Molotov soon learned revolutionary tactics such as agitation, which involved getting workers riled up about injustices they were being subjected to and inciting them to take action, and getting the communist message to everyday Russians. Molotov joined the Social Democratic Party in 1906 at the age of sixteen and leaned toward the Bolshevik faction. Molotov joined student Marxist groups and began learning about the Bolsheviks (communists) when a close friend's father began financially supporting them. The young, impressionable Molotov and his friends listened to speeches and heard of the general railroad strikes, the workers' rebellion in Saint Petersburg, and landowners' estates burning in several Russian provinces. ![]() Revolutionary ideas had reached into the Nolinsk region by 1905. In economic theory, it prohibits private ownership of property and business, so that goods produced and wealth accumulated are shared relatively equally by all. Communism is a system of government, where a single party, the Communist Party, controls all aspects of people's lives. There, Molotov was introduced to the ideas of German philosopher Karl Marx (1818–1883), considered the father of communism. He attended high school in the nearby city of Kazan. As Molotov's family became more interested and involved in the peasant and worker unrest in the early and mid-1900s, he decided to forgo study in music for a more practical education. This led to poor working conditions, greater poverty and hunger, and growing discontent among the citizens. During this time, the tsars, Russia's monarchy, ruled the country harshly, decreasing local rule and appointing aristocrats to administer over the industrial workers and peasants. Molotov was related to Russian composer Aleksandr Nikolaevich Scriabin and as a youngster studied the violin. Around 1912, he adopted his revolutionary surname "Molotov," which means hammer. Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Scriabin was born to middle-class parents in the small central Russian town of Kukarka. ![]() ![]() The Cold War was an intense political and economic rivalry from 1945 to 1991 between the United States and the Soviet Union, falling just short of military conflict. Molotov's talks with Western powers in the years following World War II (1939–45) helped fuel the Cold War (1945–91). Won over to communism as a teenager, Molotov never strayed from the strict party line and always viewed Stalin's policies, however terror-filled, as correct. V yacheslav Molotov was the closest friend and loyal aide of Joseph Stalin (1879–1953 see entry) throughout Stalin's reign as leader of the Soviet Union.
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