Define Communism

fabianism has long been heralded in capitalist countries as the root of all evil. However, as with all phobias, this intrinsic fear of socialism comes from lack of knowledge rather than sound reasoning. It is the identical fear that gave the humanity the Cold War and McCarthys cherry-red Sc be. The purpose of this paper is uncomplete to support communism oer capitalism nor the opposite, rather it is to in pee the indorser of communisms migration th full-length time and hopefully assist the infantile fixation of such fear. The ideology of communism came out of the minds of dickens men, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Sowell, 11).Since Marx is the most wide know influence, he go away be the nonpareil most referred to. It was Marxs belief that private property was the engender of p everywherety and degradation of the proletariat. Therefore, he came to settle on the idea that no one person should befuddle dominance over production of right-hand(a)s, ownership of land, and m anagement of funds. In that same token then, no one ground level should be allowed to have control over these things. He went on to comment that the exploitation of the over bating class must come to an end. That end would be achieved done variation.Once this was achieved, everybody would work according to their abilities and then be paid accordingly (Marx 586-617). before long after, however, skillful innovations would piss such abundance of goods that everyone works according to his abilities and receives according to his needs. Soon on that pointafter, money would have no place in society. wad would be able to take what they want and in turn would be abstracted nothing. Marx also believed that the pleasure of redeing the fruits of labor would be enough to cause man to work (Rieber, 56-62).Countries and people were soon to catch on to this ideology. The two most well know places were Russia and china. Of the two, Russia was the first to adopt the communist beliefs. Ru ssia al develop had a long history of peasant insurrections. Most of these uprisings though, were attractorless and highly un organize. The motives of the rebels were undefined and of cristal confused. By the time the government made some improvements to military service the peasants, it was too late. In 1917, due to the breakdown of the administration and military order, the peasants travel to carry out their own revolution.They tore down every form of legal and territorial authority and distributed the land in a rough but equal fashion. During this time, a man by the name of Georgi V. Plekanhov had on the Q.T. come into Russia bringing Karl Marxs books. Once there, these books influenced young students who saw the revolution dependent on the proletariat, not the peasant class. One of the people influenced by Plekanhov was a man breathing out by the name of Nikolai Lenin. His revolutionary passion was fuddled and he went on to creat a group called the Bolsheviks and they a re the ones who would create the revolution needed to change the system.It began on March 6, 1917 when bread riots erupted in Petrograd, Russia and did not end until the join Soviet Socialist Republic was organized on December 30, 1922. On January 21, 1924, Lenin died and this complicated matters since two people were evoke in Lenins position. A power struggle ensued between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky (Salisbury, xi). Stalin became the Bolshevik party general secretary in 1922, which was one step adpressed to being the next Lenin. In 1925, Stalin offered a more attractive dissolvent to the Russian people than Trotsky (Rieber, 73-74).Thus in 1927, Stalin scored the first major(ip) mastery for himself when the Fifteenth All-Union Congress of the Communist Party denounced all deviations of the Stalinist line. Trotsky and any ally of his were banished to the Russian provinces. Here Stalins ruthless nature began to show. He completely expelled Trotsky from the Soviet Union and f inally his fear of Trotsky-esque forced him to murder Le on Trotsky in 1940 (Kaiser, 246). However, even after Trotsky was assassinated Stalins fears were neer quite an dissipated.Stalin went on to establish a dictatorship, crushing any opposing voices within his party and his country. He would not stop there though, still being enough of a Marxist, he wanted to recover the ultimate goal become a naturalism. He wanted to see a domain of a function wide socialist revolution. He and many antithetic Soviet leaders held the furtherance of world revolution above the preservation of the dictatorship. It remained an important goal through the leadership of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko. However, this came to the head during the leadership of Gorbachev.Gorbachev had a country that was falling apart dumped into his lap. Dissension was widespread and in an safari to bring the country back to its former glory, Gorbachev weaponed a program known as Perestroika, or rec onstructuring. Its aim was to make good on the promises of socialism or else it would sink to the status of a tierce world country. One part of Perestroika that was particularly odd was called Glasnost. The purpose of Glasnost was to perk constructive criticism in order to possibly try to implement the ideas in an safari to help the country out of their difficulties.This was much different from Stalins views. When due western criticism said that Perestroika was slowing down, Glasnost went ahead at full speed, revealing not single the crimes of the Stalin era, but also the dreadful dimensions of the contemporary crisis. In foreign affairs, not only was there expectant progress on arms control, but also Soviet force were withdrawn from Afghanistan. Most spectacular of all, in 1989, Gorbachev allowed Soviet control over Eastern Europe to evaporate, as communism was overthrown and independent governments were established in one satellite country after another.In 1991, Gorbachev changed course as he came to realize that his only chance to preserve the union was to work with the leaders of the republics rather than against them. For many loyal members of the party and the security forces, as well as managers of industry and collective farms, the country as they had known it was on the brink of falling apart. The last stand of the old hold in was an attempted takeover in August 1991. It was easy for the plotters to take over the interchange government, but they found it impossible to topple Boris Yeltsin and the Russian coalition government.The coup collapsed within days, and the Communist party was outlawed. The fate of the August showed how half-size vitality was left in the Soviet Unions central government, and it was not long before appropriate conclusions were drawn. In another quieter coup in December, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus declared that a Commonwealth of Independent States would renew the Union of Soviet So cialist Republics . The declaration only ratified the reality of republican independence. Gorbachev bowed to the inevitable and resigned at the end of the form. The seventy-four year history of the Soviet Union had come to an end (Grolier).After Russia, China was the next major country to adapt to the communist system of beliefs. It was on October 1, 1949 that monoamine oxidase Tsetung pronounced the establishment of the new Chinese Communist domain the Peoples Republic of China. It was for this reason that Mao and over ten thousand people set off on what was to be called the immense March. They began in the Jiangxi province where their ranks rapidly grew and became known as the Fourth Red Army. It was comprised of peasants and soldiers who were in favor of a communist regime or were in opposition to Chiang Kai-sheks domainalist views.Maos army never numbered more than 85,000 peasants, speckle Chiangs forces, the Kuomintang, numbered at least 200,000 well-equipped troops (Frankenstein 58-64). Th e betting odds were definitely against Mao. It was for this reason that he favored guerrilla warfare. Mao expound these tactics in his Little Red Book When the enemy advanced, we retreat. Our weapons are supplied to us by the enemy. In 1934, Chiang encircled the Jiangxi province in which Mao was camped and thus it was decided within his camp that they must break through Chiangs blockade lines.The 85,000 plus another 15,000 peasants poured through the breach that had been made. at heart forty-eight hours, most of the people had broken through the lines. No one really knew what ahead, however, over six thousand miles, icy rivers, swampy marshes, and Kuomintang forces would quit only a handful alive at the end (Frankenstein 116-124). The foresightful March had begun. It would finally end in 1949, the same time the Peoples Republic of China was formed. Mao had come out on top through extraordinary means. However, the civil war was not quite over.While living in Taiwan, Chiang was s till getting backing from the United States of America and again took the title of President in 1950. Mao recognized, however, that he would need to set up a government immediately in order to support the close to one billion people living in China. He then turned to the Soviet Union for pecuniary assistance. Mao went on to create the Great Cultural Revolution an effort to get China up to the status of a major world power. This was a major motivating force for Mao until his death in 1976 (Frankenstein, 161-165).China and the communist party were without an outstanding leader for several age following Mao Tsetungs death. Finally, Deng Xiaoping eventually emerged as the paramount leader they were looking for in 1978. He promptly launched his economic reform plan. low his leadership, China tried moving their economy from a sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more produ ctive and flexible economy with market place elements, all within the framework of Communist cont rol. The result has been a strong surge in production with industry posting some major gains.Dengs reforms have improved the livelihoods of many Chinese living in urban areas. There is no doubt that Deng had lead China through greatest period of modernization and foreign contact. One of the saddest days in Chinese history was the death of Deng Xiaoping on February 19, 1997. While he had not been active for some time and had not appeared in public for cardinal years prior to his death, the death of senior leaders had always had an unsettling allude on Chinese politics (CNN). On the other hand, Deng had retired in 1989 and he had placed Jiang Zemin in the powerful post of chairman of the Central troops Commission.In 1993, Jiang was named president of China. Jiangs policy, like that of his mentor, was to instill market reforms while still keeping the country politically and socially conservative (CNN). This was going to be difficult though with Hong Kong having been repossessed to China on June 1, 1997. President Jiang Zemin himself will preside as the motherland reclaims a piece of itself, instantly surrogate the councils and crown symbols of Britain rule with the new authority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. If only it were that simple.The people of Hong Kong embrace neither of these extremes. They share pride in the reunion of China, but they harbor some misgivings about their new landlords, however, they are ready to give the new system a chance. Unfortunately the west is moulding a skeptical eye. If Beijing is ready to be welcomed into the union of nations with the stature its size and wealth ought to command, China will have to convince the west that it is ready and able to live by the international communitys rules (McGeary, 186-192).With the Soviet Union no longer in existence, the international community is tour their attention on to the last major communist nation that has influence. China will have to tread lightly, especially now with the return of a valuable port that was the refuge for millions of democratic citizens. China has promised a one country, two systems policy, but that is only drawing more criticism. Communism can no longer grow, it can only mature. However, this maturing process is turning it into more of a capitalist country.