Mexican and Russian Revolutions

Two nations experienced radical changes during the 20th century. Each began with an oppressive state and a people who were through with the treatment they received. While the Mexican and Russian revolutions started out with similar circumstances, the outcomes were drastically different.

In both Russia and Mexico oppressive regimes led to peasant uprisings. The people began to demand better treatment from their governments and were willing to come together in revolts to gain the dignity they deserved. Both sets of hard working people were desperate, which would ultimately lead to contradictory results. The ultimate goal of both the Mexican revolution of 1910 and the Russian revolution of 1917 was to put the power back into the hands of the people, but only one nation would succeed; Russia would end up with another oppressive dictator while Mexico would establish a victorious democracy.

The Russian people had suffered centuries of oppression and were thoroughly ready for change. But this change would be short lived and the forced labor of feudal systems would return. After Czar Nicolas I stepped down the proletariat gladly rose up. There was mass mutiny in the military and revolutionaries set up a temporary government. Russian revolutionaries, eager for freedom from oppression, idolized socialist ideas, which opened up the door for another dictator. Lenin soon took over and a Constituent Assembly was gathered; but this was also dismantled leaving the Russian people, once again, in the hands of a cruel oppressor, who began the Red Terror to clear out any dissentors.

The Mexican Revolution holds a different story. By 1910 Mexico was also oppressed by oligarchic rule leaving farmers and peasants in awful conditions with not rights. In 1910 scattered revolutionaries gathered to attack General Porfio Diaz’, who refused to give up his fraudulent rule, troops. Peasants, farmers, and workers as well as leaders such as Madero, Villa, and Zapato fought for ten years until Diaz finally gave up, resulting in the formation of a Mexican Democracy. Workers assembled trade unions as land and social reforms were made and Mexicans began a new, freer life.

While the Russian people did achieve change in leadership for a time, they eventually ended up within the grasp of another oppressive dictator and with worse working conditions than before. Mexicans, on the other hand, fought for a long period, loosing most of their leaders to execution or assassination, yet ended with the intended results, and a truly changed nation.