The triumph of the world's first socialist revolution in Russia in 1917 may have seemed improbable, but the effort to build and sustain that revolution raised the odds to nearly impossible. To realize a socialist democracy, material and cultural conditions had to be lifted to an ambitious new level — in a country that was backward, isolated, and devastated by World War I and then by counterrevolution. More than 70 percent of the population could not read. Soviet industry stood at one-fifth of its prewar capacity, food reserves were gone, and the railway system was destroyed. Famine forced people into the countryside searching for food. By 1921, the population of Moscow was cut in half, and that of Petrograd reduced by 67 percent. Typhoid and other epidemics raged.
The Soviets looked west for help, expecting that the horrors of the imperialist war would spark revolutions and the creation of sister workers states in Europe. These states could then provide the USSR with support,......

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Title: Science Fiction
Approximate Word Count: 4897
Approximate Pages: 20 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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