Ana Rodriguez

Harrison Delfin
World History
April 15,2014
The Russian Revolution

The Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin was somewhat successful at turning
Russia into a socialist state. In his time of control he established laws that were socialistic
and others that were capitalistic, which took away from his goal of creating socialism. In
March of 1921 Lenin let farmers sell their surplus crops to make a profit (MWH 438). After
the war and revolution, the Russian economy was destroyed, so Lenin resorted to a
small-scale version of capitalism called the NEP which meant the New Economic Policy.
This agreement allowed peasants to sell their surplus crops instead of turning them over to
the government. This proved that Lenin created some capitalist laws. This law is
capitalistic because it allows farmers to make a profit on their crops. On the other hand, to
make Russia a better state, Lenin made the government keep control of major industries,
banks, and means of communication (MWH 438). Lenin wanted to make Russia a better
state by making it socialistic so he made the government keep control of all industries. He
thought that this would accomplish his goal of keeping Russia a socialist state. With
socialism the government is in control, not one person, and his goal was make Russia a
socialist state. This was one way that Lenin tried to make Russia a socialist state.
However, another capitalist law Lenin made was let some of the small factories and
businesses operate under private ownership (MWH 438). This rule describes capitalism,
which is letting certain people take control and own factories on their own. In socialism the
government controls all the major and small factories. Last but not least, the last law that
Lenin did that showed socialism was that he distributed all farmland to the peasants (MWH
438). Before the revolution peasants didnt own farmland, but when Lenin took over, he
took away the land from the rich landowners and distributed it equally to the peasants.This
was another strategy Lenin did to create socialism in Russia. This law relates to socialism
because he gave the peasants an equal piece of farmland and the goal of socialism is to
make everything equal for everyone. This is what socialism looks like. Overall, Lenin was
somewhat successful at making Russia a socialist state. By creating some capitalist laws
and putting them into action he contradicted socialism by implementing some capitalistic
ideas. He distributed land, made the government own major factories but also let some
people own small factories and businesses. Lenin also let peasants sell their surplus
crops. These capitalist and socialist ideas show that he was somewhat successful in
making Russia a socialist state. Russia became both a socialist and a capitalist state. This
is important because trying to control or run a state like Russia in a specific way may not
work. A society or state may become chaotic because you're trying to make them be or do
something a certain way. People should have the freedom to conduct their lives the way
they want to and the Russian Revolution was an example of how people thought they could
make a place better by becoming socialistic. The Russian Revolution had a big impact on
Russia and we dont want the same to happen to us so that is why we should pay attention
to conflicts in other countries because it helps us to prevent our country from making the
same mistakes. Yes, we can learn future lessons from past mistakes.