China and Russia:
The Cause and Consequences of the Communist Revolutions
by Rit NosotroComparative Essay
Outline the causes and consequences of the Communist revolutions in Russia and China with a focus on religious influences and outcomes.
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Summary:
One gave the world her first communist republic. The other followed closely. One rose to compete with the greatest nation of the time and then fell on its ignored weaknesses. The other followed more slowly but more surely and still remains today. Both China and Russia showed in different ways what could be done with one man's teachings and a people's dream.
The political situations in both China and Russia before their revolutions were much the same. Both had weak rulers and discontented people. In China, a succession of dynasties had ruled since ancient times. At the beginning of 1909, the Chinese emperor Kuang-Hsu had recently died. He left behind three-year-old nephew PuYi to rule the throne with the baby's father, Prince Chun, as regent. Kuang-Hsu's aunt had great power over the rule of her nephew, and she prevented him from taking measures toward the modernizing that China badly needed. China needed a strong, modern monarch to rule and not a three-year-old.
Mother Russia had also hosted an absolute monarchy for centuries. By the 1900's, Nicholas II ruled all of Russia's vast territory. His father, Alexander III, ruled strictly but ended up stirring the kettle of discontent before passing the throne to his son. Nicholas ruled about one hundred years too late. Part of the problem was that he came after a series of rulers also in the wrong time. By the time he inherited the throne, there was little hope for Russia's monarchy.
Nicholas II further destroyed that hope through extensive war and political entanglements with religious leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church. He participated in several wars despite the fact that his country could not really handle it. This destroyed the trust the masses of peasants and workers had in him, in the church he controlled, and in the government as a whole. Comparing the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 give additional insight.
Similarly, in China, war raged almost constantly from 1910 to 1949. During this time Chinese political parties fought civil wars against each other as well as against the Japanese in World War II. After the monarchy fell in 1911, it was a fight over what form of government would rule next.
Another factor most certainly affecting both countries was the size of their territory. St. Petersburg might exile revolutionaries to Siberia, but it couldn't control the spread of ideas and plans even in the labor camps. Also, revolutionaries could escape to the countryside and go unnoticed for quite some time. Chinese control over its people was likewise hindered. Fair-sized uprisings would rage for some time before forces arrived to quell it. Both China and Russia are very large countries. They are also northern countries with small percentages of farm land. This did not prove a huge problem in Russia because of the small population, but China had a great number of people and as a result, there were a couple of famines during the early 1900's. Hunger is the last argument. People look for someone to blame their troubles on, and the government is usually a victim.
Religious situations in Russia and China were alike in some ways and different in others. Confucianism, a religion based on the teachings of Confucius, influenced the monarchial Chinese government. Confucius taught that people must lead a good life that benefited society. However, there had been Christian influences in China since Jesuit missionaries arrived in the 1600's. Protestant missionaries arrived in the early 1800's. Despite the Boxer rebellion when many foreigners and therefore missionaries were killed, missionaries worked in China until 1949. Russian religion was quite different. The Greek Orthodox Church had been the state religion for over nine hundred years. As Ivan S. Prokhanoff said of the relationship between the church and the czar's government,
Bishops and priests felt and acted not like shepherds of souls, but like state officials. By their position they had to report on all actions or intentions unfriendly to the Government about which they could learn from the secret confessions of citizens in their churches.1Monarchs used religion as a means to control the country. They did not even follow its moral principles. For example, Nicholas II allowed the massacre and general persecution of the Jews living in the country. The evangelism of Russia began in the late 1800's when the Bible was translated from the old Slavonic into the everyday language of the common person. Men such as Ivan S. Prokhanoff preached the gospel in St. Petersburg. Evangelism was rapidly spreading when Communism cracked down.
Communism acted as a stumbling block to the spread of the Christian gospel. The stated belief of Communism was that religion was "the opium of the people". Since life was based on work, churches were destroyed across Russia. Control of workers in an environment of the secret police made it difficult for Christians to travel to other cities or regions in order to share Christ or even have fellowship with local believers throughout the Soviet Union. Although some point to an improvement in the rights of women in communist Russia and China, it was the state that elevated women to work solely in order to benefit the state rather than to honor women. For example, unbinding the feet of Chinese girls was done to increase the Communist workforce more than to decrease the inhumanity of foot binding.
In 1949, the communist party took power of China. They forced all missionaries to leave as Christianity had been loosely associated with the defeated Chiang Kai Shek. The year 1966 saw the Cultural Revolution begin which greatly hindered the growth of true Christianity and attempted to destroy already established churches. However, by 1980, the group of Chinese Christians formed the China Christian Council and started the long process of recovery. Today, the Chinese are building new churches because of congestion in the old ones.2 Evil worked in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as well. Hundreds of preachers, evangelists and Christians were exiled or shot. Persecution peaked during the reign of Stalin.
In both countries, the government gave the Protestant Churches a choice: as long as they remained under the thumb of the authorities, they could remain active. This resulted in a major church split in both countries: one group registered under the communists, while the rest went "underground" and secretly worshiped in private homes. Registered churches had to follow the restrictions of the government; for example, they were forbidden to teach the Bible to children. Perhaps in this way communism thought to eliminate the "problem" of religion by making it extinct.
Another major difference between the Chinese and Russian forms of communism was the economic status. Russia placed great emphasis on military and educational expansion and far less on consumer goods and exportation of those goods. Thus, Russia fell behind the rest of the world during its communist period. It would be fair to say that because of the tightly controlled borders locking out missionaries and the spread of Christian propaganda, Russia also lagged in the religious world. China, on the other hand, is placing great emphasis on the light industries, as is evident from the number of products sold in countries all over the world labeled, "Made in China". In the same way, China's borders are perhaps not as tightly held as were Russian ones. The spread of Christianity in China continues despite the form of government. It is possible, if not easy, for missionaries to live and work in China though they do not officially work as missionaries.
"Night is coming when no one can work" (John 9:4) appears to Christians as the motto of their enemy. This trend is evident in countries all around the world and especially those few countries that still honor communism. The communist society places great emphasis on the growth and greatness of the nation. It does not focus on God or any other form of higher being. However, according to the Bible, God will be victorious in the end. Many people -- ".a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne." (Revelation 7:9) - including Russian and Chinese Christians, will spend eternity together.
Quick Quiz
Endnotes:
1 Prokhanoff Ivan S. "Early Religious Conditions." In the Cauldron of Russia. 1933. (6 October. 2005)
2Marquand Robert. "China opens door to Christianity-of a patriotic sort." The Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0308/p01s03-woap.html
Bibliography:
Prokhanoff Ivan S. In the Cauldron of Russia. (New York, 1933.)
DK. 20th Century Day by Day. (Germany: MOHN Media, 2000.)
Arnold Phyllis and Rees David. Russia Then and Now. (Edmonton, AB, Canada, Arnold Publishing, 1993.)
Marquand Robert. "China opens door to Christianity-of a patriotic sort." The
Christian Science Monitor. 8 March, 2004. Waldron Arthur. "Religious Revivals in Communist China." Religion in World
Affairs. ORBIS. Spring 1998. p.325-334. Horner Charles. "China's Christian History." First Things. August/September
1997. p.41-46. MacInnis Elyn and Peter. "History of the Church in China is a long and difficult
one." World Wide Faith News. December 20, 2000. Woo YL Phillip. "The Chinese Revolution of 1911." The Corner. Hyper History. "Concise Political History of China." Complied from Compton's
Living Encyclopedia. http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinhist.html
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