Chapter 21 - Revolution, Socialism, and Global Conflict

In today's reading, chapter 21 talks about the revolution, socialism, and global conflict. A Frenchman, and Englishman, and a Soviet Russian are admiring a painting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Frenchman says, "They must be French: they're naked and they're eating fruit." The Englishman says, "Clearly, they're English: observe how politely the woman is offering fruit to the man." The Russian replies, "No, they are Russian communists, of course. They have no house, nothing to wear, little to eat, and they think they are in paradise." This statement is a joke between the Soviet Unions as a means of expressing in private what could not be said in public. A major theme of those jokes involved the deceit of a communist system that promised equality and abundance for all but delivered a dismal and uncertain economic life for the many and great privileges for the few. The Soviet Union was a single-party Marxist-Leninist state. It existed from 1922 until 1991, and was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of fourteen Soviet Socialist Republics and one Soviet Federated Socialist Republic which was Russia. Global communism also known as world communism, a form of communism that involves international scope. The long-term goal of world communism is a worldwide communist society that is stateless, which may be achieved through an intermediate term goal of either a voluntary association of sovereign states or a world government. Modern communism found its political and philosophical roots in the 19th century European socialism, inspired by the teachings of Karl Marx. Most Europeans socialists came to believe that they could achieve their goals peacefully and through the democratic process, those who defined themselves as communists in the 20th century disdained such reformism and advocated uncompromising revolution as the only possible route to a socialist future. Soviet Union called Russia in and was the first country to experience such a revolution. In 1970s, almost one-third of the world's population lived in societies governed by communist regimes. The Soviet Union was by far the world's largest country in size, and China, the world's largest largest country in population.

In document 21.3, talks about Living through Industrialization during the 1930s, an enormous process brought huge numbers of peasants from the countryside to the cities. Many of the workers found their way by learning new skills. In this document, it mentions some of the workers statements about their disappointment or they were celebrating their new possibilities in life. These sources come from letter written to newspapers or to high government officials, from private letters and diaries, or from reports filed by party officials based on what they had heard in the factories. An example is a letter in a newspaper from a Tatar Electrician. He said, "I am Tatar..." Throughout this personal letter Tatar was saying that Russian people were not allow to think about education, or getting a join a state enterprise. Now that he is a citizen of the USSR, he has the right to a job and education. Overall, I believe this is a great opportunity to turn the table around and to open doors for those who are not allow to dream about going to school or getting a decent job.