The predominating factor that appears to characterize Ungern’s life were the many intersection (both ideologically, culturally, and spatially) that he experienced. Born a Baltic German in Austria in 1886, Ungern experienced changing philosophies of class and government. Most importantly he lived during the era of nationalistic beginnings in Europe. The Russian Empire’s success was based on its willingness to partner with local elites to govern. This meant that in many ways the state treated people on the periphery better than they treated those at the center in order to maintain the empire. An example of this policy were the Baltic Germans. Ungern, and his family, in Estland (modern day Estonia) were one of the many contracted to rule the
periphery of the empire in the Tsar’s name. They maintained their German identity and ruled as elites, not colonized individuals. In many ways the baltic Germans rejected nationalism. However, Ungern saw the situation slowly, but noticeably change. The Germans were discretely pushed towards Russification, not forced. Though policy changes like the Russian language becoming the official language of the bureaucracy regardless of location and the Baltic Germans’ hegemony as elites being shaken sent a clear message they were expected to make a choice. Ungern’s own relationship with Russian cultural and Russification was not coercive, but his own choice and that of his family. Ungern grew up between the intersections of changing classes, growing nationalism, and fear of people like the Baltic Germans that resisted nationalistic loyalty. It was this intersection and ones like it that made the Russian Government begin a campaign of Russification not to “...turn the many diverse peoples of the empire into Russians in a cultural sense...instead the objective was to make diversity more workable.” Sunderland points out that diversity in identity was not the issue the empire was concerned with, but rather their loyalty. Identity could be fluid, loyalty not. This interaction left Ungern’s with a clear sense of two things: elitism and loyalty to the monarch.
The compassionate novel Deadly Unna?, written by Phillip Gwynne, creates vivid characters and depicts race discourses experienced by Gary Black (also known as Blacky) in a fictitious South Australian coastal community. The novel portrays a typical coastal town of the 1970s and is set mainly in the Port: the local Pub, the Black family home and the jetty, where the local children play. The story explores the racism between the Nungas (the indigenous population who live at the Point) and the Gooynas (the white population who live at the Port). As Blacky is from the Port, he only begins to develop awareness of the racism around him as a result of his friendship with Dumby Red, a Nunga football player, and consequently stops making racist jokes and comments. Analysis of racist ideas in the town, the marginalisation of the Nunga community, Blacky’s changing beliefs and how it influences and empowers him to respond to the death of Dumby Red, reveals that Gwynne encourages the reader to reject the racist values, attitudes and beliefs of Blacky’s community.
This was, of course, only a humorous exaggeration, a case of political satire. Yet beneath the humor, there lies a very profound testament to the belief that Russia's political culture has been inherited from its czarist days and manifested throughout its subsequent development. The traditions from the pre-Revolution and pre-1921 Russia, it seems, had left its brand on the 70-years of Communist rule. The Soviet communism system was at once a foreign import from Germany and a Russian creation: "on the one hand it is international and a world phenomenon; on the other hand it is national and Russian…it was Russian history which determined its limits and shaped its character." (Berdyaev, "Origin")
Berghahn Books. 2000 Germany and the Germans. After the Unification of the. New Revised Edition. John Ardagh.
Hagen W (2012). ‘German History in Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation’. Published by Cambridge University Press (13 Feb 2012)
The main purpose of the book was to emphasize how far fear of Hitler’s power, motivation to create a powerful Germany, and loyalty to the cause took Germany during the Third Reich. During the Third Reich, Germany was able to successfully conquer all of Eastern Europe and many parts of Western Europe, mainly by incentive. Because of the peoples’ desires and aspirations to succeed, civilians and soldiers alike were equally willing to sacrifice luxuries and accept harsh realities for the fate of their country. Without that driving force, the Germans would have given up on Hitler and Nazism, believing their plan of a powerful Germany...
The book, Your Loyal and Loving Son, is a compilation of letters home written by Karl Fuchs, a young German male sharing his experiences, feelings and emotions from 1937, when he comes of age for the Labor Service until his premature death on the Eastern Front in 1941. Even though many contend that serving in the German military during WWII inevitably classifies an individual as evil, Karl Fuchs, a young man who grew up in Germany during the Nazi Party 's escalation of power ought not be generalized into the taxonomy of 'immoral Nazi ' for the underlying principle, his only true offenses of patriotism, a sense of nationalism and honor developed as a result of exposure to the Nazi faction 's propaganda machine.
Westernizers in Russia strongly believed that Russia’s future development would rely on the adoption of Western technology and thinking. They looked for inspiration and ideas primarily from Hegel’s philosophies and texts. (Bova 43) According to Hegel, human history could be “understood as progress toward the realization of freedom and reason in human life.” He claimed that each individual is an intrinsically free being and cannot be contained. (Bova 44) This theory caught the attention of Russian thinkers quickly, and soon they began to question the role that Russia would play in the development of human society along the European model. This questioning eventually paved the way for the role that Russian westernizers would perform in the history of Russia. M.A. Bakunin, a radical westernizer, took philosophical inspiration from Hegel. Bakunin praised Hegel, referring to him as the “greatest philosopher of the...
Edward Dunes’ life as a revolutionary during Russia’s transition from a Tsarist state to that of a Marxist-Socialist regime, was propagated by many situational influences/factors stemming from his families relocation from Riga to Moscow. As a young boy in Riga, Dunes’ thirst for books along with a good educational elevated his potential to be a highly skilled worker. Dune’s childhood education coupled with factory life in Moscow along with a subsequent influential individual in his life with his father’s heavy labor socialist views, molded Dune into the Bolshevik revolutionary he became.
In Tacitus’ Germania the reader can capture an image of how Germany is presented in terms of its bordering territories and its geographical details. According to Tacitus, Rhaetia and Pannonia and the rivers Rhine and Danube separate Germany (Tacitus, Germania, 1). The
Lenin arrived in Germany in the spring of April 3rd 1917, by an organised guarded train that the Germans had set up. Upon Lenin’s arrival he was greeted enthusiastically, but to the crowd’s surprise Lenin showed hostility, criticizing the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet. Not long after Lenin arrived he started to use propaganda, giving many speeches voicing for the conquest of the Provisional Government. On April 7, the Bolshevik newspaper printed the ideas enclosed in Lenin’s speeches...
Nationalisms powerful and intense impact on individuals is demonstrated in Rudolf von Ihering’s Two Letters (1866). By offering individuals a group to be a part of became something which appeared to be boundless in its potential for prosperity and it gave individuals a sense of empowerment. Initially, Von Ihering had rigorously opposed Realpolitik’s policies which were employed by Otto von Bismarck, declaring that, “everyone [in Ger...
... is good [,] what’s from the east is bad” (Kirschbaum). These sentiments clearly show the divide and discontent between the “Ossies”, East Germans, and the “Wessies”, West Germans, highlighting the rift in “united Germany.”
Born Vladimir Ulyanov on April 22, 1870, Lenin grew up a rather lavish lifestyle in the city of Simbirsk (Present day Ulyanovsk) on the Volga River (“Vladimir Lenin Biography”). His parents had six children including him (“Lenin: A Biography). In 1887, his elder brother Alexander was hung for plotting to kill the Tsar (“Vladimir Lenin Biography”). Lenin was only 17. This event greatly affected his youth and it helped bring out the inner rebel within Lenin. Lenin at the time of his brother’s death was studying law at Kazan University (“Vladimir Lenin Biography”). Kazan is city North of Simbirsk and it also lies on the Volga. The same year as his brother death, Lenin was expelled from the University for taking part in a student protest. (“Vladimir Lenin Biograph...
Turner, Henry Ashby. Germany from Partition to Reunification. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 1992. Print.
Carr, William. A. A. The Origins of the Wars of German Unification. London: Longman Group, 1991. Hamerow, Theodore S. The Social Foundations of German Unification, 1858-1871.