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Russia Tour: Revisit the Country’s Complex Modern History

Soviet Union
Lenin
The new Soviet Union, with its extraordinary social and cultural change due to the civil war, suffered economically despite the Bolshevik’s success at maintaining control. Lenin, in an effort to help the country recover from the destructive three years, moved to a market economy structure which brought about a period of relative prosperity allowing the young country to rebuild its infrastructure. During this period, while still facing large economic obstacles, a sense of optimism and opportunity began to spread through the country. This period also produced the Russian avant-garde, or the modern art movement experienced from 1890-1930. This artistic movement is still evident throughout Russia’s architecture and in its museums. Any Russia tour should include a visit to the country’s fine museums displaying the remarkable art from this era. This era flourished in Russia, producing such movements as Russian Symbolism, neo-primitivism, suprematism, and constructivism that encouraged artistic and creative experimentation.

Stalin
Upon Lenin’s death in 1924, the Communist Party endured a heatedly divisive struggle for power. By the end of the 1920’s, Joseph Stalin had gained the control, and with that the country was set on a different course. Lenin’s economic policies were put aside and replaced by a collectivized economic plan. Agricultural lands were turned into large state-run farms, industrial development was pushed forward at unsustainable speeds and large emphasis was placed on capital equipment instead of consumer products. During this era, the avant-garde movement and literature were restricted, religion repressed with churches closed or were converted to other uses. Stalin weeded out any who would oppose his policies and by the end of the 1930s the Soviet Union was one of the most restricted countries.

The Soviet Union found itself horribly unprepared for any military combat upon the outbreak of WWII. Despite the signing of a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939, Hitler’s armies invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, seizing most of the western territory and surrounding St. Petersburg, and advancing to within a few hundred miles of Moscow. Despite a tremendous disadvantage in numbers and weaponry, the Soviet army managed to hold the German army and turn on the offensive. By 1944 the Germans had been pushed back to Poland, and in 1945 the Soviet Union took Berlin and occupied the eastern region of Germany. Suffering more than twenty million lives in casualties, the Soviet Union gained enormous territory in the outcome of WWII and ranked as one of the world’s superpowers along with the Untied States. Stalin established many loyal communist satellite states occupied or invaded during WWII including East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Despite the international notoriety, the country suffered widespread agricultural failures leading to famine, restrictions on political freedoms, and huge waves of opposition. A large amount of the Soviet Union’s resources were diverted into military projects, and the quality of life for the citizens worsened. With western democracies forming their own coalition (NATO), the Soviet Union along with its satellite states formed what is known as the Warsaw Pact. Each superpower then launched into the Cold War in efforts to implement their economic, political, and ideological dominance over the rest of the world.

Post-Stalin
Almost immediately after Stalin’s death in 1953 many of his policies were dismantled and political controls relaxed under the leadership of Nikita Khruschev. Under Khruschev, the Soviet Union suffered reverses in foreign relations with China and the US, nearly causing a nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Growing opposition within the Party to Khruschev led to a new method for ousting a leader in Russia’s history, Khruschev was permitted to quietly resign in 1964. Followed by Brezhnev, the 1970’s marked an era of aggressive foreign policy and economic stagnation. Upon his death in 1982, Yuri Andropov succeeded him as general secretary, followed by Konstantin Chemenko, neither of whom made any significant changes.

Gorbachev
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary, and the entire political platform soon underwent a change. Noted for his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), Gorbachev loosened social and political controls in efforts to revitalize the economy. Cleaning up the bureaucracy and investigating political corruption, glasnost gained credibility up until the delayed reporting on the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in 1986. Given this upset, Gorbachev removed all controls on reporting, paving the way for truly free and open discussion of the country’s problems. Poverty, corruption and the mismanagement of the country’s resources became hot topics of debate and led to the emergence of many reform leaders (including Boris Yeltsin) and large criticism of the government. Attempting to go along with the general popular opinions, Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan in early 1989 and open elections were held in spring giving voters multiple candidates to choose from for seats in the Congress of People’s Deputies. This was something that had not happened since 1917. With the fall of other Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe falling to public criticism and revolutions, the Soviet Union began to break apart in 1990 when many republics began to issue declarations of independence. Large strikes tore apart the Communist Party’s claim to be the representative of the worker. The economy soon took a dive with large food shortages and a skyrocketing crime rate. Gorbachev found himself caught between a party demanding strict control and a populous demanding radical reform. He failed to satisfy either, but instead, allowed the reform movement to build strong support. In a bid by his party to assert its power, Gorbachev was put under house arrest for his refusal to impose military law, and military units were dispatched to enforce the authority of the newly announced government. Met with the protests of newly elected presidents in multiple republics, including the extremely popular Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the coup lasted only three days and ended with the reinstatement of Gorbachev to a position in the Soviet Union that was now obsolete. By the end of the year, the Soviet Union was voted out of existence to be replaced by a Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet flag on top of the Kremlin was replace by the Russian flag on December 31, 1991.

Post-Soviet Union
Yeltsin
Because of the location of most of the consumer goods factories and hi-tech enterprises outside the boarder of the newly formed Russia, the economy was waning. This soiled Yeltsin’s rise to power over Russia, and the following establishment of many autonomous states. Coupled with a loss of industry opportunity, Russia took the responsibility for settling the USSR debt while only comprising 50% of the population of the USSR at dissolution. In an effort to stimulate the economy, Russia’s largest enterprises were privatized for much less than they were worth. Yeltsin dissolved the Supreme Soviet and Congress of People’s Deputies with one decree, resulting in a military showdown with deputies protesting that this move was unconstitutional. Squashing the conflict with military help, Yeltsin has never been charged for the illegal decree.

Putin
Vladimir Putin was elected in 2000, if you plan a Russia tour today, you will be visiting Putin’s Russia as he is currently serving his second term as President. While largely criticized for his handling of the Chechen separatist conflicts and his reforms in the political process for choosing governors, Putin has enjoyed enormous popularity. Concerns arise however from western states regarding the freedoms and civil liberties that actually exist for Russian civilians, noting the centralized and dominating control of the government over the media. Despite these concerns, Putin’s presidency has led Russia to converting their deficit into reserve funds, expanding the economy and increasing the overall standard of living as compared with the 1990s.