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History of communism Politics is the process by which groups make decisions. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle. ... The History of Communism as a political system began in the middle of the 19th century, as part of a wave of social change in the post-Enlightenment and emerging Industrial Era of the Old World. ... Schools of communism Marxism · Leninism Left communism Trotskyism · Autonomist Marxism Eurocommunism · Maoism Council communism Anarchist communism Christian communism Luxemburgism Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is therefore a branch of Marxism. ... Left Communism is a term describing a whole range of communist viewpoints which oppose the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position which is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Autonomism, or Autonomist Marxism is a left-wing political movement and theory. ... Eurocommunism was an attempt in the 1970s by various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy. ... Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: 毛泽东思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng SÄ«xiÇŽng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of the Chinese communist Mao Zedong. ... Council communism is a Radical Left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. ... Anarchist communism is a form of anarchism that advocates the abolition of the State and capitalism in favor of a horizontal network of voluntary associations through which everyone will be free to satisfy his or her needs. ... Christian communism is a form of religious communism centered around Christianity. ... Luxemburgism (also written Luxembourgism) is a specific revolutionary theory within communism, based on the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. ... Political Parties Communist International World Communist Movement International Communist Current Communist Workers International Fourth International In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... The first edition of Communist International, journal of the Comintern published in Moscow and Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in May 1919. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The International Communist Current is a centralised international left communist organisation with sections throughout the world. ... The Communist Workers International (German: Kommunistische Arbeiter-Internationale, KAI) or Fourth Categories: ... The Fourth International (FI) is Trotskyisms international organization. ... States The Soviet Union People's Republic of China Cuba · Vietnam Laos · North Korea This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. ... Related subjects Socialism Capitalism · Cold War Religious communism New Left · Planned economy Historical materialism Marxist philosophy Left communism Democratic centralism Anti-communism Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned, and capital is invested in the production, distribution, and other trade of goods and services for profit in a market. ... For other uses, please see Cold War (disambiguation). ... Religious communism is a term used by some Communists that claim that before communism became associated with atheism, the word communism was mainly used by religious groups. ... The New Left is a term used in political discourse to refer to radical left-wing movements from the 1960s onwards. ... A planned economy most often refers to an economic system that is under comprehensive control and regulation by a government in accordance with a plan of economic development. ... Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term. ... See also Marxian economics Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory designs work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Karl Marxs materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists. ... Left Communism is a term describing a whole range of communist viewpoints which oppose the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position which is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. ... Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Notable Communists Karl Marx · Friedrich Engels Vladimir Lenin · Leon Trotsky Rosa Luxemburg · Anton Pannekoek Joseph Stalin · Mao Zedong Josip Broz Tito · Che Guevara Fidel Castro · Georg Lukács Antonio Gramsci · Amadeo Bordiga Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was an immensely influential philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820, Wuppertal – August 5, 1895, London), a 19th-century German political philosopher, developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). ... Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: , better known by the alias   (Ленин)) (April 22, 1870 – January 24, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of Soviet Russia, and the primary theorist of the ideology that has come to be called Leninism, which...   (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий) (Latinized: Lev Davidovič Trokij; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7, 1879 [O.S. October 26] – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 – January 15, 1919, in Polish Róża Luksemburg) was a Polish-born German Jewish Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... Anton Pannekoek Anton Pannekoek (January 2, 1873 – April 28, 1960) was a Dutch astronomer and Marxist theorist. ... Stalin redirects here. ...   (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976) (also Mao Tse-Tung in Wade-Giles transliteration) was a Chinese Marxist military and political leader, who led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to victory against the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War, leading to the establishment of the People’s Republic of... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara or el Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. ... Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba but on indefinite medical hiatus. ... Georg Lukács (April 13, 1885 – June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic in the tradition of Western Marxism. ... Antonio Gramsci (IPA: ) (January 22, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician and political theorist. ... Amadeo Bordiga (1889 - 1970) was a prominent Italian communist. ...

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This article is on criticisms of communism, a branch of socialism. See criticisms of socialism for a discussion of objections to socialism in general.

Criticisms of communism can be divided in two broad categories: Those concerning themselves with the practical aspects of 20th century Communist states, and those concerning themselves with communist principles and theory. Although they often overlap in practice, the two categories are logically distinct. One may agree with communist principles but disagree with many policies adopted by Communist states (and this is quite common among communists, particularly in the case of Trotskyists), or, more rarely, one may agree with policies adopted by Communist states but disagree with communist principles. This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... Criticisms of socialism range from disagreements over the efficiency of socialist economic and political models, to condemnation of states described by themselves or others as socialist. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ...

In the English language, the word communism and related terms are written with the uppercase "C" when they refer to a political party of that name, a member of that party, or a government led by such a party. When written as a common noun, with a lowercase "c", they refer to an economic system characterized by collective ownership of property and by the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members; or to the position that such a system is possible and desirable. Thus, one may be a communist (an advocate of communism) without being a Communist (a member of a Communist Party or another similar organization). This distinction between communism (lowercase "c") and Communism (uppercase "C") is used throughout the present article. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Majuscules or capital letters (in the Roman alphabet: A, B, C, ...) are one type of case in a writing system. ...

Summary of communism and Communist states

Communism is a social system that abolishes private property, social classes, and the state itself. As such, a "communist state" would be an oxymoron. No country or government ever called itself a "Communist state"; however, various states gave the Communist Party a special status in their constitution and laws^[1], while claiming to be heading in the direction of communism. A more accurate description for those countries would be “socialist states” because Karl Marx saw socialism and socialist state as transitional period toward communism. Many states considered to be communist called themselves socialist (USSR, Yugoslavia, Vietnam...). The term "Communist state" has been coined and used in the West to refer to such countries. It is these "Communist states" (single-party states where the ruling party officially proclaimed its adherence to Marxism-Leninism) that are the targets of criticism presented below. // Use of the term In common usage, property means ones own thing and refers to the relationship between individuals and the objects which they see as being their own to dispense with as they see fit. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... A government is a body that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group. ... Look up Oxymoron in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... Socialist state is the term used in official documents of some countries to describe their political system. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was an immensely influential philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary. ... It has been suggested that Democratic Federal Yugoslavia be merged into this article or section. ... NATO 2002 Summit The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance, Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for defence collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, DC, on April 4, 1949. ... States in which a single party is constitutionally linked to power are coloured in brown. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ...

For related information, see the discussion regarding the definition of a Communist state. This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. ...

No Communist state claimed to have attained communism, the social system, but all of them planned to do so in the not unreasonably distant future; Khrushchev, for example, forecast that communism would be reached in the Soviet Union by 1980, some quarter century later. The states which no longer exist never did reach communism, and none of the remaining ones seem likely to do so soon. Nikita Khrushchev in 1962 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Russian: Ники́та Серге́евич Хрущёв) (nih-KEE-tah khroo-SHCHYOFF) (April 17, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union...

Criticisms of Communist regimes

Main article: Criticisms of communist regimes

Communist regimes have been a source of controversy for decades, and their policies have generated lengthy and heated debates. Perhaps more than any other 20th century governments, Communist states have had a very polarizing effect on observers, drawing enthusiastic support as well as vehement criticism. Supporters and opponents have argued over the performance of Communist states on such issues as economic development, human rights, foreign policy, scientific progress and environmental degradation. Criticisms of communist regimes have often centered around accusations of human rights violations that occurred in under Communist rule, particularly under the regimes of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong in the Peoples Republic of China. ... Economic development is the development of the economic wealth of countries or regions for the well-being of their inhabitants. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... A foreign policy is a set of political goals that seeks to outline how a particular country will interact with the other countries of the world. ... yt dftj cgh cjhgScience in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means. ... Devils Punchbowl Waterfall, New Zealand. ...

Advocates of Communist rule often praise the leading states that have leaped ahead of contemporary capitalist countries in certain areas, for example by offering guaranteed employment, health care and housing to their citizens. Critics typically condemn Communist rule by the same criteria, claiming that under communism, many states have lagged far behind the industrialized West in terms of economic development and living standards.

Central economic planning has in certain instances produced dramatic advances, and many countries under Communist rule with planned economies maintained consistently higher rates of economic growth than some industrialized countries in the capitalist Wests. For example, the economy of the Soviet Union grew by a factor of 10 from 1928 to 1985, and GNP per capita grew more than fivefold. However, the Soviet Union later experienced a severe economic downturn in the 1970s and 80s, which contributed to its collapse. A planned economy most often refers to an economic system that is under comprehensive control and regulation by a government in accordance with a plan of economic development. ... The economy of the Soviet Union was based on a system of state ownership and administrative planning. ... Measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate the value of goods and services produced in an economy. ... Per capita is a Latin phrase meaning for each head. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Both critics and supporters of Communist rule often make comparisons between particular Communist and capitalist countries, with the intention of showing that one side was superior to the other. Critics prefer to compare East and West Germany; supporters prefer to compare Cuba to Jamaica or Central America. All such comparisons are open to challenge, both on the comparability of the states involved and the statistic being used for comparison. No two countries are identical; the western parts of Germany were more developed and industrialized than the eastern parts long before the Cold War and the creation of two separate German states, and Cuba was likewise more developed than many of its Central American neighbors before the Cuban revolution. GDR redirects here. ...

In general, critics of communism argue that countries under Communist rule remained behind the industrialized West in terms of economic development for most of their existence, while advocates argue that growth rates were higher in Communist states than in capitalist countries, so they would have eventually caught up to the West if those growth rates had been maintained. Some reject all comparisons altogether, noting that the countries under Communist rule started out with economies that were much less developed to begin with.

Communist regimes often practice censorship of dissent. The level of censorship varies widely between different states and historical periods, but it nearly always exists to a greater or lesser degree. Most Communist regimes employ an extensive network of civilian informants - sometimes composed of volunteers, sometimes forcibly recruited - to collect intelligence for the government and report cases of dissent. Ruling Communist parties themselves, as well as their advocates, often argue that censorship and similar restrictions are unfortunate but necessary, as defensive measures against capitalist subversion funded by foreign powers. Critics argue that censorship violates fundamental human rights and that the Communist regimes' fear of subversion has no grounds in reality. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Those who supply information to enforcers of law or administration. ...

Restrictions on emigration from states under Communist rule received extensive publicity. The Berlin wall was one of the most famous examples of this, but North Korea still imposes a total ban on emigration (reported on PBS's program Frontline) and Cuba's restrictions are routinely criticized by the Cuban-American community. However, of all Communist states, only Albania and North Korea ever imposed a blanket ban on emigration. Legal emigration was always possible from other Communist states, though often difficult. Some of these states relaxed emigration laws significantly from the 1960s onwards. Advocates of Communist states argue that restrictions on emigration from those states were no more intense than such restrictions that had been imposed by capitalist (or otherwise non-Communist) countries in the past. For example, most European capitalist countries heavily restricted emigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Critics of Communist regimes argue that regardless of what happened in the past, Communist states still placed higher barriers on emigration than capitalist countries in the same time period. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Immigration. ... East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961. ... A frontline is a line of confrontation in an armed conflict, most often a war. ... A Cuban-American is a United States citizen whose ancestry can be traced to Cuba. ...

The most severe accusations made against Communist regimes is that they were allegedly responsible for millions of deaths. The vast majority of these deaths are held to have occurred under the regimes of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong in China. As such, most critics focus on those two regimes in particular, though others have claimed that all Communist regimes were responsible for some numbers of unjust deaths. Stalin redirects here. ...   (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976) (also Mao Tse-Tung in Wade-Giles transliteration) was a Chinese Marxist military and political leader, who led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to victory against the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War, leading to the establishment of the People’s Republic of...

Most Communist regimes held the death penalty as a legal form of punishment for most of their existence, with a few exceptions (e.g. the Soviet Union abolished it from 1947 to 1950). Critics argue that many, perhaps most, of the convicted prisoners executed by Communist regimes were not criminals, but political dissidents. Stalin's Great Purge in the late 1930s (roughly 1936-38) is given as the most prominent example of this. The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

A number of Communist states also held forced labour as a legal form of punishment for certain periods of time, and, again, critics argue that the majority of those sentenced to forced labour camps - such as the Gulag - were sent there for political rather than criminal reasons. Some of the Gulag camps were located in very harsh environments, such as Siberia, which resulted in the death of a significant fraction of their inmates before they could complete their prison terms. The Gulag was shut down in 1960. Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for forms of work, especially in modern or early modern history, in which adults and/or children are employed without wages, or for a minimal wage. ... Gulag ( , Russian: ) is an acronym for Главное Управление Исправительно—Трудовых Лагерей и колоний, Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii, The Chief Directorate [or Administration] of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies of the NKVD. Anne Applebaum, in her book Gulag: A History, explains: // Literally, the word GULAG is an acronym, meaning Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp... Siberian Federal District (dark red) and the broadest definition of Siberia (red) Udachnaya pipe Siberia (Russian: , Sibir; Tatar: ) is a vast region of Russia constituting almost all of Northern Asia. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ...

Advocates of Communist regimes argue that the number of unjust deaths has been exaggerated, that these deaths were justified in order to save the respective Communist states from internal or external threats (e.g. to facilitate the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany in World War II), and/or that capitalists and anti-communists can be held responsible for just as many deaths. Critics maintain that nothing can justify loss of life.

Ruling Communist parties have often come to power espousing a policy of militant anti-imperialism. Lenin believed imperialism to be "the highest stage of capitalism" and, in 1917, he declared the unconditional right of self-determination and secession for the national minorities of Russia. Later, during the Cold War, Communist states gave military assistance and in some cases intervened directly on behalf of national liberation movements that were fighting for independence from colonial empires, particularly in Asia and Africa. Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to any idea or movement opposed to some form of imperialism. ... Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: , better known by the alias   (Ленин)) (April 22, 1870 – January 24, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of Soviet Russia, and the primary theorist of the ideology that has come to be called Leninism, which... Imperialism is a policy of extending control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Wars of national liberation were those conflicts fought by indigenous military groups against an imperial power in an attempt to remove that powers influence. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Colony. ... World map showing the location of Asia. ... For other uses, see Africa (disambiguation). ...

However, critics have accused the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China of being imperialistic themselves, and have therefore concluded that their foreign policy was hypocritical (sometimes imperialist and sometimes anti-imperialist, depending on their interests in a given situation). Specifically, such critics accuse the Soviet Union of forcibly conquering the newly independent nations of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War. Stalin conquered the Baltic states in World War II and created satellite states in Eastern Europe. China conquered Tibet. Soviet forces intervened on 3 occasions against anti-Soviet uprisings or governments in other countries: the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviets and Chinese, as well as their allies, claimed that these were all instances of liberation rather than conquest. Look up hypocrisy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists) Commanders Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno Strength 5,427,273 (peak) +1,000,000 Casualties 939,755... Baltic states and the Baltic Sea The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a term which nowadays refers to three countries in Northern Europe: Estonia Latvia Lithuania Prior to World War II, Finland was sometimes considered, particularly by the Soviet Union, a fourth Baltic state. ... Satellite state is a political term that refers to a country which is formally independent but which is primarily subject to the domination of another, larger power. ... Eastern Europe is the eastern region of Europe variably defined. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Combatants Soviet Union ÁVH Hungarian government, various nationalist militias Commanders Yuri Andropov Pál Maléter, Béla Király, Gergely Pongrátz, József Dudás Strength 150,000 troops, 6,000 tanks 100,000+ demonstrators (some later armed), unknown number of soldiers Casualties 720 killed according to official... People in a café watch Soviet tanks roll past The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar, Russian: пражская весна) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968 when Alexander Dubček came to power, and running until August 20 of that year when the... A Soviet soldier on guard in Afghanistan in 1988. ...

Communist states often engaged in rapid industrialization, and in some cases this has lead to environmental disasters. The most cited example is the great shrinking of the Aral Sea in today's Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which is believed to have been caused by the diversion of the waters of its two affluent rivers for cotton production. In 1988 only 20% of the sewage in the Soviet Union was treated properly. Established health standards for air pollution were exceeded by ten times or more in 103 cities in 1988. In Eastern Europe, air pollution is cited as the cause of forest die-back, damage to buildings and cultural heritage, and a rise in the occurrence of lung cancer. All of the aforementioned examples of environmental degradation are similar to what occurred in Western capitalist countries during the height of their drive to industrialize, in the 19th century. Advocates of Communist states claim that, on the whole, the environmental record of these states was the same or better than the record of Western capitalism during its industrialization period. Critics claim that Communist states caused much more environmental damage than capitalism. Map of area around the Aral Sea. ... Sewage is the liquid water produced by human society which typically contains washing water, laundry waste, faeces, urine and other liquid or semi-liquid wastes. ... Before flue gas desulfurization was installed, the emissions from this power plant in New Mexico contained excessive amounts of sulfur dioxide. ... Lung cancer is a cancer of the lungs characterized by the presence of malignant tumours. ...

Finally, there is a specific Marxist criticism of Communist states, which holds that the "Communist states" of the 20th century grossly violated communist principles, and were therefore only partially communist at best or completely un-communist at worst. This is an argument made by many dissident communists, as well as other revolutionary socialists. It is based on the observation that Communist states were often hypocritical - that their policies were, in practice, completely different from their official claims. The Communist states claimed to be democratic (sometimes going as far as to insert "democratic" into their country names, as in the case of the German Democratic Republic), but they are widely regarded as having been de facto dictatorships. The Communist states claimed to uphold the interests of the working class, but they banned independent trade unions and often suppressed working class dissent. As noted above, Communist states claimed to be anti-imperialist but sometimes engaged in actions that are seen as imperialistic; their constitutions also guaranteed many human rights, but these were often violated in practice. All of this has led many communists and socialists to believe that the Communist states cannot be called socialist or communist in practice. Flag of the Revolutionary Socialists Revolutionary Socialism is a political ideology based on the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels advocating the revolutionary yet democratic liberation of the Proletariat. ... Look up hypocrisy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Anthem: Auferstanden aus Ruinen   Capital East Berlin, in spite of status as part of an occupied city Government Socialist state  - Last Head of State Sabine Bergmann-Pohl  - Last Head of Government Lothar de Maizière History    - Established October 7, 1949   - Final Settlement September 25, 1990   - Disestablished October 3, 1990  Area... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Deaths By Communism

Altogether estimates of the loss of human life as a result of communist regimes and insurgencies vary greatly. In Black Book of Communism, the authors suggest that approximately 95 million people died: The Soviet Union at 20 million, People's Republic of China at 65 million, Vietnam at 1 million, North Korea at 2 million, Cambodia at 2 million, Eastern Europe at 1 million, Africa at 1.7 million, Afghanistan at 1.5 million, Latin America at 150,000. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a controversial book edited by doctor Stéphane Courtois which attempts to catalog various crimes (deaths, torture, deportations, etc. ...

Estimates by R. J. Rummel's Death By Government put the Soviet Union at 61.9 million, the People's Republic of China at 76.7 million, North Korea at 1.6 million, Cambodia at 2 Million, and Poland and Yugoslavia at 2.5+ million, for an estimated total (based on these six countries alone) of 144.7 million. [2],[3]

Matthew White in the Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century, 2001, estimates death by communists at 92 million.

Criticisms of Marxist ideology

See also: Criticisms of Marxism This article is on criticisms of Marxism, a branch of socialism. ...

The following sections of this article deal with criticisms that are specifically raised against Marxist theory, the ideological foundation of most communist thought.

Incentive to work

Critics, such as rational choice theorists and free market microeconomic thinkers, believe that without the wage or price systems, "ability" or "needs" become unquantifiable, and as such unworkable. Such an argument asserts that individuals will begin to take more resources than they need, without this quantification, and that they will no longer work to the extent of their ability, leading to inefficiency. Rational choice theorists believe that communist theory ignores the incentives necessary for people to produce consumable goods and become productive members of society, while also failing to provide any incentive to keep people from taking whatever they want rather than what they "need". In economics, an incentive in anything that provides a motive for a particular course of action — that counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alternatives. ...

According to historians, wages and prices replaced barter, in which people traded their goods or services for other goods and services. To these critics, communism is a step backwards from a barter system as no one is able to own property, set prices, or command a wage, and thus actually engage in trade to better their lives. They cite that wage and price systems of supply and demand best approximate people's "ability" and "need", but more accurately their "wants" as most capitalist societies have built enough wealth to exist beyond basic needs to survive. These critics believe that the elimination of wages, money, and property will result in an economic arrangement more inefficient than barter. Barter is a type of trade in which goods or services are exchanged for other goods and/or services; no money is involved in the transaction. ... The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ...

Communists argue that a communist society's efficiency should not be compared to barter because a communist society assumes a different economic philosophy and perception of efficiency, such as a theoretical system of reciprocal altruism, with other social institutions theoretically replacing the need for wages or prices. In addition, it is argued by communists that not everyone in a capitalist system has their wants fulfilled; rather, only those who have an upper-hand in trades, such as control over the means of production, can take from the other party what they need, while the other party is often forced into this trade for financial survival, not desire. Communists argue that the risk premium involved here will often outweigh the potential profit in the valuation of many insecure members of society who would, under a system offering greater security, engage in active and original enterprises for the common good. Under actually existing politics and governments, this problem may well be aggravated; as Hayek observed at some length, businessmen will prefer to operate a government-enforced monopoly. Against this, new enterprises are even less likely to prosper. In evolutionary biology, reciprocal altruism is a form of altruism in which one organism provides a benefit to another in the expectation of future reciprocation. ... Friedrich von Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an economist and social scientist of the Austrian School, noted for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against a rising tide of socialist and collectivist thought in the mid...

Since the writing of the Communist Manifesto, it has been argued by capitalists that capitalist societies have greatly reduced poverty through the creation of wealth by all members of society. Communist opponents reject this argument as they perceive that wealth creation for the poor has been minimal; that the poverty cycle has not been resolved; and that most poverty reduction was carried out through the use of welfare and other socialistic policies under pressure from the working class, such as the existence of the minimum wage in certain capitalist countries. In contrast, critics argue that welfare perpetuates poverty by creating perverse incentives for wealth creation; however, it may be ascertained that the only purpose of wealth creation in capitalism would be the very thing social welfare fulfills, although it may be less efficient since much of the wealth would be kept by the bourgeoisie class which does not need it. The argument between free market proponents and commmunists therefore tends to be drawn between the issues that a capitalist society perpetuates poverty through the hoarding of capital, while a communist society perpetuates poverty by removing the incentive to work. ... A perverse incentive is a term for an incentive that has the opposite effect of that intended. ... Bourgeoisie (RP [], GA []) in modern use refers to the ruling class in a capitalist society. ...

Marx anticipated the objection regarding loss of incentive to work in his Communist Manifesto, acknowledging that "[it] has been objected that upon the abolition of private property all work will cease, and universal laziness will overtake us," and forming his own response, that "[according] to this, bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone to the dogs through sheer idleness; for those of its members who work, acquire nothing, and those who acquire anything, do not work." Communist proponents further cite^{[citation needed]} the poverty cycle where capitalist landlords or employers are able to keep their tenants or workers, who represent the majority of the populace, in perpetual subsistence because their striving for subsistence leaves them with no resources to invest. Malayalam editon of the Manifesto The Communist Manifesto, also known as The Manifesto of the Communist Party, first published on February 21, 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is one of the worlds most historically influential political tracts. ... The poverty cycle is a term for a social phenomena that has roots in ancient times. ... Invest redirects here. ...

Historical materialism

Historical materialism is normally considered one of the intellectual foundations of Marxism. It looks for the causes of developments and changes in human history in economic, technological, and more broadly, material factors, as well as the clashes of material interests among tribes, social classes and nations. Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term. ...

Marx argued that "the mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life." In other words, the dominant social and political institutions of society, along with the dominant ideas prevalent among members of society, are determined by material conditions. Critics have disputed this. For example, Max Weber has argued that political ideas and religious beliefs are not determined by the material conditions of society, but may in fact play a role in creating those conditions (e.g. protestantism, in Weber's view, influenced the development of capitalism^{[citation needed]}). Maximilian Weber (IPA: ) (April 21, 1864 – June 14, 1920) was a German political economist and sociologist who is considered one of the founders of the modern study of sociology and public administration. ... Protestantism is one of three main groups currently within Christianity. ...

Karl Popper argued that Historical materialism is a pseudoscience because it is not falsifiable.^[4] Marxists respond that social sciences in general are largely not falsifiable, since it is often difficult or outright impossible to test them via experiments (in the way hard science can be tested). This is especially true when many people and a long time is involved. Popper agreed on this, but instead used it as an argument against central planning and all ideologies that claim to be able to make predictions about the future. Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, MA, Ph. ... Phrenology is regarded today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ... This page discusses how a theory or assertion is falsifiable (disprovable opp: verifiable), rather than the non-philosophical use of falsification, meaning counterfeiting. ... The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex-+-periri, of (or from) trying), is a set of actions and observations, performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to support or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena. ... Hard science is a term which often is used to describe certain fields of the natural sciences, usually physics, chemistry, and many fields of biology. ...

Historical materialism is based on class analysis and identifies a number of stages of history, each of which is characterized by a certain economic system and a certain class-based structure of society. The historian Robert Conquest argues that a detailed analysis of many historical periods fails to find support for the stages postulated by Marxists. Marx himself admitted that his theory was restricted to the stages present in European history.^[5] Dr. George Robert Ackworth Conquest (born July 15, 1917), British historian, became one of the best-known writers on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of his classic account of Stalins purges of the 1930s, The Great Terror. ... European redirects here. ...

The philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, particularly his view on dialectics, was one of the intellectual roots of Historical materialism. Max Stirner, a critic of Marxism, has argued that Hegel's philosophy leads to nihilism and not to Historical materialism. In reply to Stirner's assertions, Karl Marx wrote one of his most important works, The German Ideology. History teaches us that man learns nothing from history. ... Broadly speaking, a dialectic (Greek: διαλεκτική) is an exchange of propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses) resulting in a disagreement. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Nihilism is a philosophical position, often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche (though he considered it something to be overcome), which argues that the world, and especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. ... The German Ideology was a book written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels around April or early May 1845. ...

Based on historical materialism, Marx made numerous predictions. For example, he argued that the workers would become poorer and poorer as the capitalists exploited them more and more; that differences between the members within each class would become smaller and smaller and the classes would thus become more homogeneous; that the skilled workers would be replaced by unskilled workers doing assembly line work; that relations between the working class and the capitalists would get worse and worse; that the capitalists would become fewer and fewer due to an increasing number of monopolies; and that the proletarian revolution would occur first in the most industrialized nations.^[6][7] Marx's predictions regarding working class poverty had some similarity with predictions made by other economists before him, such as the conclusions David Ricardo derived from his iron law of wages. David Ricardo (April 18, 1772 – September 11, 1823), a political economist, is often credited with systematising economics, and was one of the most influential of the classical economists, along with Thomas Malthus, and Adam Smith. ... The Iron Law of Wages was an alleged law of economics that asserted that wages can never rise above the minimum level that will enable the laborer to survive. ...

Many of these predictions either did not come true, or came true only in part. This is often cited by critics as evidence that historical materialism is a flawed theory^{[citation needed]}. Communists reply with two arguments: The first is that there were a number of major events and trends over the past century and a half which Marx could not have predicted: imperialism, World War I, the rise of social democracy and Keynesian economics in the West (that introduced the concept of redistribution of wealth, thereby narrowing the gap between rich and poor), World War II and finally the Cold War. In response, critics maintain that if so many unpredictable events have happened in the past, then an equal number could happen in the future, and therefore historical materialism is not a reliable method of making predictions^{[citation needed]}. Imperialism is a policy of extending control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires. ... Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Keynesian economics, or Keynesianism, is an economic theory based on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes, as put forward in his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936 in response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. ... Income redistribution or redistribution of wealth is a political policy promoted by members of the political left, especially socialists, and opposed by members of the political right. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... For other uses, please see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

The second communist argument is a specifically Leninist one. Lenin, in his book Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, argued that capitalism must be viewed as a global phenomenon, and different capitalist countries must not be treated as if they are fully independent entities. Instead, one must look at capitalism worldwide. From this point of view, Lenin goes on to argue that rich, developed capitalist countries "export" their poverty to poorer countries, by turning those countries into colonies (hence 'imperialism') and exploiting them as sources of cheap unskilled labor and resources. Part of the spoils from this exploitation are then shared with the workers from the developed countries, in order to keep their standard of living high and thus avoid revolution at home. From this, Lenin concluded that Marx was wrong to expect the first proletarian revolutions to happen in the most advanced industrial nations. Lenin argued that the revolution would begin in the countries whose populations were most exploited, namely the underdeveloped agrarian societies like Russia^{[citation needed]}. Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is therefore a branch of Marxism. ...

The European colonial empires of Lenin's time all dissolved between 1947 and 1998 in the decolonization of the world. Communists maintain that economic exploitation of poor countries continues even in the absence of direct political control^[8] (see neocolonialism, globalization and anti-globalization). 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Colonialism in 1945 Decolonization refers to the achievement of independence by the various Western colonies and protectorates in Asia and Africa following World War II. This conforms with an intellectual movement known as Post-Colonialism. ... Definition from Oxford English Dictionary: The use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence another country; esp. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Labor theory of value

Fundamental to Marxist theory is the labor theory of value. It claims that the value (or, to be more exact, use-value) of an item is determined by the socially necessary labour time required to produce it. In other words, the greater the amount of work necessary to produce an object, the greater the value of that object. This implies that value is objective, and that it may not be reflected by the price of the object in question (since price is determined by supply and demand, and is not linked to the amount of necessary work that must be expended to produce the object). The labor theory of value was fully stated by David Ricardo, from suggestions by Adam Smith, and later adopted by Karl Marx. R. H. Tawney derives it, through John Locke, from the scholastic justum pretium. The labor theory of value (LTV) is a theory in classical economics concerning the value of an exchangeable good or service. ... In Marxs critique of political economy, any labor-product has a value and a use value, and if it is traded as a commodity in markets, it additionally has an exchange value, most often expressed as a money-price. ... Socially necessary labour time in Marxs critique of political economy is what regulates the exchange value of commodities in trade and consequently guides producers in their attempt to economise on labour. ... Objectivity has several meanings: Objectivity (philosophy) Objectivity (journalism) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... In economics and business, the price is the assigned numerical monetary value of a good, service or asset. ... The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ... David Ricardo (April 18, 1772 – September 11, 1823), a political economist, is often credited with systematising economics, and was one of the most influential of the classical economists, along with Thomas Malthus, and Adam Smith. ... Adam Smith, FRSE, (baptised and probably born June 5, 1723 O.S. (June 16 N.S.) – July 17, 1790) was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was an immensely influential philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary. ... Richard Henry Tawney (R.H. Tawney) (1880 - 1962) was an English writer, economist, historian, social critic and university professor and a leading advocate of Christian Socialism Born in Calcutta, India, Tawney was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford where he studied modern history. ... John Locke (August 29, 1632 – October 28, 1704) was an influential English philosopher. ...

Jevons and the classical capitalist economists later abandoned the labor theory for the subjective theory of value, which implies that the only value of an object on which different observers can agree is its price on the market (which is based on the subjective utilities of the participants). William Stanley Jevons (September 1, 1835 - August 13, 1882), English economist and logician, was born in Liverpool. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Jacques Barzun, Robert Nozick, and other critics hold that the qualifier "socially necessary" in the labor theory of value is not well-defined, and conceals a subjective judgment of necessity.^[9] Barzun also claims that the unit of the labor theory is itself ill-defined; that the problem of measuring the increased return of the skilled laborer (or of the laborer with advanced equipment) in manual man-hours was never solved. Jacques Martin Barzun (born November 30, 1907 - 2005) continues to be a leading voice in the fields of literature, education, and cultural history. ... Robert Nozick (November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher and Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. ...

Bertrand Russell holds that the labor theory, while a reasonable approximation to an agrarian society, is neither accurate nor normative for an advanced industrialism, whatever its economic arrangements. According to Russell, the labor theory provides a useful polemic as an ethic against a "predatory" group, like moneylenders or capitalists; but it does not indicate any fair proportion between the earnings of two workers at different stands on the same assembly line^[10]. Bertrand William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell OM FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, and mathematician, working mostly in the 20th century. ... Agrarian has two meanings: It can mean pertaining to Agriculture It can also refer to the ideology of Agrarianism and Agrarian parties. ... Look up Polemic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Polemic is the art or practice of inciting disputation or causing controversy, for example in religious, philosophical, or political matters. ... Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ...

Marxists have replied to these criticisms by refining the labor theory of value in various ways, for example by measuring the increased return of the skilled laborer according to the amount of labor that was necessary to teach that laborer his new skills. The qualifier "socially necessary" usually refers to the amount of labor that is strictly necessary to produce a given result; thus, if labor is wasted (the production process utilizes more labor than necessary), the end product does not gain any additional value.

Some of the aforementioned refinements of the labor theory of value have led to a Marxist model of economics that is substantially more complex, and requires far more advanced mathematics, than Marx's original propositions. For instance, the premise that increases in value come from labor has been interpreted to imply that labour intensive industries ought to have a higher rate of profit than those using less labor, which is not the case. Marx explained this by arguing that in real economic life prices vary in a systematic way from values. This is known as the transformation problem, and it was not fully resolved by Marx during his lifetime. Modern Marxists have provided a solution to it, which employs higher mathematics. Critics argue that this makes the once intuitively appealing theory very complicated and that there is still no justification for stating that only labor can increase value.^[11] In Karl Marxs Economics the transformation problem is the problem of finding a general rule to transform Marx’s values defined and used in Capitals Volume I into the competitive prices (or prices of production) of Capitals Volume III. This problem was first introduced by Marx himself...

Relevance of the Communist states for Marxist theory

Communist states claimed to represent the implementation of Marxism-Leninism (a prominent branch of Marxism) into practice. Whether this is true or false is a question of significant historical and political importance. There are at least four major views on the subject: Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ...

1. Communist states did implement Marxism-Leninism into practice. This view is held by communists who support the Communist states, as well as by the majority of anti-communists.
2. Communist states did not implement Marxism-Leninism into practice. They only paid lip service to it for propaganda purposes, and their policies represented a perversion or betrayal of Marxism-Leninism. This view is held by the majority of communists who oppose the Communist states.
3. Communist states did implement Marxism-Leninism into practice, but Marxism-Leninism itself is a flawed or inadequate form of Marxism; other kinds of Marxism lead to different results. This view is held by Marxists who are not Leninists (e.g. democratic socialists).
4. Communist states implemented some aspects of Marxism-Leninism into practice, but not others. Their legacy is complex and includes both positive and negative aspects.

Within those different views, there is a wide array of different conclusions that various authors draw from the historical experience of Communist states and their eventual defeat in the Cold War. Anti-communists believe that Communist states caused great suffering and their collapse proves that their social, political and economic models were unworkable. Communists who support the Communist states believe that those states brought many benefits to their populations and the world at large, and their fall was a great tragedy caused by external pressure from the capitalist West. Communists who oppose the Communist states believe that those states stifled the development of true communism at home and did much to discredit the communist cause abroad, and they eventually collapsed under the weight of internal contradictions. Democratic socialism is a broad political movement propagating the ideals of socialism within the context of a democratic system. ...

A "Communist state" is an impossibility according to Marxist theory. The communist society is a social system that has abolished private property, social classes, and the state itself. No country or government ever called itself a "Communist state" or claimed to have attained communism; however, various single-party states gave the Communist Party a special status in their constitution and officially proclaimed adherence to Marxism-Leninism.^[12] All of them planned to achieve communism in the not unreasonably distant future; Khrushchev, for example, forecast that communism would be reached in the Soviet Union by 1980, some quarter century later. The term "Communist state" has been coined and used in the West to refer to such states. The Communsit states which no longer exist never did reach the communist society, and none of the remaining ones seem likely to do so soon. // Use of the term In common usage, property means ones own thing and refers to the relationship between individuals and the objects which they see as being their own to dispense with as they see fit. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... A government is a body that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group. ... States in which a single party is constitutionally linked to power are coloured in brown. ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Nikita Khrushchev in 1962 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Russian: Ники́та Серге́евич Хрущёв) (nih-KEE-tah khroo-SHCHYOFF) (April 17, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union... NATO 2002 Summit The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance, Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for defence collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, DC, on April 4, 1949. ...

However, Marx and Engel's theory also includes a transitory state phase known as the dictatorship of the proletariat.^[13] Later, the state will "whither away" and the dictatorship of the proletariat will be replaced by the communist society. The Communist states claimed to be this dictatorship of the proletariat. If they did follow Marxist theory, then the theory be criticized for the claimed failures of the Communist states and for them not "withering away" and producing the predicted communist society when the theory was tested in the real world. Albert Szymanski analyzed the Soviet state and concluded that it was an authentic dictatorship of the proletariat. "Is the Red Flag Flying? The Political Economy of the Soviet Union Today" (London: Zed Press, 1979) The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a...

Trotskyites and other Leninists respond that all Communist states after Lenin's death did not actually adhere to Marxism but rather were perversions heavily influenced by Stalinism.^[14] However, it has been argued that it was Lenin who created the repressive institutions that Stalin later used. Lenin had analyzed the Paris Commune and had concluded that it failed due to "excessive generosity-it should have exterminated its enemies".^[15] His regime summarily executed hundreds of thousands of "class enemies", created the Cheka, created the system that later become the Gulags, and was responsible for a policy of food requisitioning during the Russian Civil War that was partially responsible for a famine causing 3-10 million deaths.^{[16][17][18][19]} Emma Goldman has criticized Leon Trotsky for his role in the Kronstadt rebellion and for ordering the large scale incarcerations in concentration camps and executions of political opponents such as anarchists.^[20] Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Joseph Stalin. ... Le Père Duchesne looking at the statue of Napoleon I on top of the Vendome column: Eh ben ! bougre de canaille, on va donc te foutre en bas comme ta crapule de neveu !… (Here! savage rascal, we will put you down just like your crook of a nephew!…) The... Cheka-KGB emblem: sword and shield The Cheka (ЧК - чрезвычайная комиссия) was the first of many Soviet secret police organizations, created by decree on December 20, 1917 by Vladimir Lenin and led by Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky. ... Gulag (from the Russian ГУЛАГ: Главное Управление Исправительно— Трудовых Л&#1072... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists) Commanders Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno Strength 5,427,273 (peak) +1,000,000 Casualties 939,755... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) aka Red Emma, was a Kaunas, Lithuania-born anarchist known for her writings and speeches. ...   (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий) (Latinized: Lev Davidovič Trokij; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7, 1879 [O.S. October 26] – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... This article is about the events that took place in Russia, 1921. ...

Some Marxist supporters instead argue that no Communist state was Marxist since no Communist state was democratic. However, Marx and Engels gave few hints regarding how the dictatorship of the proletariat or the later communist society should be implemented. They rejected the concept of liberal democracy, arguing that it could not represent the interest of the proletariat. It is often argued that Marx and Engels supported the claimed direct democracy of the Paris Commune as a model.^[21] However, this is disputed^[22] and there were human rights violations even during the few months the Commune existed.^[23] This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy,[1] comprises a form of democracy and theory of civics wherein sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate. ... Le Père Duchesne looking at the statue of Napoleon I on top of the Vendome column: Eh ben ! bougre de canaille, on va donc te foutre en bas comme ta crapule de neveu !… (Here! savage rascal, we will put you down just like your crook of a nephew!…) The...

Marx: ...When the workers replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by their revolutionary dictatorship ... to break down the resistance of the bourgeoisie ... the workers invest the state with a revolutionary and transitional form ...

Engels: ...And the victorious party” (in a revolution) “must maintain its rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionaries. Would the Paris Commune have lasted more than a day if it had not used the authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie? Cannot we, on the contrary, blame it for having made too little use of that authority?...

Engels: As, therefore, the state is only a transitional institution which is used in the struggle, in the revolution, to hold down one’s adversaries by force, it is sheer nonsense to talk of a ‘free people’s state’; so long as the proletariat still needs the state, it does not need it in the interests of freedom but in order to hold down its adversaries, and as soon as it becomes possible to speak of freedom the state as such ceases to exist ....

Lenin quoted these^[24] and other^[25] statements by Marx and Engels as support for using the authoritarian principles of vanguard party and democratic centralism during the dictatorship of the proletariat in Communist states. This excluded democracy even in theory outside the ruling Communist party. Lenin's regime also banned fractions within the party. This made the democratic procedures within the party an empty formality.^[26] When the Marxists only gained a minority vote in the democratic Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917, Lenin dissolved the Constituent Assembly after its first session and overturned the election.^[27] All the later Communist states became and remained totalitarian as long as the Communists remained in power, justifying this by referring to Lenin's interpretation of Marxism, Marxism-Leninism.^[28] A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront, or that wants to be at the forefront, of a mass action or movement. ... Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. ... The elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly that were organised as a result of events in the Russian Revolution in 1917 were held on November 25, 1917 (although some districts had polling on alternate days). ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ...

On the other hand, some democratic states have been ruled by parties calling themselves Communist without becoming totalitarian. One example is Moldova. Whether these parties and similar parties without power are Marxist is disputed, because, while they aim for a socialist society, they reject Marxist cornerstones such as proletarian revolution and at least for now accept a market economy.(see Eurocommunism and Definition of a Communist state) A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... Eurocommunism was an attempt in the 1970s by various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy. ... This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. ...

Another argument is that true communism can only develop as a response to the contradictions of bourgeois capitalism; therefore, the failure of those experiments in communism to date can be attributed to the fact they did not emerge in this manner. The Soviet Union is a case in point - Tsarist Russia was quasi-feudal, not capitalist. So it is argued that the failure of Soviet socialism to sustain itself is actually an affirmation of Marxist theory. The historian Orlando Figes has criticized this by pointing out that many different forms of Marxism have been tried in many different societies with varying degree of development.^[29] Examples include Lenin's War communism and New Economic Policy, Stalinism and post-Stalinism in the industrialized Central Eastern European nations and the Soviet Union, profit-sharing and decentralized workers' councils under Tito, extreme self-reliance under Juche, and reforms under Perestroika and Glasnost. Maoism is a broad concept that includes episodes such as self-sufficient communes during the Great Leap Forward, anti-intellectualism during the Cultural Revolution, and the almost primitivist Red Khmers. Orlando Figes, born 1957 in London, son of the Feminist writer Eva Figes. ... War communism or wartime communism (1917-1921) was the harsh economic policy adopted by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War with an aim to keep towns and the Red Army supplied with weapons and food in the conditions when all normal economical mechanisms and relations were being destroyed by... The New Economic Policy (NEP; in Russian Новая экономическая политика - Novaya Ekonomicheskaiya Politika or НЭП) was officially decided in the course of the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. ... Joseph Stalin. ... Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980) was the ruler of Yugoslavia between the end of World War II and his death in 1980. ... The Juche Idea (also Juche Sasang or Chuche; pronounced // in Korean, approximately joo-chey) is the official state ideology of North Korea and the political system based on it. ... Poster showing Mikhail Gorbachev Perestroika ( , Russian: ) is the Russian word (which passed into English) for the economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: 毛泽东思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng SÄ«xiÇŽng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of the Chinese communist Mao Zedong. ... Peoples communes (人民公社 Pinyin: renmin gongshe), in the Peoples Republic of China, were formerly the highest of three administrative levels in rural areas in the period from 1958 to 1982-85, when they were replaced by townships. ... Propaganda poster of the Great Leap Forward. ... The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: WúchÇŽn JiÄ“jí Wénhuà Dà Gémìng; literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wénhuà dà gémìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or even simpler, to 文革 wéngé, Cultural Revolution) in the People... Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization. ... The flag of the Khmer Rouge Party The Khmer Rouge (Khmer: Khmaey Krahom French: Khmers Rouges), also known as: Communist Party of Kampuchea, CPK, Khmer Communist party, National Army of Democratic Kampuchea, PDK and by the official names Communist Party of Cambodia then later Party of Democratic Kampuchea, were a...

Other views of Marx and Marxists

Eric Hoffer has communism as one of the chief examples of the mass movement which offers The True Believer a glorious, if imaginary, future to compensate for the frustrations of his present. Such movements need people to be willing to sacrifice all for that future, including themselves and others. To do that, they need to devalue the past and present. This is not a criticism of Communist tenets specifically; Hoffer's other chief examples are Fascists, Nationalists, and the founding stages of religions. Eric Hoffer (July 25, 1902 – May 21, 1983) was an American social writer. ... The True Believer covers The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements ISBN 0060505915 was Eric Hoffers first and most successful book, published in 1951. ... Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the right-wing authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ...

Arthur Koestler describes Marxism as a closed system, like Catholicism or orthodox Freudianism. This has three peculiarities: It claims to represent a universal truth, which explains everything, and can cure every ill. It can automatically process and reinterpret all potentially damaging data by methods of casuistry, emotionally appealing and beyond common logic. It invalidates criticism by deducing what the subjective motivation of the critic must be, and by arguing about that. Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (September 5, 1905, Budapest – March 3, 1983, London) was a Hungarian polymath who became a naturalized British subject. ... As a Christian ecclesiastical term, Catholic - from the Greek adjective , meaning general or universal[2] - is described in the Oxford Dictionary as follows: ~Church, (originally) whole body of Christians; ~, belonging to or in accord with (a) this, (b) the church before separation into Greek or Eastern and Latin or Western... Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... Casuistry (argument by cases) is an attempt to determine the correct response to a moral problem, often a moral dilemma, by drawing conclusions based on parallels with agreed responses to pure cases, also called paradigms. ...

Marxists respond to such allegations by arguing that they are straw men (deliberate misrepresentations of Marxist theory) or ad hominem attacks. For example, they may hold that Marxism does not, in fact, claim to "explain everything and cure every ill"; that it merely recommends certain political and social policies, just as all other ideologies do. On the issue of the True Believer, Marxists may concede the point that some "True Believers" exist in their midst, but argue that not all of them are "True Believers", and that, in any case, the behaviour of individual Marxists says nothing about the validity of Marxism itself. A straw man, or straw person, argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponents position. ... It has been suggested that Personal attack be merged into this article or section. ...

Marxism views human nature as completely determined by the environment, a Tabula rasa. The historian Richard Pipes describes how this led to a belief in a coming new man without vices, in essence a new superior species (although one caused by the environment, not genetics). Trotsky thought that this new man would be able to control all unconscious processes, including those controlling bodily functions like digestion, and have the intellect of Aristotle. In order to reach this stage it was necessary and right to completely destroy the existing institutions that had formed the current wretched humans. This will make it possible to dispense with the state. This also explains (or perhaps serves as a justification for) the little value the Communists placed on the lives and rights of the current humans.^[30] In reality self-interest could not be destroyed and the new ruling class, the nomenklatura, quickly replaced the old aristocracy. Periodic attempts to destroy it, such as the Cultural Revolution during Mao's regime, failed.^[31] Tabula rasa (Latin: scraped tablet or clean slate) refers to the epistemological thesis that individual human beings are born with no innate or built-in mental content, in a word, blank, and that their entire resource of knowledge is built up gradually from their experiences and sensory perceptions of the... Richard Pipes, Warsaw (Poland), October 20, 2004 Richard Edgar Pipes (b. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Self-interest can refer to any of the following concepts: Egoism Selfishness Ethical egoism Psychological egoism Individualism Objectivist ethics Hedonism Epicureanism Enlightened self-interest This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Wúchǎn Jiējí Wénhuà Dà Gémìng; literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wénhuà dà gémìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or even simpler, to 文革 wéngé, Cultural Revolution) in the People...

Bryan Caplan has criticized Marx's rejection of human rights. Marx: Bryan D. Caplan Bryan Caplan (b. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ...

"None of the supposed rights of man, therefore, go beyond the egoistic man, man as he is, as a member of civil society; that is, an individual separated from the community, withdrawn into himself, wholly preoccupied with his private interest and acting in accordance with his private caprice"

"Liberty is, therefore, the right to do everything which does not harm others... It is a question of the liberty of man regarded as an isolated monad, withdrawn into himself."

"The right of property, is, therefore, the right to enjoy one's fortunes and dispose of it as he will; without regard for other men and independently of society... It leads every man to see in other men, not the realization, but rather the limitation of his own liberty."

"[B]ourgeois 'freedom of conscience' is nothing but the toleration of all possible kinds of religious freedom of conscience, and that for its part [socialism] endeavors rather to liberate the conscience from the witchery of religion."

"political emancipation itself is not human emancipation."

Instead the utopian communist society will lead to "the positive transcendence of private property, or human self-estrangement, and therefore the real appropriation of the human essence by and for man... the complete return of man to himself as a social being..." Caplan argues that this rejection of human rights leads to tyranny and oppression of dissidents.^[32]

References and bibliography

References

1. ↑  Constitution of the Soviet Union. Preamble. Retrieved on January 17, 2006.
2. ↑  Karl Popper. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved on October 24, 2005.
3. ↑  Bibliography: Conquest, 2000. p. 47-51
4. ↑  Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels (1848). "The Communist Manifesto".
5. ↑  Contradictions of Capitalism. Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Retrieved on October 26, 2005.
6. ↑  Neocolonialism. The Encyclopedia of Marxism. Retrieved on October 3, 2005.
7. ↑  Nozick, Robert (1977). Anarchy, State and Utopia. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-09720-0. Marxian Exploitation, p. 253-262.
8. ↑  LIke the quotation from Tawney above, this derives from the chapter on Locke's politics and economics in Russell's History of Western Philosophy.
9. ↑ Karl Marx. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved on October 28, 2005.
10. ↑  Soviet Union (Former~) - Constitution. Institut für öffentliches Recht: Universität Bern. Retrieved on December 12, 2005.
11. ↑  Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The Encyclopedia of Marxism. Retrieved on October 3, 2005.
12. ↑  Trotskyism. The Encyclopedia of Marxism. Retrieved on October 6, 2005.
13. ↑  Bibliography: Pipes, 1990. p. 789-795.
14. ↑  Bibliography: Pipes, 1990. Pipes, 1994. Courtois, 1999. Yakovlev, 2004.
15. ↑  Russian Civil War. Historical Atlas of the 20th Century. Retrieved on October 2, 2005.
16. ↑  The Soviet Famines of 1921 and 1932-3. Retrieved on October 02, 2005.
17. ↑  Lenin and the First Communist Revolutions, VII. Museum of Communism. Retrieved on October 2, 2005.
18. ↑  Goldman, Emma (1938). "Trotsky protests too much".
19. ↑  Democracy. The Encyclopedia of Marxism. Retrieved on October 2, 2005.
20. ↑  Paris Commune: Myth vs. Reality. Retrieved on October 1, 2005.
21. ↑  Martyrs of the Paris Commune. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved on October 1, 2005.
22. ↑  Lenin, Vladimir (1918). "The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky".
23. ↑  Lenin, Vladimir (1918). "The State and Revolution".
24. ↑  A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former). Chapter 7 - The Communist Party. Democratic Centralism. The Library of Congress. Country Studies. Retrieved on October 24, 2005.
25. ↑  Bibliography: Pipes, 1990. p. 550-555
26. ↑  Bibliography: Courtois, 1999. Conclusion
27. ↑  Figes, Orlando (1996). A People's Tragedy. Random House. ISBN 0-224-04162-2. p. 823
28. ↑  Bibliography: Pipes, 1990. p. 135-138
29. ↑  Bibliography: Pipes, 2001. p. 150-151
30. ↑  Museum of Communism FAQ. Museum of Communism. Retrieved on October 7, 2005.

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Bibliography

• Applebaum, Anne (2003) Gulag: A History. Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-0056-1
• Chang, Jung & Halliday, Jon (2005) Mao: The Unknown Story. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42271-4
• Conquest, Robert (1991) The Great Terror: A Reassessment. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-507132-8.
• Conquest, Robert (1986) The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505180-7.
• Courtois, Stephane; Werth, Nicolas; Panne, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartosek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis & Kramer, Mark (1999). The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-07608-7.
• Hamilton-Merritt, Jane (1999) Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos, 1942-1992 Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20756-8.
• Getty, J. Arch (1993) Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44670-8.
• Khlevniuk, Oleg & Kozlov, Vladimir (2004) The History of the Gulag : From Collectivization to the Great Terror (Annals of Communism Series) Yale University Pres. ISBN 0-300-09284-9.
• Natsios, Andrew S. (2002) The Great North Korean Famine. Institute of Peace Press. ISBN 1-929223-33-1.
• Nghia M. Vo (2004) The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1714-5.
• Pipes, Richard (2001) Communism Weidenfled and Nicoloson. ISBN 0-297-64688-5
• Pipes, Richard (1994) Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime. Vintage. ISBN 0-679-76184-5.
• Pipes, Richard (1990) The Russian Revolution 1899-1919. Collins Harvill. ISBN 0-679-40074-5.
• Rummel, R.J. (1996) Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-887-3.
• Szymanski, Albert (1984) Human Rights in the Soviet Union (Including comparisons with the U.S.A.). Zed Books. ISBN 0-86232-019-4.
• Yakovlev, Alexander (2004). A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10322-0.

The Great Terror is the title of a book by British writer Robert Conquest, published in 1968. ... The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a controversial book edited by doctor Stéphane Courtois which attempts to catalog various crimes (deaths, torture, deportations, etc. ... The Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. ...

External links

• Anti-communist links:
  • The Epoch Times | Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party Chinese and general Communism critique
  • Museum of Communism
    • Museum of Communism FAQ
  • How many did the Communist regimes murder?
  • The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
  • Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2006) Res. 1481 Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes
• Communists opposed to the 'Communist states':
  • Marxists Internet Archive
    • History Archive
    • Leon Trotsky Internet Archive
    • The Revolution Betrayed An analysis of Stalinism, from a Trotskyist communist point of view.
  • Capitalism versus socialism: The great debate revisited
• Support for the 'Communist states':
  • Another view of Stalin
  • From Marx to Mao
  • Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard
• Neutral:
  • 30 Worst Atrocities of the 20th Century
  • Who was the Bloodiest Tyrant of the 20th Century?