Battleship Potemkin accurately reflects the description of Russia during this era that Mazower writes in Dark Continent. Mazower discusses briefly the living conditions of the Russian peasants as being the worst across europe. The beginning of Battleship Potemkin begins with the sailors being extremely unhappy about their conditions of living. The meat they are expected to eat is ridden with maggots, and they are told to wash it off with brine.
Mazower also discusses the anti-semitic sentiments that were spreading across Europe towards due to catholicism having more influence on the government with the rise of christian nationalism which started in portugal but also had influences which spread to Austria and beyond, where “Violent anti-semitism was the corollary” (Mazower, 31). Although Russian anti-semitism may have had other roots. When the people realized that the sailor had been killed over a bowl of soup, one of the revenge shouts was “Kill the Jews!”, which seemed random but was just part of the overall sentiment.
The mutiny on the ship projects the tensions between the Russian peasants and the government during the era of industrialization when the peasants were not getting adequate care from the state, and were tools of the states progression. This was representative of the Russian revolution