Lenin was faced with the displeasure of the people; War Communism was a harsh way to live, and people were dealing with extreme poverty the likes of which had never been seen before. He implemented the New Economic Policy to face these issues, however, he would not let this policy stand for long, as it held Capitalist ideas that he did not approve of. Lenin also creating the Comintern to deal with the apprehension of Communism in the rest of the world, and tries to rebuild relationships with countries. Once he dies, Lenin leaves a massive power vacuum and Trotsky and Stalin try to fill it. There is a three year debate between Stalin and Trotsky, the essence of which is either modernizing Russia (Stalin) or focusing on improving the lives of the peasants and farmers (trotsky). Stalin ultimately wins through propaganda and hiring government officials for himself. In my personal opinion, I feel like Stalin did not modernize Russia, however, he did bring them up the ladder in technology, and though his rule was cruel and terrible, his treatment of the people prepared them for the harsh conditions of World War 2. Though he did not modernize Russia, he gave them a taste of how bad life can be with a dictator, which showed them how bad life could be, and incited another spark of revolution against the corrupt government.
The Feb./March Revolution was the revolution against the Tzar, the royal leader of the country with absolute power. It was ultimately very effective, but not successful, in a few years almost the entire royal family was removed from power, A provisional government was put in place, but failed to pull the country out of the war due to differing ideals between the government and the people. The Oct./Nov. Revolution was a revolution against the provisional government, with the Soviets opposing the government. The revolution was ultimately bloodless, with only a warning short fired at the Winter Palace during the entire ordeal.
I really liked the movie. I felt that it held the tensions over the city of Stalingrad very well. Vasily Zaitsev was portrayed fantastically, as well as the major. Both of them had fleshed out characters, with motivations and ambitions. I thought that the female lead, I forget her name, was a little cliche, and didn't have any emotions besides her feelings for Zaitsev, she was a little boring, but I guess not everyone can be as interesting. The war scenes were very interesting, and they showed much more gore than I expected, but the movie delivered on its promise of portraying Stalingrad as the bloody battle that it was. I especially liked the parts with the Russian propaganda on Zaitsev, and against the Major.
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