Karen's View of History - Russia and World War I

Karen’s View of History - World War I

I am listening to “Fall of Giants” by Ken Follett.  (Note - this is long.  In audiobook format it is 30 hours long - and I am not finished yet!!)

Quick (and very incomplete) synopsis.  The book follows characters from England (aka the UK) - a wealthy Earl (in the House of Lords), a common family that works in the coal mines on the land owned by the Earl; a German diplomat (and his crusty father), the Earl’s sister who is working for peace, some poor Russians, an Austrian diplomat, and an American.

Let’s look today at Russia - through the eyes of the major Russian character.

He grew up in a small rural village - no electricity, all land ‘belonged’ to nobility.  When young, he watched his father being hanged for hunting on the local noble’s land; he saw his mother shot by the Tsar’s thugs.  There is brutality from the Tsar and other nobility.  He moves to St. Petersburg and works in a family, but gets on the wrong side of immoral policemen who are trying to rape a girl.  He rescues the girl, but these police hound him throughout the book.  

The description of peasants is that their conditions are deplorable, and the description of the Tsar, church leaders, and nobility is wealth and power beyond imagination.  Eventually, about 5.5 million Russian died in the war, mostly peasants that were poorly supported.

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As you know from history, that eventually the Tsar is overthrown, and eventually, Lenin and the Communists take over.

There is a historical principle - like a ‘seesaw’.  If power is like a giant bully sitting on one end of a seesaw, and holding a small child up on the end - and laughing and deriding the child who can’t get down.  But, eventually, in the historical principle, the child gets enough weight/power/friends and they level the seesaw and eventually put the bully up in the air.

Seemingly in Russia during World War I, the Tsar and nobles were like the giant bullies.  They could almost at randomly harass the peasants.  In one scene from the book, the people start lining up at midnight to get a loaf of bread when the bakery opens in the morning.  But, the flour ran out and most of the people in line didn’t get bread (and by implication, without much of anything else).  (Meanwhile, the Tsar lives on the best food).

The treatment of fellow humans in Russia was like some American’s treated slaves - not as humans, but as ways to grab more money and more power.  

Unlike America, where many people opposed slavery, the Russian leaders laughed at the situation and basked in their power.  Man’s inhumanity toward fellow man continued.

Unlike America, where democracy (slowly) worked to free slaves, give women the vote, give Blacks the vote, and learned to tolerate (if not fully accept), minorities, in Russia, the “pot boiled over” and the Russian Revolution tipped the seesaw all the way to the other end.  

Does the end justify the means is a traditional philosophical question?  Can violence beget violence?  Is taking over a regime by force from those who have ruled without understanding and with violence be justified?

  

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My aside and opinion. Is America moving to the way of the Tsars?  Do we have entitled classes and poor classes?

Do we have a ‘ruling class’?  Are not most of our elected senators, representatives, and others, from the ‘wealthy’ group?  (It definitely isn’t cheap to be a senator or president).  Do our representatives really know and understand the plight of immigrants at our borders?  Do they work for justice, fairness, and mercy?  Or do many of them work towards reelection and their own comfort?  (I saw a video a while back about one of the first sessions newly elected representatives got in their orientation - it was on raising money for their next campaign). 

And, if (particularly in congress) representatives and senators are not wealthy, there are lobbyists who buy them dinner and contribute to their reelection campaigns.

With our current situation, we have many who work from paycheck to paycheck.  The virus has almost instantly created deeper poverty than there was before. My Congressional representative recently sent a flyer (free because of the “franking” allowance), that described how he was helping in the COVID-19 crisis and working on funding for those in need.  (He made himself look like an important leader in congress, and while NOT a campaign flyer, it pretty much was).

While the Tsars and nobility in Russia disregarded the plight of their citizens, do our representatives represent us? (Or do they represent influential groups and follow their party line).  

Even though Matthew 26:11 says “You will always have the poor among you”, at times, it seems like helping the poor and downtrodden is more rhetoric and less reality!!!

More tomorrow!!!

Hugs

Karen