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Bolsheviks were in constant need of money because Lenin practised his beliefs, expressed in his writings, that revolutions must be led by individuals who devote their entire lives to the cause. As compensation, he rewarded them with salaries for their sacrifice and dedication.
The Bolsheviks were supported, although not without criticism of their political practice, [62] [63] by left–wing theorists in Europe, such as Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. At the same time, this political trend rejected the centrist social democrats , for example, Karl Kautsky [ 64 ] and the extreme left supporters of " workers ...
According to the 1922 Bolshevik party census, there were 19,564 Jewish Bolsheviks, comprising 5.21% of the total, and in the 1920s of the 417 members of the Central Executive Committee, the party Central Committee, the Presidium of the Executive of the Soviets of the USSR and the Russian Republic, the People's Commissars, 6% were ethnic Jews. [17]
Because of its identification with Zionism, Hebrew was taught only in schools for diplomats. Most of the 5,000 synagogues functioning prior to the Bolshevik Revolution were closed under Stalin, and others were closed under Khrushchev. The practice of Judaism became very difficult, intensifying the desire of Jews to leave the Soviet Union. [42]
The Bolsheviks closed churches and used them for other purposes. There were accounts of drunken orgies taking place in the desecrated churches. [citation needed] The pretexts for these killings was usually alleged support for the enemy, criticism of the Bolsheviks and/or their ideology, or for liberal and/or bourgeois sympathies.
The Soviet regime had an ostensible commitment to the complete annihilation of religious institutions and ideas. [11] Communist ideology could not coexist with the continued influence of religion even as an independent institutional entity, so "Lenin demanded that communist propaganda must employ militancy and irreconcilability towards all forms of idealism and religion", and that was called ...
In 1918, Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky told Western creditors aghast at the Bolsheviks' repudiation of Russia's external debt: "Gentlemen, you were warned." More than a century later, Russia ...
Until its late years of the USSR, the ideology had professed state atheism, and party members were formerly not allowed to be religious. [5] The state professed a belief in the feasibility of total communist mode of production, and all policies were seen as justifiable if it contributed to the Soviet Union's reaching that stage. [6]