Chapter 21 & Documents

Revolution, Socialism, and Global Conflict
During this chapter Stayer discusses global communism and its effect on the world. Ideas of communism sparked from the philosophical roots in the ninetieth-century European socialism, which were inspired by the teachings of Karl Marx. From these ideas communism developed and was first used by Russia (Soviet Union). By the 19070's, almost one-third of the world's population lived in societies governed by communist regimes. Stayer goes on to go more in-depth about how communism played specific roles in the development of Russia. Then he goes on to talk about how communism also affected China and the way China developed as a country and how it developed with other countries and how alliances made between communist countries and non-communist countries began to develop during this time. It is interesting to see how communism was viewed differently in different countries and was used in similar and different ways within these countries. Communism is often referred to as a bad thing during this time period so to see how it developed and help and had its disadvantages to certain countries was interesting to read about. Stayer then goes on to talk about how these communist governments that were developing in countries affected the entire world and the type of wars and disagreements that then occurred because of theses types of governments being set up. He also talks about how communism affected America and brought America's into conflict with a lot of these communist countries.

Document 21.2 - Stalin on Stalinism
This particular document was interesting to me because I enjoyed reading about the view and position Stalin took when looking about how to fix his country in his 5 year plans. Stalin had big plans to help his country grow by creating massive industries that would provide people with jobs and help the country prosper. It is interesting to see it from his point of view because he wants to help the country but in the eyes of most history, Stalin is seen as a bad and brutal ruler. Therefore, reading the document offers another type of insight into how Stalin viewed what he was doing versus what most history books recorded Stalin as.