Russian Independence in and how it relates to Edmund Burke's Theory Term Paper

Russian Independence in and how it relates to Edmund Burke's Theory - Term Paper Example (Bova, 2003, pg 9) Overview of Russian history In the period between 1970s and early 1980s, Russia was a calm nation that maintained the status quo. The president at that time, Leonid Brezhnev, was widely regarded as an incompetent leader, who kept a cabinet full of old, tired individuals who were not highly charged nor inspired. Moreover, the military kept away from political matters and there were not even the slightest sense of unrest among the population. However, this state had a negative impact on Russia’s economy at the time and she started falling behind economically as compared to other nations such as the United States, Japan Europe and China (Hough 61). The turn of events that eventually led to the revolution after the 1989 elections have the symptoms like the ones held by Edward Burke in his theory of modern revolution. This paper, therefore seeks to argue the events that led to the Russian coup de tat and to provide evidence whether they conformed or disagreed to the theory proposed by Burke. An overview of Edmund Burke’s Theory of Modern Revolution Burke started to have thoughtful insights into political matters such as the French revolution as early as 1787-8. He accurately predicted that the revolution will be a total catastrophe. He attributed it mostly to philosophies that had created a rift between divine will the general human population. Burke had two insights concerning modern revolution in France. One, he believed that the French still had the aspects of the ancient constitution and he gave an example of the ancient constitution of England. He believed that after the constitutions reforms, there was great possibility of adopting a good constitutional progress that would be peaceful. He believed that there was no need for any inhuman acts that would bring down prominent leaders that ruled the land. He never believed or advocated for the revolution way of dealing with political matters. These revolution issues lead to Burke wa nting to get more insights into it. It leads many people to know Burke as the inciter of conservativeness during the century. He argued that revolution would be the last solution in resolving the catastrophes that entangled any government. He viewed revolutions as a past gone philosophy, which easily destroyed the morality of the society, and in fact it broke the social ties the society enjoyed. Revolution, according to Burke, is a process that undermined the essence of civilization. He looked at the revolution approach as the destructor of the normal orders and positional powers. Authority was undermined by revolution also. He viewed that those who did not respect the law, and those that used violence to enforce their ideas, were the main cause of revolution, which had the basis of destruction and harmful intentions. (Burke & Clark, 2001, pg 69) Burke’s theory did not analyze what revolution was all about, but focused on the originality of the revolution, the violence and th e religious implications it caused to the society, the sudden collapse of the government, and the results all these actions lead to. Burke therefore had an outstanding opinion that was greatly respected in the nineteenth century. His support for the older reign in France was the main pointer to how he greatly opposed revolution. He