The Other Europe 2021/2022
The Other Europe
HC1a – Intro & Communism
Regions we are going to talk about
- Central-Eastern Europe
- Eastern Europe
1. Russia
2. Ukraine
3. Belarus
4. Moldova
- South Eastern Europe
1. Balkans (Western)
Serbia
Montenegro
BiH
Marcedoia
Alnania
- Cold War > Revolutions > New Regimes
1918
- Europe was dominated by empires
- After WW1 these empires collapsed
1945
- Cold war: Ideological borders
- Lasted until 1989
Dividing lines today by EU?
- Central Europe, Slovenia and Baltics
1. EU membership in 2004
- Romania, Bulgaria
1. 2007
- Croatia
1. 2013
Socialism:
- four parts
1. Marxism
2. Russia: Bolshevism
3. Stalinism
4. The communist System
Politics
Economy
Ideology
, The Other Europe 2021/2022
Marxism
- Historical materialism
The idea that the World is governed by production, the economy, the
means of production, the way how certain value is being generated
The opposite of materialism = idealism > the idea that we live in a
world that is constituted by what we believe, what we think and how
we understand the world
Basis vs Superstructure
History = History of class struggles
Revolutions in the economy lead to political revolutions
- Marxism is about who is exploiting who and the vision of the past (how did we
get here?) and the future (How will mankind develop?)
- Marxism gives us an idea (if you believe in Marxism) that there is a direction
of development in human relations (mankind’s development) from probative to
sophisticated. There are several steps of turning points that change the rules of
the game and change the actors. According to Marxism the actors might be
changing but the class struggle (between social groups) stays the same. It as
various stages.
- 5 stage model by Lenin and Slain
5. Socialism
leading to communism
4. Bourgeois (capitalist) society
3. Feudal society
2. Slave-holding society
1. Primitive society
5. So Marxism is a critique of the private ownership of the means of production.
It says ‘this must be changed as long as some have the means’
Communist Manifesto 1848
- period of democratic upheaval
- good example of class struggle
- The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles
- … oppressor and oppressed stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an
uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended either in a
revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the
contending classes...
- Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two
great classes directly facing each other –Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.
1. Bourgeoisie (mid 19th century)
the idea of that there is a rich middle upper class of owners of the
means of production, which could be a factory, the country side, the
rule area that can be used for every culture, the land or it could be a car
or computer. A item that you can use for your own benefit and can
create. This value is what drives the economy.
2. Proletariat (19th century)
, The Other Europe 2021/2022
The people, mostly in the cities, who came to work in the factories or
on the railroads or the army etc. but they have nothing to sell and have
no means of production. They sell their labor.
- It is between the 5 stage model that leads to revolutions etc.
- Society totally changes after these revolutions in 1948
German Social Democrats
- Marxism first develop politically in Germany under the social democratic party.
- Fusion 1875 to Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deatschland
1. From Ferdinand Lasalle (1863) and August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht
(1869)
- Banned by (anti-) ‘Socialist laws’ 1878. Readmitted in 1980 as SPD: Strongest
Parliamentary Party (20-35%)
- SPD Erfurt Program 1891
1. “Evolutionary path to socialism”
2. Improve lives
3. Gain power through elections
From Imperial Russia to the USSR
- Russia is regarded as a backwards country > it had no revolution but governed by a
dynasty (Romanov)
- Least in the world to have a social revolution
- Russia is a colonizing country
- How can Russia compete against a modernizing 19th century?
1. Reform or revolution?
Alexander II (r. 1855-1881) > Reformist Tsar
Autocratic regime built on exploitation of peasantry (mid-19thcentury:
90% of population, majority of them serfs)
After defeat Crimean War 1853-6: latecomer in industrialization and
modernization;
liberation serfs 1861 (23 million persons!) [comp. USA: 3.5 million
slaves emancipated in 1863]
Revolutionary movement initially geared at toppling tsarist regime &
liberation of peasantry
- Terrorist Movement: 1881
1. Murder of Tsar Alexander II
There was violence triggered by the reform, this triggered wanting
more
End of naïve populism
Response of the regime under Alexander III and Nikolay II
Back to reactionary conservatism
- Marxism in Russia
- Industrialization: working class, poverty, exploitation
- 1883 Marxist ‘Group for the Eman-cipationof Labour’ (GeorgiiPlekhanov)
- Russian Social-Democratic Party 1898
- Split 1903 over question whether massor revolutionary cadre party
The Other Europe
HC1a – Intro & Communism
Regions we are going to talk about
- Central-Eastern Europe
- Eastern Europe
1. Russia
2. Ukraine
3. Belarus
4. Moldova
- South Eastern Europe
1. Balkans (Western)
Serbia
Montenegro
BiH
Marcedoia
Alnania
- Cold War > Revolutions > New Regimes
1918
- Europe was dominated by empires
- After WW1 these empires collapsed
1945
- Cold war: Ideological borders
- Lasted until 1989
Dividing lines today by EU?
- Central Europe, Slovenia and Baltics
1. EU membership in 2004
- Romania, Bulgaria
1. 2007
- Croatia
1. 2013
Socialism:
- four parts
1. Marxism
2. Russia: Bolshevism
3. Stalinism
4. The communist System
Politics
Economy
Ideology
, The Other Europe 2021/2022
Marxism
- Historical materialism
The idea that the World is governed by production, the economy, the
means of production, the way how certain value is being generated
The opposite of materialism = idealism > the idea that we live in a
world that is constituted by what we believe, what we think and how
we understand the world
Basis vs Superstructure
History = History of class struggles
Revolutions in the economy lead to political revolutions
- Marxism is about who is exploiting who and the vision of the past (how did we
get here?) and the future (How will mankind develop?)
- Marxism gives us an idea (if you believe in Marxism) that there is a direction
of development in human relations (mankind’s development) from probative to
sophisticated. There are several steps of turning points that change the rules of
the game and change the actors. According to Marxism the actors might be
changing but the class struggle (between social groups) stays the same. It as
various stages.
- 5 stage model by Lenin and Slain
5. Socialism
leading to communism
4. Bourgeois (capitalist) society
3. Feudal society
2. Slave-holding society
1. Primitive society
5. So Marxism is a critique of the private ownership of the means of production.
It says ‘this must be changed as long as some have the means’
Communist Manifesto 1848
- period of democratic upheaval
- good example of class struggle
- The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles
- … oppressor and oppressed stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an
uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended either in a
revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the
contending classes...
- Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two
great classes directly facing each other –Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.
1. Bourgeoisie (mid 19th century)
the idea of that there is a rich middle upper class of owners of the
means of production, which could be a factory, the country side, the
rule area that can be used for every culture, the land or it could be a car
or computer. A item that you can use for your own benefit and can
create. This value is what drives the economy.
2. Proletariat (19th century)
, The Other Europe 2021/2022
The people, mostly in the cities, who came to work in the factories or
on the railroads or the army etc. but they have nothing to sell and have
no means of production. They sell their labor.
- It is between the 5 stage model that leads to revolutions etc.
- Society totally changes after these revolutions in 1948
German Social Democrats
- Marxism first develop politically in Germany under the social democratic party.
- Fusion 1875 to Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deatschland
1. From Ferdinand Lasalle (1863) and August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht
(1869)
- Banned by (anti-) ‘Socialist laws’ 1878. Readmitted in 1980 as SPD: Strongest
Parliamentary Party (20-35%)
- SPD Erfurt Program 1891
1. “Evolutionary path to socialism”
2. Improve lives
3. Gain power through elections
From Imperial Russia to the USSR
- Russia is regarded as a backwards country > it had no revolution but governed by a
dynasty (Romanov)
- Least in the world to have a social revolution
- Russia is a colonizing country
- How can Russia compete against a modernizing 19th century?
1. Reform or revolution?
Alexander II (r. 1855-1881) > Reformist Tsar
Autocratic regime built on exploitation of peasantry (mid-19thcentury:
90% of population, majority of them serfs)
After defeat Crimean War 1853-6: latecomer in industrialization and
modernization;
liberation serfs 1861 (23 million persons!) [comp. USA: 3.5 million
slaves emancipated in 1863]
Revolutionary movement initially geared at toppling tsarist regime &
liberation of peasantry
- Terrorist Movement: 1881
1. Murder of Tsar Alexander II
There was violence triggered by the reform, this triggered wanting
more
End of naïve populism
Response of the regime under Alexander III and Nikolay II
Back to reactionary conservatism
- Marxism in Russia
- Industrialization: working class, poverty, exploitation
- 1883 Marxist ‘Group for the Eman-cipationof Labour’ (GeorgiiPlekhanov)
- Russian Social-Democratic Party 1898
- Split 1903 over question whether massor revolutionary cadre party
