for better working conditions. Striking was illegal, however, sending the peasants to organize with more radical elements.
  3. Education policy. University education and disciplinary requirements were loosened and schools became breeding grounds for socialist ideas. Half of arrests of socialists in the 1860s and 70s were students.
  4. Socialism was aided by ethnic minority groups threatened by Russification efforts

Influential early "utopian" Russian socialist thinkers include Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin.

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