Tsarist Rule in the years 1856-1917 and Communist Rule from the death of Lenin to the death of Stalin both depended on high degrees of central power and control by the state. The similarities between the two forms of government were therefore much greate

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“Tsarist Rule in the years 1856-1917 and Communist Rule from the death of Lenin to the death of Stalin both depended on high degrees of central power and control by the state.  The similarities between the two forms of government were therefore much greater than were the differences.”  How far do you agree with this judgement?

        To a large extent it is correct to claim that both the tsarist and communist governments operated through high degrees of central power and control by the state.  However it becomes apparent that the communist or ‘Stalinist’ government exorcised a much higher degree of central power and control over the Russian people than that of the tsarist government.  The assertion in the question that the similarities between the two forms of government were “therefore” much greater than were the differences is both illogical and unfounded.  Both systems of government may be based on a similar use of central power, although this does not mean that they will result in adopting similar policies and methods of governing the country.  The interpretation of the word “depended” in the question may also be criticised, as it implies that the tsarist and communist governments would not be able to exist had they not performed a high degree of central power and control by the state.

A perfect policy example between the tsarist and Stalinist governments is that of between emancipation under the tsars and collectivisation under Stalin.  This is because both of the policies plausibly aimed for the same objective, which was fundamentally to improve Russia’s economic situation.  Both Alexander II and Stalin understood that Russia was a relatively backward country, which needed such policies to immediately have an impact on and expansion within the economy.  However one point of contrast is that whereas Stalin’s motives for collectivisation were purely economic, Alexander II initiated emancipation also because of mounting peasant unrest, especially due to the defeat in the Crimean War.  The tsar was seen to be appeasing and preventing a revolution from the peasants, which is summed up in his remark of “rather revolution from above; than revolution from below”.  Therefore emancipation does not show high degrees of control, whereby the tsar is willing to make concessions in order to preserve the whole tsarist system.  This can be compared to Stalin’s collectivisation, which employed much more central government control, in the way that harsher methods were used in order to carry out the objective.

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‘War’ for the two government systems had very different effects on the manner in which they exerted central power.  Both the tsarist and Stalinist governments used the idea of ‘mother Russia’ when stressing the importance of a war effort.  However in the case of the tsars, defeats in the Crimean War, Russo-Japanese War and First World War had an adverse effect on the tsarist government, in which the idea of the ‘divine, autocratic monarchy’ had been greatly diminished.  This had resulted in an increasingly hostile Russian peasantry to the tsars, who were often victim to a vicious circle of ...

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