Question by Liberal Atheist: Why didn’t the revolution spread into the West after the Russian revolution?
Lenin believed it was only a matter of time before the poor rose up, killed their leaders and set up a Communist society in Europe, the US and eventually Australia but it never happened.
Why?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Peewee
The Russian and Chinese revolutions were cultivated under very specific circumstances. The west specifically fought beck to prevent the spread.
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mommanuke says
Because the rest of the world wasn't as oppressed as the Russian peasants were. I guess he was just as insular as some Americans today.
Jeff D says
If you read Lenin's pamphlet, What Is to Be Done, he pretty much dismisses the workers as being unable to progress beyond the stage of trade-unions by themselves. He argued for a revolutionary socialist vanguard to organize and lead the proletariat to communism (for their own good, of course).
Lenin was attempting to explain the problem that all communists eventually observe: the workers and peasants were willing enough to rise up against the owners, but they weren't so willing to embrace socialism. His conclusion was that the masses were simply too uneducated to see where their own interests lay and therefore had to be guided by their intellectual superiors.
Marx believed that the revolution was inevitable but Lenin was getting tired of waiting around.
ϭϵʀϮ says
The revolutionary idea did spread all around the world, which you can read about in the history books. The revolution itself did not spread due to different reasons, cultural, historical, ideological, economical, and political.
@Talibama: Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania were parts of Russia at the time of both Russian revolutions, 1905 as well as 1917, they were not foreign countries back then.
@Talibama:
You're not quite right, I'm afraid.
No, the revolution certainly did not spread to those countries after they gained their independence from the Soviet Russian Republic, NOT imperial Russia.
Those 4 regions, along with many other parts of the Empire had already been affected by the 1905 revolution, and the revolutionary movement was there right until 1917, and past that.
For instance, you might want to read up on the crucial role of the Latvian Red Guards in the 1917 revolution.
John says
The west saw the deceit, murder, and tyranny of communism and wanted no part of it
Talibama says
The revolution was in Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Germany outside of Russia. All countries defeated the bolshevik revolutionaries.
@BELOW-the revolution spread into these countries in 1918-1919 well after they had declared their independence from imperial russia.