Risk Taking Researcher- Hyejune Lee Week 4

Anthem by Ayn Rand, Part 7&8

     To start with, Anthem, which is a dystopian novel, shows Ayn Rand's opinions about collectivism from the protagonist Equality 7-2521's point of view. Equality 7-2521 is a man that lives in this community that strictly bans individuality, which clearly shows that this community supports collectivism. Collectivism is a political system that emphasizes a group (collective) than a particular person (individual). However, the protagonist is different to other men in this community: he loves a particular woman, he has his own secret place, and in Part 8, he even realizes how he looks like. Also, in Part 7, the readers can clearly see that Equality 7-2521 is against the government, because he claims: "You fools! You thrice-damned fools!" Therefore, we can possibly say that he is in charge of showing the readers how Ayn Rand disagrees to collectivism inside the novel.

     Moving on to the point, the reason why Ayn Rand strongly disagrees to collectivism is because she experienced the Russian Revolution in the age of twelve, in 1917, in which collectivists took over the country. From this, her family lost almost everything: her father's pharmacy was taken away by the government, and later on she was almost expelled because she was different to the other students in the class. In fact, there were two Russian Revolutions in 1917; they were the February Revolution  and Bolshevik Revolution.

Photo of Czar Nicholas II, who is the cause of the February Revolution

Nicholas II of Russia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Nicholas_II_of_Russia>.

     First, the February Revolution started on March 8, 1917. However, it is called the February Revolution because back then, Russia used the Julian calendar, and this date was equivalent to February 23 on it. It occurred because of Russia's involvement in the World War I, for there were more casualties than any nations or any war from this, and Russia's economy decayed because of the money that went into the war preparations. As a result there was food shortage, which encouraged the demonstrators to protest in Petrograd, currently known as St. Petersburg. Many people have already lost faith towards Czar Nicholas II, who was the last tsar (emperor of Russia). This was because he did not improve Russia's economy, and he frequently dissolved the Duma, which is a Russian parliament. This action was somewhat like dictatorship, because it was trying to control everything based on his opinions. After countless protests, he left the throne, and a provisional government was established.

Vladimir Lenin, who led the Bolshevik Revolution

Lenin. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. <http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin>.

     Second, the Bolshevik Revolution was led by Vladimir Lenin and took place on November 6 and 7. On the Julian calendar, this is equivalent to October 24 and 25, which is the reason why this revolution is also called the October Revolution. During the February Revolution, Vladimir Lenin was living in Switzerland in exile, because he was professional revolutionary. However, he went back to Petrograd on April 3, 1917. Then, on November 6 and 7, he led the Bolshevik Party to a bloodless coup d'état. Later, in 1918, they had to experience a civil war against the anti-Bolsheviks, and in 1920 they were defeated, which formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922.

Citations for Information
Anthem Intro. Shmoop University, 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. <http://www.shmoop.com/anthem-ayn-rand>.
Collectivism. Merriam-Webster, 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/collectivism>.
Anthem. Project Gutenberg, 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1250/1250-h/
1250-h.htm#link2H_PART7>.
Russian Revolution. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/
russian-revolution>.
Lenin and the Bolsheviks. SparkNotes, 2014. Web. 14 sept. 2014. <http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/
russianrev/section3.rhtml>.
The February Revolution. SparkNotes, 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. <http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/
russianrev/section2.rhtml>.
Vladimir Lenin. BBC, 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/lenin_vladimir.shtml>.