
i have a history question......?
Under the rule of Lenin and then Stalin, was life better for the people in the Russian Empire than it had been in the reigns of the Czar Alexander III and Czar Nicholas II?
For many million ordinary Russian people life was considerably better under Lenin and Stalin than under the Tsars - particularly than under Alexander III.
True, Lenin instigated a six week period known as the red Terror, where many "former classes" - i.e. aristocrats and industrialists were summary trued and executed (about 800,000 arrested and many thousands were killed), and Stalin began the Great Purge that saw 2.5 million executed, and his policies led to another 2.5 million die of starvation in Ukraine - the Holodomor. But living conditions improved, electricity came to most towns and villages, serfdom was finally abolished - the Emancipation of Alexander had not freed the serfs, they had to buy their freedom, and many millions remained enserfed in 1917.
Under both Alexander & Nicholas the peasants lived in abject poverty, Alexander did institute a degree of local democracy with the establishment of Zemstvos - local councils, but they were dominated by the aristocracy, and political parties were banned. Under Nicholas the programme of industrialisation gathered pace - he established huge factories and metal works, massive mines and a massive railway building effort. For the workers in these enterprises life was harsh, low pay, 14hour days, no unions, no recompense if injured and dormitory living were the norm.
Probably, out of the rulers that you list, under Lenin life was better for more people than under any of the others. Once the Civil War was over the New Economic Policy allowed a large degree of economic freedom for people - they were allowed to own businesses and sell things on the open market, and many people were enthusiastic about the new system that they were trying to build.
See:
The Bolsheviks in Russian Society - Vladimir Brovkin
Russia, A History - Geoffrey Freeze
Russia, People & Empire 1552 - 1991 - Geoffrey Hoskings
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