... such as Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy dissent was outlawed and dealt with brutally. In the Soviet Union, another totalitarian state, the opposition also was always illegal until the collapse of the empire with the brief exception of Alexander Kerensky's provisional government in 1917. The dissident movement had a long history of persecutions in Russia starting from Czarist times when great national ... many ways similar to the moral vision of Solzhenitsyn. The humanitarian society was Solzhenitsyn's wish as well; in fact all his writings denounced the violence and aggression of the ...

• Word Count: 4394
• Approx Pages: 18
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Stalin apparently had no role in the October Revolution itself, he was shortly thereafter appointed, by Lenin, to the position of People's Commissar for Nationalities within the new Bolshevik government. Stalin's job was, basically, to manage relations between the various ethnic groups of the former Russian Empire and to develop some sort of coherent policy toward the questions of ... Democracies, under which the Communists established authoritarian control of the state. In 1948 Czechoslovakia, a country not directly in the Soviet orbit, came under Communist control through subversion of...

• Word Count: 7507
• Approx Pages: 30
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Stalin apparently had no role in the October Revolution itself, he was shortly thereafter appointed, by Lenin, to the position of People's Commissar for Nationalities within the new Bolshevik government. Stalin's job was, basically, to manage relations between the various ethnic groups of the former Russian Empire and to develop some sort of coherent policy toward the questions of ... Democracies, under which the Communists established authoritarian control of the state. In 1948 Czechoslovakia, a country not directly in the Soviet orbit, came under Communist control through subversion of...

• Word Count: 7028
• Approx Pages: 28
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of opposition at any cost. This period is called the Great Terror or the Great Purges. He felt insecure; people were questioning his leadership, his intentions and his rule over a totalitarian government. There is evidence that more than half the people killed by Stalin's secret police at the time were previously loyal Bolsheviks and members of the party itself. Stalin's reasons for ... because they so often disregarded any trace of humanity. So instead of admitting to being wrong, he exterminated anybody who may have believed he was. The fact that he was a totalitarian ruler meant that...

• Word Count: 2886
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

... were in this way randomly chosen. Out of all the Russians purged, executed or imprisoned in labour camps there were notably 10 out of 15 members of the original Bolshevik Government 1917, 30% of the Red Army officer establishment, 98 members of the Central Committee elected at the 17th Party Congress, 7 million kulaks, peasants, workers and intellectuals as well as 30 ... which the Purges were taken in the unique objective to reinforce Stalin's power as a dictator. Some Historians point out the fact that Russia until Stalin's reign had been kept under a totalitarian regime. Throughout h...

• Word Count: 2709
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate