Our newest community reporter Spring Heeled Jack has written a series of short articles which we will share over the next few weeks.
Here is the latest instalment of Hard Times.
The rise of communism-a left wing ideology supported by government diktat
During World War 1 there was major social change in Russia due to the rise in communism and the Bolshevik revolution.
For example, the Russian royal family (Romanov dynasty) were removed from society and subsequently murdered.
Communism succeeded the monarchy then and all Russian people were expected to follow the new regime and the ideology of communism promoted and led by Lenin.
However, there was infighting then between the reds (Bolsheviks) versus the whites.
Lenin passed away and was followed by Josef Stalin, who wanted communism to be promoted in its purest form within Russia.
Another prominent communist leader, Leon Trotsky wanted to promote communism worldwide, but he was overruled, being systematically undermined by the communist party hierarchy led by Stalin and he was later forced into exile in Mexico.
Trotsky was finally attacked with an ice pick by Stalin’s henchmen who tricked their way into his home in Mexico City in 1940.
As the lyrics of the song No more heroes anymore; written by the Stranglers goes, ‘Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky, he got an ice pick that made his ears burn’, and he later succumbed to this vicious assault.
The influence of Josef Stalin and his powerful brand of communism could be seen where opponents fled Russia for their personal safety.
Dissenters who remained were sent to the notorious Gulags (prisons often based in Siberia), where they would endure sub-zero temperatures and a hard labour imprisonment regime without length of time.
This particularly affected service personnel who fought with the allied countries during World War 2 and they couldn’t return to Russia, Ukraine or Poland where all of those communist satellite countries were under Stalin’s direct control.
Dissenters were systematically sifted out and removed from Russian society such as the writer Alexander Solzynihtsin where he was sent to the Gulag prison for many years.
Others such as the Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov were killed, where he was struck on the leg with a poison tipped umbrella outside a London railway station in 1978.
Another recent dissenter (to the Vladimir Putin regime), Colonel Litvinenco, had a gruesome death caused by drinking tea containing a toxic drug called plutonium.
This behavior has continued under the Russian regime today where protesters, intellectuals, academics or anyone with independent thought or reasoning opposing the government must be removed.
Similarly, the situation exists today in 2016 where the Ukrainian people have suffered badly for several years under the present Putin regime.
It can be seen that propaganda and a strong government regime can keep order in society where ordinary people are afraid to speak out or face serious consequences.
Article submitted by Spring Heeled Jack.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not the Digital Sentinel.
