Saint Petersburg

Since the beginning of the 18th century, Russia had been going through a series of changes under the power of Tsar Peter the Great. Anton Chekhov, one of the greatest short fiction writers in all of history, lived in this new found Russia. Education, military, agriculture, and the general economy are just some reasons behind the reforms that were changed dramatically throughout all of Russia. Peter’s main focus was modernizing the country that he ruled. To most of Russia, a simple European…

Dr. Zhivago On September 5, 1958 the romantic novel “Dr. Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak was published in the U.S. The book had been banned in the Soviet Union but still won the Nobel Prize for Literature that same year. Boris Pasternak was born in Russia in 1890 and by the time the Russian Revolution broke out he had become a well-known avant-garde poet. His work was frowned upon during the 1920s and 1930s when under the communist regime Joseph Stalin put strict censorship on Russian art and…

The chief cause of the Russian Revolution was Czar Nicholas II’s inability to run the government properly. There were plenty of circumstances that brought about the Russian Revolution. A few examples would be the bad economy, corruption within the government, and the Czar doing whatever suits himself (“Russian Revolution” History.com). With theses events, there was a loss in morale in citizens all across Russia. The citizens also lost hope in the government and the Czar. These events lead to an…

Dialectical Montage as a Vehicle for Political Messaging Sergei Eisenstein expertly uses dialectical montage to demonstrate the plight of Russians in the midst of the revolution in his silent film The Battleship Potemkin (1925). Specifically in the massacre on the Odessa Steps scene, montage editing helps convey exaggerated feelings of fear and helplessness in the context of the political state in Russia; the famous and fictitious scene posits political unrest and terror associated with the…

partially due to the overpopulation in the cities. Upon the release of the serfs, many flooded into cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg for a new start. Due to the influx of unpredicted people, the cities were ill adjusted. It was a horrific environment that created many problems. Similarly, in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov wanders around the toxic St. Petersburg taking in all of the awful things the city has to offer him. He is isolated and upset with the lack of…

When there is social injustice happening and the people are being suppressed, political unrest begins to build. The Country is then thrown into revolution with the people in charge in shaping the structure and future of the country. From the crucible of revolution four countries, Russia, England, and America, all hailing from separate parts of the world rebuilt and reshaped their government from the malevolent rulers in which they were under with different dreams of the future and different…

Grigori Rasputin and the 1917 Russian Revolution One of the most significant events of Russian history was the 1917 Revolution. Predating the revolution, Russia was formed of a hierarchy society consisting of four piers; royalty, aristocracy, middle class and peasantry. After the 1917 Revolution, Russia was dismantled and transformed into the Soviet Union under the governance of the Communist Party. The Communist Party consisted of socialists with the objective to modernize their country-as…

Catherine was able to bring the arts to Russia with places like the Hermitage Museum and the Stone theatre in St Petersburg, she even wrote several plays and books. She brought science and medicine, by building research labs, and even the first hospital with insurance. Schools for girls that taught them what the boys would have learned. She made headway in the government…

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” -George Santayana This quote best exemplifies the allegory Animal Farm written by George Orwell. It shows that Napolean forgot about all the mistakes that Farmer Jones made and he committed them himself. Many of Napolean’s bad decisions and selfishness led the farm to even worst situations. The Russian Revolution is very similar to Animal Farm because both events resulted in the overthrowing of the government due to many reasons…

Significant Symbols in Animal Farm George Orwell was inspired to create a novel called Animal Farm, in the year of 1945. In the novel, Orwell uses satire to describe what life was like during the Russian Revolution. The novel contained many different symbols to represent the Russian Revolution. In the allegorical novel, it is viewed for the rise and decline of socialism in the Soviet Union. George Orwell incorporated symbols into his novel that are significantly related to what happened…