Jim McConnell's Autobiography 1877 - 1957Canadian pioneer farmer in Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia |
|
Go to...
Index
Summary
page 1 |
31.
(eds. note: This entire page covers the history of Russian socialism; there is NO personal/Canadian historical information on this page.) In our school days we learned of the Government of Russia being a dictatorship, or a one-man ruler being advised of what to do by a small party of friends of favorites. There was no legal way of replacing or even improving such a government. Everything had to be done under cover and hidden. These insurrections or rebellions usually occurred among the young men and often among the students in schools and colleges. The story goes that this Lenin had a brother who was a leader of a group of young people planning against the Czar's Government. The prevailing religion in Russia was and still is Catholic. The people were taught by the priests, and at Confession, the people, especially the women and mothers, confessed to the priests their sins or anything that was irregular in their homes or in their lives. In this way, the priests became aware of all that was going on among these poor peasants who were always in poverty and need. Naturally enough, the priests did not keep everything they heard a secret, and so the friends of the Czar were kept informed well in advance of any attempt at rebellion. In Lenin's case, a climax came early in his life when he was young and easily impressed. Without any previous warning, the Czar's secret police walked into their home and took Lenin's brother into the street. There they put a rope around his neck and hung him. It seems that such acts of cruelty and violence were common at that time and were done to frighten and subdue the people and prevent them from making any effort to overcome their bondage. But, to a young and impressive boy as Lenin was at that time, this cruel act cut across his life. Lenin now determined to spend his life to overthrow and completely destroy this regime that was, with their position and power, holding his people in ignorance, subjection and poverty. Having made this decision, Lenin dis appeared and went underground or went in disguise from place to place, teaching and organizing the people to prepare them to unite and rebel and overthrow their despotic government. Lenin also studied a form of Socialism from Marx's books: teaching an ideal system whereby the poorer people, known as the proletariat, could live together by pooling together the products of their labour, so that all the people would have plenty to live on, and poverty and want would be unknown. This continued for many years, and in the meantime, Lenin became better known by his friends who were the poor peasants of Russia. His plans for a Socialist State became well known. Lenin also had great confidence in this socialist way of living, and he laid his plans how best to establish a socialist system in Russia. To protect his own life, much of his time had to be spent outside Russia. The Czar's power remained in complete control of Russia, and under the watchful eyes of the Czar and his favorites, no uprising could have any hope of succeeding. Then came the great war of 1914. These peasants were called up and, although poorly armed, were sent into Germany where they met defeat and discouragement until a humiliating peace with Germany was arranged.
Read more about Jim McConnell's family in Rootsweb Genealogy pages. |