The Russian Enlightenment

The Russian Enlightenment

Starting during the 18th century, Russia experienced a time of enlightenment in which the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of the arts and sciences. Scholars refer to this period as the Russian Age of Enlightenment. Catherine the Great who was the ruler of Russia in this period advocated for several "enlightened" reforms, especially in regards to the gentry of Russia. Educational reforms were perhaps some of the largest reforms introduced by Catherine creating several state-run schools and institutes encouraging a moral and intelligent society. Some large amounts of reforms came in restructuring the political organization and establishing a new set of laws.

Honestly, this era was a reflection of Catherine's desire to make Russia equal politically, culturally, and intellectually to its European counterparts. Many intellectuals of this era saw these reforms as efforts toward Westernization and rejected much of the liberal traditions of the West. By the end of the era, all of Catherine's efforts still did not achieve in matching Russia on an intellectual or cultural scale with the European Nations, but it did make it a significant military and political power of the age. Additionally, the reforms would provide the foundation of Russian intellectual development for the next century. So even though Catherine's reforms were partly unsuccessful in bringing Russia into the light of Western thought, it provided the key for subsequent Russian thinkers to open the door to a new age of cultural progress.

-Anthony McRae

Gulags by Anthony McRae

Gulags

      Long ago back in the days of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, citizens that were rebellious and engaged in explicit activities were sent to labor-intensive correctional facilities. According to leading officials of the politburo, the treasonous criminals that were sent to these isolated locations had dangerous leanings and were simply being reeducated through their hard work for Mother Russia. However, an enemy of the state by the name of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had a different opinion of the corrective labor camps that he so defiantly called gulags. He saw them as a means to silence political dissenters and exploit the masses for relatively inexpensive labor. Of course, that was all just revelutionary nonsense? Right?
      In sad truth, the gulags as Solzhenitsyn descibed were political prisons for intellectuals and free thinkers alike. They originated from the katorga which was an earlier method of penal justice through forced labor. The inmates of these camps would often times have little to no food, inadequate clothing, deteriorating health, and poorly insulated shelters. The work projects were unbearable. People died from overexhaustion almost every day. It was estimated that 14 million people passed through the Gulag from 1929 to 1953. Of these, an estimated 1.6 million died as a result of these "labor camps". If anything should be learned from this, it is that we whould never take our freedom for granted because maybe one day we could find ourselves being sent off to a "corrective labor camp" for "crimes against the state".

                                                                                                                                     -Anthony McRae

Gulags

      Long ago back in the days of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, citizens that were rebellious and engaged in explicit activities were sent to labor-intensive correctional facilities. According to leading officials of the politburo, the treasonous criminals that were sent to these isolated locations had dangerous leanings and were simply being reeducated through their hard work for Mother Russia. However, an enemy of the state by the name of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had a different opinion of the corrective labor camps that he so defiantly called gulags. He saw them as a means to silence political dissenters and exploit the masses for relatively inexpensive labor. Of course, that was all just revelutionary nonsense? Right?
      In sad truth, the gulags as Solzhenitsyn descibed were political prisons for intellectuals and free thinkers alike. They originated from the katorga which was an earlier method of penal justice through forced labor. The inmates of these camps would often times have little to no food, inadequate clothing, deteriorating health, and poorly insulated shelters. The work projects were unbearable. People died from overexhaustion almost every day. It was estimated that 14 million people passed through the Gulag from 1929 to 1953. Of these, an estimated 1.6 million died as a result of these "labor camps". If anything should be learned from this, it is that we whould never take our freedom for granted because maybe one day we could find ourselves being sent off to a "corrective labor camp" for "crimes against the state".