CDL: Bolshevism

In early 1817 Russia was in the heat of radical political turmoil. Later that year, a clear leader emerged in Vladimir Lenin, a leader of a radical Socialist regime. Although American president Woodrow Wilson reached out to Russia as a “Fit partner for a league of honor,” Lenin felt that Capitalist America had one goal in mind: Money. The Allied forced felt betrayed. After a brief attempt at occupation and the end of the war, Allied forces backed out of Russian affairs. Lenin’s regime, calling themselves communists, strengthened their hold and established their mission: to overthrow Capitalist and Imperialist regimes everywhere, which conflicted directly with a majority of world powers. After hearing of the supposed indoctrination on home soil, the “Red Scare” was in full effect, with people being investigated and forced to prove their allegiance to Wilson’s “New World Order.” Communist beliefs were, to America, a threat against everything they valued. Lenin was just the beginning of what many thought to be seventy years of terror.

1. How did the Bolshevik revolution change the face of Russia?

2. How did the communists manage to stay in power for so long? How did the united states at this time attempt to curtail communism’s far-reaching effects?

CDL: What did the Doughboys Find in France?

In 1918, during the heat of World War One, two million American soldiers left home to join with the American Expeditionary Force in France. Many, leaving home for the first time, saw fighting in the Great War an adventure, and for many, if was their first and their last. Most of the men were inexperienced and ill-prepared for the challenges they were to face. Trench warfare was not pretty, and the bad conditions and week morale rattled the men as hard as the exploding shells around them did. These things and the hoards of death, both of their countrymen and their enemies hardened the troops to the harsh realities of war. The troops were relieved when they could rest and seek aid from the various volunteer organizations behind the lines. The front lines in France were somber and the men that did survive went home changed; some for good, and some for worse.

1. Why were the doughboys so keen on leaving their homes to fight war overseas?

2. How did the realities of War effect the soldiers?