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CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, PATNA

POLITICAL SCIENCE  

Project 

on

communism 

Submitted To: DR. S.P. SINGH

Submitted By: Aeiswarya Jha

Roll No. 307, Semester II, 1st Year.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The present project on the topic ―communism‖ has been able to get its final shape with the

support and help of people from various quarters. My sincere thanks go to all the members

without whom the study could not have come to its present state. I am proud to acknowledge

gratitude to the individuals during my study and without whom the study may not be

completed. I have taken this opportunity to thank those who genuinely helped me In the

completion of this project many people helped us directly and indirectly. First of all we

would like to thank my university i.e. CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,

PATNA, who gave us the idea and encouragement to venture into this project.

I am grateful to our faculty of POLITICAL SCIENCE who gave us the opportunity to make

a project on ―communism”.

Any sort of addition, alteration and criticism regarding our work is most welcome.

I have made every effort to acknowledge credits, but I apologies in advance for any omission

that may have inadvertently taken place.

Last but not least I would like to thank Almighty whose blessing helped me to complete the

project.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

AIMS & OBJECTIVES:

The aim of the project is to present a detailed study Of “COMMUNISM” through decisions

and suggestions and different writings, articles & reports.

SOURCES OF DATA:

The following secondary sources of data have been used in the project-

1.  Articles

2.  Books

3.  Websites

METHOD OF WRITING:

The method of writing followed in the course of this research paper is primarily analytical.

MODE OF CITATION: 

The researcher has followed a uniform mode of citation throughout the course of this research

paper.

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  RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

AIMS & OBJECTIVES:

The aim of the project is to present a detailed study Of KINDS OF DAMAGES

through decisions and suggestions and different writings, articles & reports.

SOURCES OF DATA:

The following secondary sources of data have been used in the project-

1.  Articles

2.  Books

3.  Websites

METHOD OF WRITING:

The method of writing followed in the course of this research paper is primarily

analytical.

MODE OF CITATION: 

The researcher has followed a uniform mode of citation throughout the course

of this research paper.

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  INDEX

1.  INTRODUCTION

2.  THE THEORY OF COMMUNISM

  MARXISM

  MARXISM-LENINISM

  STALINISM

3.  THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF COMMUNISM

4.  THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM OF COMMUNISM

5.  EVOLUTION OF COMMUNISM

  EARLY COMUNISM

  GROWTH OF MODERN COMMUNISM

  COLD WAR YEARS

  AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF SOVIET UNION

6.  CRITICISM

7.  CONCLUSION

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  INTRODUCTION

Communism is a social structure in which classes are abolished and property is commonly

controlled, as well as a political philosophy and social movement that advocates and aims to

create such a society.1 

Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in society, which would be

achieved through a proletarian revolution and only possible after a transitional stage develops

the productive forces, leading to a superabundance of goods and services.2 

"Pure communism" in the Marxian sense refers to a classless, stateless and oppression-free

society where decisions on what to produce and what policies to pursue are

made democratically, allowing every member of society to participate in the decision-makingprocess in both the political and economic spheres of life. In modern usage, communism is

often used to refer to the policies of the various communist states, which were authoritarian

governments that had economies and ownership of all the means of production. Most

communist governments based their ideology on Marxism-Leninism.

As a political ideology, communism is usually considered to be a branch of socialism, a

broad group of economic and political philosophies that draw on various political and

intellectual movements with origins in the work of theorists of the Industrial Revolution andthe French Revolution. Communism attempts to offer an alternative to the problems with

the capitalist market economy and the legacy of imperialism and nationalism.

Marx states that the only way to solve these problems is for the working class (proletariat),

who according to Marx are the main producers of wealth in society and are exploited by the

Capitalist-class (bourgeoisie), to replace the bourgeoisie as the ruling class in order to

establish a free society, without class or racial divisions. The dominant forms of communism,

such as Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism and Trotskyism are based on Marxism, as well as other

forms of communism (such asLuxemburgism and Council communism), but non-Marxist

versions of communism (such as Christian communism and Anarchist communism) also

exist.

1http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/communism.aspx

2

Schaff, Kory (2001).Philosophy and the problems of work: a reader 

. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield.pp. 224. ISBN 0-7425-0795-5

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In the schema of historical materialism, communism is the idea of a free society with no

division or alienation, where mankind is free from oppression and scarcity. A communist

society would have no governments, countries, or class divisions. In Marxist theory,

the dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate system between capitalism and

communism, when the government is in the process of changing the means of ownership

from privatism, to collective ownership. In political science, the term "communism" is

sometimes used to refer to communist states, a form of government in which the

state operates under a one-party system and declares allegiance to Marxism-Leninism or a

derivative thereof.

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  THE THEORY OF COMMUNISM

 MARXISM 

Like other socialists, Marx and Engels sought an end to capitalism and the systems which

they perceived to be responsible for the exploitation of workers. But whereas earlier socialists

often favoured longer-term social reform, Marx and Engels believed that popular revolution

was all but inevitable, and the only path to socialism and communism.

According to the Marxist argument for communism, the main characteristic of human life

in class society is alienation; and communism is desirable because it entails the full

realization of human freedom.3

Marx here follows Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in

conceiving freedom not merely as an absence of restraints but as action with

content. According to Marx, Communism's outlook on freedom was based on an agent,

obstacle, and goal. The agent is the common/working people; the obstacles are class

divisions, economic inequalities, unequal life-chances, and false consciousness; and the goal

is the fulfillment of human needs including satisfying work, and fair share of the product.

They believed that communism allowed people to do what they want, but also put humans in

such conditions and such relations with one another that they would not wish to exploit, or

have any need to. Whereas for Hegel the unfolding of this ethical life in history is mainly

driven by the realm of ideas, for Marx, communism emerged from material forces,

particularly the development of the means of production.4 

Marxism holds that a process of class conflict and revolutionary struggle will result in victory

for the proletariat and the establishment of a communist society in which private ownership is

abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community.

Marx himself wrote little about life under communism, giving only the most general

indication as to what constituted a communist society. It is clear that it entails abundance in

which there is little limit to the projects that humans may undertake. In the popular slogan

that was adopted by the communist movement, communism was a world in which each gave

3Stephen Whitefield. "Communism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair

McMillan. Oxford University Press, 2003

4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism#cite_ref-mclean_6-1

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according to their abilities, and received according to their needs. The German

 Ideology (1845) was one of Marx's few writings to elaborate on the communist future:

"In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can

become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and

thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the

morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a

mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic."5 

Marx's lasting vision was to add this vision to a theory of how society was moving in a law-

governed way toward communism, and, with some tension, a political theory that explained

why revolutionary activity was required to bring it about.

In the late 19th century, the terms "socialism" and "communism" were often used

interchangeably. However, Marx and Engels argued that communism would not emerge from

capitalism in a fully developed, but would pass through a "first phase" in which most

productive property was owned in common, but with some class differences remaining. The

"first phase" would eventually evolve into a "higher phase" in which class differences were

eliminated, and a state was no longer needed. Lenin frequently used the term "socialism" to

refer to Marx and Engels' supposed "first phase" of communism and used the term

"communism" interchangeably with Marx and Engels' "higher phase" of communism.6 

These later aspects, particularly as developed by Vladimir Lenin, provided the underpinning

for the mobilizing features of 20th century Communist parties.

  MARXISM-LENINSIM 

Marxism-Leninism is a version of socialism adopted by the Soviet Union and most

Communist Parties across the world today. It shaped the Soviet Union and influenced

Communist Parties worldwide. It was heralded as a possibility of building communism via a

massive program of industrialization and collectivization. Despite the fall of the Soviet Union

5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism#cite_ref-mclean_6-1

6See Chapter 5 of Vladimir Lenin's The State and Revolution" (1917) 

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and Eastern Bloc countries, many communist Parties of the world today still lay claim to

uphold the Marxist-Leninist banner. Marxism-Leninism expands on Marxists thoughts by

bringing the theories to what Lenin and other Communists considered, the age of capitalist

imperialism, and a renewed focus on party building, the development of a socialist state, and

democratic centralism as an organizational principle.

Lenin adapted Marx’s urban revolution to Russia’s agricultural conditions, sparking the

―revolutionary nationalism of the poor‖.7

The pamphlet What is to be Done? (1902),

proposed that the (urban)proletariat can successfully achieve revolutionary consciousness

only under the leadership of a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries —  who can

achieve aims only with internal democratic centralism in the party; tactical and ideological

policy decisions are agreed via democracy, and every member must support and promote theagreed party policy.

To wit, capitalism can be overthrown only with revolution —  because attempts

to reform capitalism from within (Fabianism) and from without (democratic socialism) will

fail because of its inherent contradictions. The purpose of a Leninist revolutionary vanguard

party is the forceful deposition of the incumbent government; assume power (as agent of the

proletariat) and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat government. Moreover, as the

government, the vanguard party must educate the proletariat  —  to dispel the societal falseconsciousness of religion and nationalism that are culturally instilled by the bourgeoisie in

facilitating exploitation. The dictatorship of the proletariat is governed with a de-

centralized direct democracy practised via soviets (councils) where the workers exercise

political power (cf. soviet democracy); the fifth chapter of State & Revolution, describes it:

―. . . the dictatorship of the proletariat —  i.e. the organisation of the vanguard of the

oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of crushing the oppressors. . . . An immense

expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor,

democracy for the people, and not democracy for the rich: . . . and suppression by force, i.e.

exclusion from democracy, for the exploiters and oppressors of the people  —  this is the

change which democracy undergoes during the transition from capitalism to communism.‖8 

7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism#cite_ref-11

8Hill, Christopher Lenin and the Russian Revolution (1971) Penguin Books:Londonp. 86.

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The Bolshevik government was hostile to nationalism, especially to Russian nationalism, the

―Great Russian chauvinism‖, as an obstacle to establishing the proletarian dictatorship.9

The

revolutionary elements of Leninism  —  the disciplined vanguard party, a dictatorship of the

proletariat, and class war.

  LENINSIM 

"Stalinism" refers to the political system of the Soviet Union, and the countries within the

Soviet sphere of influence, during the leadership of Joseph Stalin. The term usually defines

the style of a government rather than an ideology. The ideology was "Marxism-

Leninism theory", reflecting that Stalin himself was not a theoretician, in contrast

to Marx and Lenin, and prided himself on maintaining the legacy of Lenin as a founding

father for the Soviet Union and the future Socialist world. Stalinism is an interpretation of 

their ideas, and a certain political regime claiming to apply those ideas in ways fitting the

changing needs of society, as with the transition from "socialism at a snail's pace" in the mid-

twenties to the rapid industrialization of the Five-Year Plans. 

The main contributions of Stalin to communist theory were:

  The groundwork for the Soviet policy concerning nationalities, laid in Stalin's 1913

work  Marxism and the National Question,10

praised by Lenin.

  Socialism in One Country, 

  The theory of aggravation of the class struggle along with the development of 

socialism, a theoretical base supporting the repression of political opponents as necessary.

9Harding, Neil (ed.) The State in Socialist Society , second edition (1984) St. Antony's College: Oxford, p. 189.

10http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1913/03.htm

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EVOLUTION OF COMMUNISM

  EARLY COMMUNISM

Karl Heinrich Marx saw primitive communism as the original, hunter-gatherer state of 

humankind from which it arose. For Marx, only after humanity was capable of 

producing surplus, did private property develop.

In the history of Western thought, certain elements of the idea of a society based on common

ownership of property can be traced back to ancient times . Examples include

the Spartacusslave revolt in Rome.11

The fifth century Mazdak movement in what is

now Iran has been described as "communistic" for challenging the enormous privileges of the

noble classes and the clergy, criticizing the institution of private property and for striving for

an egalitarian society.12

 

At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, generally under the

inspiration of Scripture. In the medieval Christian church, for example,

some monastic communities andreligious orders shared their land and other property

(see religious communism and Christian communism). These groups often believed that

concern with private property was a distraction from religious service to God and neighbor.

Communist thought has also been traced back to the work of 16th century English

writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia (1516), More portrayed a society based

on common ownership of property, whose rulers administered it through the application of 

reason. In the 17th century, communist thought arguably surfaced again in England. In 17th

century England, a Puritan religious groupknown as the Diggers advocated the abolition of 

private ownership of land. Eduard Bernstein, in his 1895 Cromwell and Communism13

argued

that several groupings in the English Civil War, especially the Diggers espoused clear

communistic, agrarian ideals, and that Oliver Cromwell's attitude to these groups was at best

ambivalent and often hostile.

11http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/spartacus.html

12 The Cambridge History of Iran Volume 3, The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Period, edited by Ehsan

Yarshater, Parts 1 and 2, p1019, Cambridge University Press (1983)

13  Eduard Bernstein: Cromwell and Communism (1895) 

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Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th

century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Later, following the

upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine.14

François

Noël Babeuf, in particular, espoused the goals of common ownership of land and total

economic and political equality among citizens.

Various social reformers in the early 19th century founded communities based on common

ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the religious

emphasis with a rational and philanthropic basis. Notable among them were Robert Owen, 

who founded New Harmony in Indiana (1825), and Charles Fourier, whose followers

organized other settlements in the United States such as Brook Farm (1841 – 47). Later in the

19th century, Karl Marx described these social reformers as "utopian socialists" to contrastthem with his program of  "scientific socialism" (a term coined by Friedrich Engels). Other

writers described by Marx as "utopian socialists" included Saint-Simon. 

In its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement of 19th century

Europe.[citation needed ]

As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism

for the misery of the proletariat  — a new class of urban factory workers who labored under

often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were the German philosopher Karl

Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels. In 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definitionof communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet  The Communist 

 Manifesto.15

Engels, who lived in Manchester, observed the organization of 

the Chartist movement (see History of British socialism), while Marx departed from his

university comrades to meet the proletariat in France and Germany.

  GROWTH OF MODERN COMMUNISM 

In the late 19th century, Russian Marxism developed a distinct character. The first major

figure of Russian Marxism was Georgi Plekhanov. Underlying the work of Plekhanov was

the assumption that Russia, less urbanized and industrialized than Western Europe, had many

years to go before society would be ready for proletarian revolution to occur, and a

14"Communism" A Dictionary of Sociology . John Scott and Gordon Marshall. Oxford University Press 2005.

Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.

15http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism#cite_ref-britannica_25-2

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transitional period of a bourgeois democratic regime would be required to

replace Tsarism with a socialist and later communist society.

In Russia, the 1917 October Revolution was the first time any party with an avowedly

Marxist orientation, in this case the Bolshevik Party, seized state power. The assumption of 

state power by the Bolsheviks generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within

the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon

foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development. Russia, however, was one of 

the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority

of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of 

bourgeoisie capitalism.16

Other socialists also believed that a Russian revolution could be the

precursor of workers' revolutions in the West.

The moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenin's Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before

capitalism was more fully developed. The Bolsheviks' successful rise to power was based

upon the slogans "peace, bread, and land" and "All power to the Soviets", slogans which

tapped the massive public desire for an end to Russian involvement in the First World War, 

the peasants' demand for land reform, and popular support for the Soviets. 

The usage of the terms "communism" and "socialism" shifted after 1917, when the

Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party and installed a single party regime

devoted to the implementation of socialist policies under Leninism. The Second

International had dissolved in 1916 over national divisions, as the separate national parties

that composed it did not maintain a unified front against the war, instead generally supporting

their respective nation's role. Lenin thus created the Third International (Comintern) in 1919

and sent the Twenty-one Conditions, which included democratic centralism, to all

European socialist parties willing to adhere. In France, for example, the majority of 

the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) party split in 1921 to form

the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC). Henceforth, the term

"Communism" was applied to the objective of the parties founded under the umbrella of the

Comintern. Their program called for the uniting of workers of the world for revolution, which

would be followed by the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat as well as the

16

Marc Edelman, "Late Marx and the Russian road: Marx and the 'Peripheries of Capitalism'" - bookreviews. Monthly Review , Dec., 1984.

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development of a socialist economy. Ultimately, if their program held, there would develop a

harmonious classless society, with the withering away of the state. 

During the Russian Civil War (1918 – 1922), the Bolsheviks nationalized all productive

property and imposed a policy of  war communism, which put factories and railroads under

strict government control, collected and rationed food, and introduced some bourgeois

management of industry. After three years of war and the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion, Lenin

declared the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, which was to give a "limited place for a

limited time to capitalism." The NEP lasted until 1928, when Joseph Stalin achieved party

leadership, and the introduction of the first Five Year Plan spelled the end of it. Following the

Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks formed in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

(USSR), orSoviet Union, from the former Russian Empire. 

Following Lenin's democratic centralism, the Communist parties were organized on a

hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base; they were made up only of 

elite cadres approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and completely subject

to party discipline.17

 

After World War II, Communists consolidated power in Eastern Europe, and in 1949,

the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by Mao Zedongestablished the People's Republic of 

China, which would later follow its own ideological path of Communist development.[citation

needed ]Cuba,North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique were among

the other countries in the Third World that adopted or imposed a pro-Communist government

at some point. Although never formally unified as a single political entity, by the early 1980s

almost one-third of the world's population lived in Communist states, including the

former Soviet Union and People's Republic of China. By comparison, the British Empire had

ruled up to one-quarter of the world's population at its greatest extent.[32]

 

Communist states such as the Soviet Union and China succeeded in becoming industrial and

technological powers, challenging the capitalists' powers in the arms race and space race and

military conflicts.

17

Norman Davies. "Communism"The Oxford Companion to World War II

. Ed. I. C. B. Dear and M. R. D. Foot.Oxford University Press, 2001

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  COLD WAR YEARS

By virtue of the Soviet Union's victory in the Second World War in 1945, the Soviet

Army had occupied nations in both Eastern Europe and East Asia; as a result, communism as

a movement spread to many new countries. This expansion of communism both in Europe

and Asia gave rise to a few different branches of its own, such as Maoism. 

Communism had been vastly strengthened by the winning of many new nations into the

sphere of Soviet influence and strength in Eastern Europe. Governments modeled on Soviet

Communism took power with Soviet assistance in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East

Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania. A Communist government was also created

under Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia, but Tito's independent policies led to the expulsion

of Yugoslavia from the Cominform, which had replaced the Comintern. Titoism, a new

branch in the world communist movement, was labeled deviationist . Albania also became an

independent Communist nation after World War II.

By 1950, the Chinese Communists held all of Mainland China, thus controlling the most

populous nation in the world. Other areas where rising Communist strength provoked

dissension and in some cases led to actual fighting through conventional and guerrilla

warfare include the Korean War, Laos, many nations of the Middle East and Africa, and

notably succeeded in the case of the Vietnam War against the military power of the United

States and its allies. With varying degrees of success, Communists attempted to unite

with nationalist and socialist forces against what they saw as Western imperialism in these

poor countries.

 AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF SOVIET UNION 

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union and relaxed central control,

in accordance with reform policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). The

Soviet Union did not intervene as Poland,East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, 

and Hungary all abandoned Communist rule by 1990. In 1991, the Soviet Union itself 

dissolved.

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By the beginning of the 21st century, states controlled by Communist parties under a single-

party system include the People's Republic of China,Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and

informally North Korea. Communist parties, or their descendant parties, remain politically

important in many countries. President Dimitris Christofias of Cyprus is a member of 

the Progressive Party of Working People, but the country is not run under single-party rule.

In South Africa, the Communist Party is a partner in the ANC-led government. In India, 

communists lead the governments of three states, with a combined population of more than

115 million. In Nepal, communists hold a majority in the parliament.18

 

The People's Republic of China has reassessed many aspects of the Maoist legacy; and the

People's Republic of China, Laos, Vietnam, and, to a far lesser degree, Cuba have reduced

state control of the economy in order to stimulate growth. The People's Republic of Chinaruns Special Economic Zones dedicated to market-oriented enterprise, free from central

government control. Several other communist states have also attempted to implement

market-based reforms, including Vietnam.

A tableau in a communist rally in Kerala, India, of a young farmer and worker.

Theories within Marxism as to why communism in Eastern Europe was not achieved after

socialist revolutions pointed to such elements as the pressure of external capitalist states, the

relative backwardness of the societies in which the revolutions occurred, and the emergence

of a bureaucratic stratum or class that arrested or diverted the transition press in its own

interests. (Scott and Marshall, 2005) Marxist critics of the Soviet Union, most notably

18"Nepal's election The Maoists triumph Economist.com". Economist.com. 2008-04-17. Retrieved 2009-10-18.

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Trotsky, referred to the Soviet system, along with other Communist states, as "degenerated" 

or "deformed workers' states", arguing that the Soviet system fell far short of Marx's

communist ideal and he claimed the working classwas politically dispossessed. The ruling

stratum of the Soviet Union was held to be a bureaucratic caste, but not a new ruling class, 

despite their political control. Anarchists who adhere to Participatory economics claim that

the Soviet Union became dominated by powerful intellectual elites who in a capitalist system

crown the proletariat’s labor on behalf of the bourgeoisie. 

Non-Marxists, in contrast, have often applied the term to any society ruled by a Communist

Party and to any party aspiring to create a society similar to such existingnation-states. In

the social sciences, societies ruled by Communist Parties are distinct for their single party

control and their socialist economic bases. While some social and political scientists appliedthe concept of "totalitarianism" to these societies, others identified possibilities for

independent political activity within them,19

and stressed their continued evolution up to the

point of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe during the late

1980s and early 1990s.

Today, Marxist revolutionaries are conducting armed insurgencies

in India, Philippines, Peru, Bangladesh, Iran, Turkey, and Colombia. 

19

J. Arch Getty (1985).Origins of the Great Purges: The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered: 1933– 1938

.Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-33570-6

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  CRITISIM OF COMMUNISM

Criticism of communism can be divided in two broad categories: Those concerningthemselves with the practical aspects of 20th century Communist states and those concerning

themselves with communist principles and theory. Although they often overlap, these two

categories are logically distinct.

One may agree with communist principles but disagree with many policies adopted by

Communist states (this is quite common among Trotskyists), or, more rarely, agree with

policies adopted by Communist states but disagree with communist principles. Most people

who criticize communism are against both communist principles and policies.

  Criticism of the practical aspects of 20th century Communist states

Differentiated from both liberal democracy and traditional forms of autocratic rule such

as tsarism, communist party rule, notably in the Soviet Union, one of two

world superpowers for nearly four decades after the end of World War II, and the People's

Republic of China, the world's most populous state, has represented an important and distinct

type of modern political regime.20

Criticisms of these regimes have related to their effects on

the domestic development of various states, and their role in international politics, including

the Cold War, and the collapse of the Eastern bloc and later the Soviet Union itself in the late

1980s and early 1990s.

After the Russian Revolution, communist party rule was consolidated for the first time

in Soviet Russia (later the largest constituent republic of the Soviet Union, formed in

December 1922), and criticized immediately domestically and internationally. During the

first Red Scare in the United States, the takeover of Russia by the communist Bolsheviks was

considered by many a threat to free markets,religious freedom, and liberal democracy. 

Meanwhile, under the tutelage of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the only party

permitted by the USSR constitution, state institutions were intimately entwined with those of 

the party. By the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin consolidated the regime's control over the

country's economy and society through a system of economic planning and five-year plans. 

20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticisms_of_Communist_party_rule#cite_note-0

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Between the Russian Revolution and the Second World War, Soviet-style communist rule

only spread to one state that was not later incorporated into the USSR; in 1924, communist

rule was established in neighboring Mongolia, a traditional outpost of Russian influence

bordering the Siberian region. However, throughout much of Europe and the Americas,

criticism of the domestic and foreign policies of the Soviet regime

among anticommunists continued unabated. After the end of World War II, the spread of 

communist rule throughout Eastern Europe coincided with the early years of the Cold War. In

the West, critics of communist rule pointed out that the Soviets were

imposing Stalinist regimes on unwilling populations in Eastern Europe. Following

the Chinese Revolution, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949 under the

leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Between the Chinese Revolution and the last

quarter of the 20th century, communist rule spread throughout East Asia and local and

international criticism.

Western criticisms of the Soviet Union and Third World communist regimes have been

strongly anchored in scholarship on totalitarianism, which points out that communist parties

maintain themselves in power without the consent of the populations they rule by means

of secret police, propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, repression

of free discussion and criticism, mass surveillance, and state terror. These studies of 

totalitarianism influenced Western historiography on communism and Soviet history,

particularly the work of Robert Conquest and Richard Pipes onStalinism, the Great Purge, 

the Gulag, and the Soviet famine of 1932-1934. 

Western criticisms of communist rule have also been grounded in criticisms of socialism by

economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who argued that the state

ownership and economic planning characteristic of Soviet-style communist rule were

responsible for economic stagnation and shortage economies, providing few incentives for

individuals to improve productivity and engage inentrepreneurship. 

Ruling communist parties have also been challenged by domestic dissent. In Eastern Europe,

the works of dissidents Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Václav Havel gained international

prominence, as did the works of disillusioned ex-communists such as Milovan Đilas, who

condemned the "new class" or "nomenklatura" system that had emerged under communist

rule.

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Communism: Promise and Practice (1973) detailed what its author termed flagrant gaps

between official Soviet policies of equality and economic justice and the reality of the

emergence of a new class in the U.S.S.R. and in other communist countries, which thrived at

the expense of the remaining population.

  CRITICISM OF COMMUNIST PRINCIPLES AND THEORY 

Various aspects of Marxist theory have been criticized. These criticisms concern both the

theory itself, and its later interpretations and implementations.

Criticisms of Marxism have come from the political left as well as the political

right. Democratic socialists and social democrats reject the idea that socialism can be

accomplished only through class conflict and a violent proletarian revolution. 

Many anarchists reject the need for a transitory state phase. Some thinkers have rejected the

fundamentals of Marxist theory, such as historical materialism and the labor theory of value, 

and gone on to criticize capitalism - and advocate socialism - using other

arguments. Racist attitudes have been identified in works by Marx and Engels including

claims of certain nations being at a higher level of civilization than others, and claims that

certain races, such as Slavs were uncivilized, traitors, and enemies of proletarian revolution.[1]

 

Some contemporary supporters of Marxism argue that many aspects of Marxist thought are

viable, but that the corpus also fails to deal effectively with certain aspects of economic,

political or social theory. They may therefore combine some Marxist concepts with the ideas

of other theorists such as Max Weber: the Frankfurt school is one example.

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CONCLUSION

After doing my research on communism I could conclude that Communism, which is also

described as "Revolutionary Proletarian Socialism" or "Marxism," is both a political and

economic philosophy. The abridgment of Communism is enclosed in two primary writings:

(1) The Communist Manifesto, which was first published in 1848 by Karl Marx, and

(2) Principles of Communism, by Friedrich Engels. At the request of the Communist League,

an activist group they were members of, Marx and Engels together authored The Communist 

 Manifesto. The main goal of The Communist Manifesto was to focus on class struggle and

motivate the common people to riot. Even more so, it was designed to envision a model

government, whose economics would destroy the upper class - freeing the lower class from

tyranny. According to The Communist Manifesto, Communism has ten essential planks:

  Abolition of Private Property.

  Heavy Progressive Income Tax.

  Abolition of Rights of Inheritance.

  Confiscation of Property Rights.

  Central Bank.

  Government Ownership of Communication and Transportation.

  Government Ownership of Factories and Agriculture.

  Government Control of Labor.

  Corporate Farms and Regional Planning.

 Government Control of Education.

Fundamentally, The Communist Manifesto was a rebellion against the extreme poverty of the

lower class.

Communism doesn't end with economic and political reform. By definition, it further

demands the abolition of both Religion and the Absolute Morality founded upon Religion.

The irony is that Communism supposedly attempts to enhance civility within society, but

removes all notions of Absolute Morality, the very cornerstone of civility. Furthermore, after

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Communism is instituted by the people, the system becomes Totalitarian, resulting in greater

oppression of the people it was designed to "serve." This fact is well documented throughout

the history of Communist nations.

Communism, though distinctive, is thought by some to have been heavily influenced by

Czarism, a Totalitarian regime replaced by Communism after Russia's 1917 Revolution.

While most of Europe's history has been symbolized by the rule of limited centers of power,

Russia resisted Europe's movement to limit monarchical power. Legal historian Harold

Berman writes regarding historical European political policy, "It also has been, or once was, a

source of freedom. A serf might run to the town court for protection against his master. A

vassal might run to the king's court for protection against his lord. A cleric might run to the

ecclesiastical court for protection against the king." (  Law and Revolution). Russians under

Czarist rule had no such protection from the wiles of an unjust Czar. And so it is for

Communists. Under Communism, the government is absolute. Under Stalin, perhaps the most

notorious Communist, around 40 million Russian citizens were murdered for "the good of the

state."

The practical results of Communism have been horror and atrocity for those under

communist rule. So much so, advocates of Marxism have made every attempt to point out

where communist leaders have strayed from the fundamental teachings of Karl Marx, in an

attempt to absolve Communism. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Marxist influence

brought about many of these horrors. The irony is, Marxism renounces religion, not because

of religious doctrine, but because of the actions of "religious" men. No one could accuse a

religion such as Christianity of evil doctrine. However, it seems that men are intrinsically evil

and need only an opportunity to express this inherent reality. One must look at the overall

outcome of a philosophical doctrine on society, both good and bad, not specific instances of 

abuse. Christianity, for example, has been used by wicked men to do much evil, but its

underlying doctrine has been the cause of much good in the world. Communism, on the other

hand, has brought only atrocity into the world. Communism has not brought relief to the

majority as promised, nor has it ended oppression as purposed. Communism has only served

to remove Morality from the masses -- a dangerous and costly experiment.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.  Stephen, Whitefield. "Communism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of 

Politics. Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press,

2003.

2.  Terence Ball and Richard Dagger. "Political Ideologies and the Democratic

Ideal." Pearson Education, Inc.:2006.

3.  Harding, Neil (ed.) The State in Socialist Society, second edition (1984) St.

Antony's College: Oxford

4.  http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1913/03.htm

VISITED ON 2-04-2010 AT 5:30 PM

5.  Wittfogel, Karl Oriental Despotism, Vintage, 1981

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