How Stalin Ruined Everything

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after the fall of long reigning czar revolution and more revolution we got the Soviet Union mysterious nation filled with pain hope and Tetris it defined global politics throughout the century and as the 1900s came to a close so did the USSR we've covered a bit of Russian history on this channel in the past and if you want to learn more about the actual revolution and why it happened click here but today we're looking at more of the policies beliefs in events that surrounded the rule of Lenin and Stalin it's a tale of tragedy power and betrayal this'll be a fun one so let's just start here 1917 a provisional government is formed after the fall of the Tsar 'dom multiple parties lend their thoughts and a general set of rules is formed in early government certainly but one of more diverse political leanings than the previous Artem as we know this isn't long-lived and the Bolsheviks want more without much initial confrontation they make it clear that this new government will not rely on multiple ideologies or parties the Bolsheviks will rule all in this fledgling government such a coup isn't very difficult for those who seek power the Bolsheviks leadership believe that the current government would be inefficient at delivering policy and change also they were just power-hungry guys what exactly did the Bolsheviks won well let's look at the leader Vladimir Lenin he followed the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels this political ideology was called Marxism at its core it was quite relevant for the time even if it was a bit short-sighted Marxism saw class division as the core issue to a majority of the world's population the argument was that the working class received little cut of the profits for the work they took part in that those who control its distribution and sale receive a vast majority of profits whereas the workers are effectively slaves to their corporate masters now remember that this was all in a time with horrific work conditions and hours in an increasingly industrialized world Marxism believed that as industrialization continues the working class will become further entrenched in this sort of slavery Marxism argues that due to this inevitability nations of capitalist economic systems would undoubtedly fall to revolution this revolution would be of the lower-class taking political and economic power from the upper class of course we know now that with workers rights quickly advancing over the course of the 20th century Marxist beliefs were entirely applicable but we weren't there yet it argued that ideally no class division exists and that there was indeed a way to achieve this the first step was to implement socialism into a previously capitalist state now socialism in itself is a vast sea of ideas that can't really be stripped down to a single mindset some ideologies want to abolish markets some don't today we see socialism implemented in a much less extremist method in various nations to some success but this was not the socialism Marx had in mind socialism was just a footnote in the end goal of Marxism as society adapts from capitalism to socialism classifieds would weaken over time a new step is implemented to end all class division communism communism ideally abolish --is money and personal ownership of goods and land when people work the fruit of their labors reached the state and everything is equally distributed now in theory this leads to a sort of utopia where nobody strives to want more and no befalls to have less but humans always want more and that's not always a bad thing this desire to want more makes humans work harder innovate and find new ways to benefit society while simultaneously benefiting of oneself without actual benefits to working harder nobody wants to work harder just do what needs to be done and we all sustain ourselves in time in hindsight it wasn't a very good philosophy but that hindsight is key we now know that the 20th century would bring massive benefits to the standard of living to most of humanity cars planes computers the internet all that were constantly improved over time due to human innovation but this was not the world that Marx and angles lived in we are talking gilded age workers that were objectively in a very bad position they saw the poor living in inhospitable conditions while the witch thrived far more prevalent than today these writings were very influential to the Russian Revolution not just a Lenin and the Bolsheviks but the general public socialism was very trendy and it's not hard to see with how the economy was going and the Bolsheviks knew this but those at the top saw this trend as an opportunity to exploit the public's enthusiasm for socialism and to proclaim themselves it's only chance and Russia so we're back to Lenin after the Bolshevik state control over the nation political uprising instantly occurs the Russian Civil War it was the Bolsheviks versus the white army a group of various ideologies that obviously had a distaste for the apparent authoritarian nature of this new ruling class after many years of fighting the Reds claimed victory and only at a cost of over 7 million lives this was a good indication of what the Soviet Union would become as Lenin took official control of this new nation he saw an opportunity to implement his own political theories this became a mutation of Marxist ideas called Leninism he didn't see it as individuals who desire the betterment of themselves he saw as classes who should fight for their overall betterment he wanted people to give up their own interests and desires for their class life and death were irrelevant if it meant the Bolsheviks remained in power classism became the Soviet parallel to Nazi racism he saw nationality and religion as simple tools that were exploiting the lower class therefore they were dismissed whereas the writings of Marxism were about economic upheaval in the system one that would come in evitable of this newly industrialized world Lenin desired revolution on a political level right now and of course he would be the one in charge it didn't stop there as I mentioned in a previous video Lenin's mindset was that Bolshevik ideas were the only valid ideas and global revolution against the capitalist systems would be a necessary step thankfully for all such capitalist systems Lenin's ideas want to exactly be seen through to the end in 1922 Lenin had a stroke that severely limited his capabilities and it's here that we see the true faults of the Soviet system why well it introduced a power vacuum lenin's days were coming to an end and who would take control of the state well Lenin advised three men to hold the position in his absence Stalin Kamenev and xenovia obviously one of these guys goes a bit further than the rest but we'll get to that soon they would effectively oversee what were Lenin's duties now that he was at home and rusting for Lenin this was a huge mistake the three men each had political motives of their own each saw themselves as the Future leader of the Soviet Union and they had some political scheming to do it was made quickly evident when important information wasn't reaching Lenin the three didn't want him to interfere with their own plans and Lenin was obviously upset as political divides and classes began rising who supported whom Lenin slowly recovered and returned to his position but this was not to last thus far Lenin had been a critic of stones motives and actions he saw how Stalin handled George's independence movement and how it was violently squashed Lenin had doubts of Stalin's capabilities and motives for leadership and Stalin knew this Lenin would have another stroke and in this time it seemed more dire than ever in the state he would write what would be known as Lenin's Testament yeah I talked about this in another video but just stick with me here in this he disclosed his distrust for Stalin how he was morally in the wrong and how he should be removed from his current position General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union when an intended to address the Kremlin and make his final feelings known this would have undoubtedly ruined Stalin's political ambitions as fate would have it Lenin's secretary who he had given the document was under Stalin's control as Stalin learned of Lenin's true beliefs he had the document hidden anything disclosed from it was written off entirely in Stalin's position remained it was another man who Lenin had favoured to succeed him Leon Trotsky he of course had his own Marxist ideologies involving global revolution and it isn't like he was a great man himself but Lenin trusted him of course Lenin dies in his words are hidden from the Kremlin Stalin seizes the opportunity he makes himself the man in front leading the funeral proceedings for Lenin he has him embalmed and displayed like a monument he decides he needs to take advantage of a nation in grief and he like this he positions himself in the forefront while claiming to hold true to lemons ideologies that the nation can progress under his rule he calls the new policy Marxist Leninist and renames Petrograd in de Leningrad he makes Lenin an idol and himself the most apparent successor this power grab would cement Stalin in the history books but not in the best way if there is a single word to describe Karl Marx its idealist for Lenin it's revolutionary but for Joseph Stalin it's evil I know that seems a bit harsh but hear me out his position on an issue was fluid it was about power of the self and not the nation around him the death toll surrounding him is in the millions he had no greater ideology to strive for it was just about power his power this shift in the atmosphere of the Soviet Union is sudden everybody is the enemy to Stalin anybody who could possibly interfere with his iron fist is somebody who needs to be dealt with of course he murders anybody opposing the Bolshevik rule having a different political philosophy is no more but it doesn't stop there now he begins to have countless members of the Kremlin exiled or murdered it is kind of place for entire members of the politicians family to be killed when in children it didn't matter and these didn't even have to be his political enemies they were his supporters the simple fact that they could have political aspirations that could one day oppose his rule was enough for Stalin court of law abolished once suspected you were guilty of course the punishment was death and it wasn't just politicians either in 1928 Stalin begins to demand the instant industrialization of the state along with this was the implementation of collectivism everything goes to the state farmers who had previously little knowledge or care about the Kremlin's policies suddenly were forced to give up their livestock and crops stuff they needed to live if they refused they were killed the original notion was that everything could just be distributed equally but guess what it didn't work because of this mass famine resulted in somewhere between three and seven million died why was this such a butchered operation why didn't distribution happen well many suspect it was intentional by limiting the food in Ukraine any potential independence movements would be squashed you know since people are dying of starvation if true it means Stalin intentionally killed millions this was on top of the flat-out political murders which number around five hundred thousand or so the real irony in all of this is where as Marxism feared the worker becoming slave to the capitalist workers were becoming quite literally slave to the state now we know that soon the Germans will invade and a whole new struggle arises for the Soviet people a non-aggression pact signed and dismissed former mortal enemies become brief political allies and eventually Stalin's reign obviously ends but seeing how this video is long enough let's talk about Khrushchev at a later date the Soviet Union is important because it shows one massive fault with actually applying those Marxist theories at the end of the day somebody still wants the power those who held the power in the Soviet Union lived in wealth and glamour whereas the peasants were starving in the streets sure it was thinly veiled as socialism or communism but in reality it was just plain old authoritarianism does that mean communism can never work I've thought about that a lot and honestly I don't think so at the end of the day the man who desires more will always get more or better or worse this is Tyler of knowledge on [Music] [Music]

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Channel: KnowledgeHub

Views: 665,052

Rating: 4.3953757 out of 5

Keywords: Soviet Union, Stalin, How Stalin Ruined Everything, Karl Marx, Karl Marx and communism, communism, rise of the soviet union, lenin, KnowledgeHub, soviet union history, karl marx history, stalin history, communism history.how stalin ruined everything knowledgehub, knowledgehub stalin, alternatehistoryhub, alternate history hub, knowledge hub communism, stalin soviet union

Id: bDhuolEUlcI

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Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 27 2018

Reddit Comments

True, when landlords and capitalists don't need to work hard to make money, they don't want to make harder

r/accidentallycommunist

👍︎︎ 67 👤︎︎ u/perhapsnottho 📅︎︎ Aug 27 2018 🗫︎ replies

This guy is a massive mixed bag, some of is content is really well written and good and normally has a good grasp on things, however he doesn't understand fascism and communism. Also the russian music

👍︎︎ 34 👤︎︎ u/ChoiceBandedSmeargle 📅︎︎ Aug 28 2018 🗫︎ replies

For fuck's sake why can't Cody just stick to his alt history videos instead of criticising things he has little understanding of.

👍︎︎ 28 👤︎︎ u/RedWingedKea 📅︎︎ Aug 28 2018 🗫︎ replies

Cody’s an intelligent video essay writer, he just doesn’t quite understand socialism and fascism

👍︎︎ 42 👤︎︎ u/DeathMarx 📅︎︎ Aug 27 2018 🗫︎ replies

r/accidentallycommunist

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/Phediuk 📅︎︎ Aug 27 2018 🗫︎ replies

Soycialims is when the gubmint does stuff, and this leads to gommunism when the gubmint controls everything

t. Carl Marks and Freddie Rick Angles.

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/julian_varga 📅︎︎ Aug 28 2018 🗫︎ replies

/r/accidentalmaterialism

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/NeedYourTV 📅︎︎ Aug 28 2018 🗫︎ replies

Marx's googly eyes lol

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/Fairnin 📅︎︎ Aug 28 2018 🗫︎ replies

Like, I guess you could use that as an argument against actual stateless communism and there are no examples to disprove it, but the USSR defeated the Nazis and put the first person in space. The list of their achievements is a mile long.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/Praseodymi 📅︎︎ Aug 29 2018 🗫︎ replies