Communism
The word communism derives from the French term communiste, which combines the Latin root communis meaning common with the suffix -isme indicating a state or practice. This semantic construction translates to "of or for the community" and describes an abstraction into a condition of action. Prior to its modern political association, the term designated various social situations in 18th-century Europe. Victor d'Hupay used the phrase around 1785 in a letter to Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne to describe himself as a communist author. Restif first applied the label to a social order based on egalitarianism and common ownership of property in 1793. John Goodwyn Barmby introduced the English usage around 1840. By 1860, socialism had become the predominant term among Marxists who dropped communism as old-fashioned. The distinction between the two terms solidified only after Vladimir Lenin introduced the concept of socialism as an intermediate stage during the October Revolution of 1917.
Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks seized power in Russia through the October Revolution of 1917, marking the first time any avowedly communist party reached that position. The revolution transferred authority to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets where the Bolsheviks held a majority. Slogans like Peace Bread and Land tapped into public desire to end Russian involvement in World War I. Fifty thousand workers passed a resolution supporting the transfer of power to the soviets. The initial assault on Petrograd occurred largely without human casualties. By November 1917, the Provisional Government had been discredited for its failure to withdraw from war or implement land reform. The Bolsheviks moved to hand power to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers and Soldiers Deputies. In the January 1918 election for the Constituent Assembly, socialist parties won over 70 percent of the vote. The Socialist Revolutionaries finished first with 37.6 percent while the Mensheviks obtained just 3.0 percent. The Bolshevik-Left Socialist-Revolutionaries government dissolved the assembly citing outdated voter rolls and conflicts with the Congress of Soviets.
Marxist-Leninist governments modeled on the Soviet Union took power with assistance in Bulgaria Czechoslovakia East Germany Poland Hungary and Romania after World War II. Josip Broz Tito created an independent Marxist-Leninist state in Yugoslavia that was expelled from Cominform in 1948 following the Tito-Stalin split. Albania became another independent state after the Albanian-Soviet split in 1960 resulting from ideological fallout between Enver Hoxha and Nikita Khrushchev. The Communist Party of China led by Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China in 1949. By 1950 China engaged in a large-scale undeclared war with United States South Korea and UN forces during the Korean War. Stalin gave the go-ahead for North Korea's invasion of South Korea in early 1950 expecting a short conflict. The United States mobilized its economy to build the hydrogen bomb and strengthened the NATO alliance covering Western Europe. By 1947 the Cold War had begun as relations shifted from friendly to hostile over Eastern European political controls. At its height the movement covered at least one-third of the world's population.
War communism served as the first system adopted by Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War despite having nothing to do with actual communist principles. It featured strict discipline for workers forbidden strike actions obligatory labor duty and military-style control described as simple authoritarian control rather than coherent ideology. Joseph Stalin stated that the law of value would still apply to socialism under his new definition which other leaders followed. Many communists maintain the original definition stating that Communist states never established socialism in this sense. Lenin described his policies as state capitalism but saw them as necessary for developing socialism. Left-wing critics argue that state capitalism was never truly replaced by socialism. In the late 1980s the Soviet system was normally referred to as the administrative-command economy where decision-making power resided in administrative hierarchies rather than the population. Friedrich Engels argued that transformation into state ownership does not eliminate the capitalist nature of productive forces because the modern state remains essentially a capitalist machine exploiting wage-workers.
The Great Leap Forward launched in 1957-1961 resulted in sharp unexpected decline in agricultural output leading to mass famine and millions of deaths. The years between 1953 and 1983 showed negative growth only during 1958 through 1961 when China's economy experienced regression. Political economist Dwight Perkins called the Great Leap a very expensive disaster producing modest increases or no production despite enormous investment. Mao Zedong's government caused vast numbers of deaths with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims through starvation persecution prison labor and mass executions. During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 through 1976 millions were accused humiliated stripped of power imprisoned killed or sent to work as farm laborers. The Soviet Union experienced its worst natural famine in the 20th century during the winter of 1946-1947 following World War II devastation. Public memory of these states remains a battleground between anti-communism and anti-anti-communism with mortality rates remaining controversial topics in academia and politics.
Trotskyism developed by Leon Trotsky supports permanent revolution and world revolution rather than Stalin's socialism in one country theory. Trotsky claimed the Soviet Union became a degenerated workers state under Stalin where class relations re-emerged in new form. He advocated for decentralized economic planning mass soviet democratization elected representation of socialist parties and voluntary collectivization. Trotsky founded the Fourth International in 1938 as a rival to Comintern before his assassination in Mexico City on the 14th of August 1940 on Stalin's orders. Maoism derives from teachings of Chinese leader Mao Zedong developed from the 1950s until Deng Xiaoping reforms in the 1970s. A key difference is that peasants should be the bulwark of revolutionary energy led by the working class. Eurocommunism emerged in the 1970s and 1980s within Western European communist parties seeking to undermine Soviet influence. Enrico Berlinguer general secretary of Italy's Communist Party was widely considered the father of this movement. Libertarian Marxism emphasizes anti-authoritarian aspects drawing from Marx and Engels later works like Grundrisse and The Civil War in France.
The Soviet Union dissolved on the 26th of December 1991 following declaration number 142-N of the Supreme Soviet. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president on the previous day handing control of Cheget to Boris Yeltsin. At 7:32 PM the Soviet flag lowered from the Kremlin for the last time replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag. Eleven republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States declaring the union ceased to exist. As of 2023 states controlled by Communist parties under single-party systems include China Cuba North Korea Laos and Vietnam. China started reform and opening up in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping bringing poverty rate down from 53 percent in the Mao era to just 8 percent in 2001. Vietnam and Cuba attracted more foreign investment after losing Soviet subsidies making their economies more market-oriented. In Nepal communists were part of the first Constituent Assembly which abolished monarchy in 2008 turning the country into a federal liberal-democratic republic. They democratically shared power with social democrats and other groups as part of People's Multiparty Democracy.
Common questions
What is the origin of the word communism?
The word communism derives from the French term communiste, which combines the Latin root communis meaning common with the suffix -isme indicating a state or practice. This semantic construction translates to of or for the community and describes an abstraction into a condition of action.
When did Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks seize power in Russia?
Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks seized power in Russia through the October Revolution of 1917, marking the first time any avowedly communist party reached that position. The revolution transferred authority to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets where the Bolsheviks held a majority.
Which countries adopted Marxist-Leninist governments after World War II?
Marxist-Leninist governments modeled on the Soviet Union took power with assistance in Bulgaria Czechoslovakia East Germany Poland Hungary and Romania after World War II. Josip Broz Tito created an independent Marxist-Leninist state in Yugoslavia that was expelled from Cominform in 1948 following the Tito-Stalin split.
How many people died during Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward?
Mao Zedong's government caused vast numbers of deaths with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims through starvation persecution prison labor and mass executions. The years between 1953 and 1983 showed negative growth only during 1958 through 1961 when China's economy experienced regression.
When did Leon Trotsky die and who ordered his assassination?
Leon Trotsky founded the Fourth International in 1938 as a rival to Comintern before his assassination in Mexico City on the 14th of August 1940 on Stalin's orders. Trotsky claimed the Soviet Union became a degenerated workers state under Stalin where class relations re-emerged in new form.
On what date did the Soviet Union officially dissolve?
The Soviet Union dissolved on the 26th of December 1991 following declaration number 142-N of the Supreme Soviet. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president on the previous day handing control of Cheget to Boris Yeltsin.