Communism and Marxism
Communism was developed mainly by the ideas of V.I Lenin and Karl Marx. V.I. Lenin was a German philosopher in the 1800s. He believed that capitalism in Europe had escaped failure because of imperialism – a policy in which one country extends its influence over other countries. Capitalist from European, imperialist, countries underpaid workers they hired. Lenin agreed with Karl Marx’s idea that only revolutionary violence could bring about political change. But Lenin believed a highly centralized, tightly disciplined leading group (which he called a vanguard) of professional revolutionaries would lead to revolution. This leading group would make up the Communist Party. Lenin believed that Marx’s idea of the dictatorship of the working class became the dictatorship of the Communist Party, which only claimed to represent the working class.
Karl Marx was a Russian Revolutionary leader in the early 1900s. He was considered communism’s most zealous intellectual advocate. Marx’s basic ideas were first expressed in the Communist Manifesto (1848). He believed the only way to ensure a happy, harmonious society was to put the workers in control. According to Marx the key to understanding the stages of historical development is to know the relationship between different classes of people in producing goods. He claimed that the owners of factories and other means of production, known as the ruling class, would use their economic power to force their will on the people. Marx assumed that the ruling class would never willingly give up power, and so struggle and violence were to be expected. He saw such class struggle between the rulers and the ruled as the means by which history moves from one stage to the next. Marx called for capitalism to end; he believed that under capitalism a struggle takes place between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie were the owners and managers of the means of production and the proletariat were the workers. Marx argued that workers do not receive full value for their labor under capitalism, because the owners keep the profits. He believed that with capitalism the workers’ living standard would continually grow worse because wealth would become concentrated in the hands of a few people and most of the middle class would be forced to become workers. The workers would then turn away from their nations political system and revolt to seize control of industry and the government. Karl Marx believed that the workers would establish a socialist state. The government would be a government controlled by workers. It would create a classless Communist society. When the classes are removed everyone would live in peace, prosperity, and freedom. There will be no need for governments, police or armies. These institutions would gradually disappear.
By the early 1900s capitalism was more successful in Europe’s industrialized nations than what Marx had predicted. Economic modernization was causing the middle classes to grow larger rather than smaller. Increased production of consumer goods, growth of democracy, and the formation of labor unions had led to a rise in living standards. Most Europeans felt an increasing sense of national pride and few had turned away from their political system as Karl Marx had predicted. The Communism that developed in the 1900s had been based on the theories of Marx. His theories are often called Marxism.
Millions of people lived under Communist rule in the 1900s. Russia was the first state to be controlled by a Communist Party. Russia and fifteen other territories joined to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or the Soviet Union. The rapid spread of Communism brought about a struggle for international power between Communist countries and non-Communist countries. This struggle was known as the Cold War. The Cold War included the collapse of several Communist governments in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union in 1991.
Communism is a political and economic system that became one of the most powerful forces in the world. Some people have considered communism the greatest threat to world peace and others considered it as the world’s greatest hope.
