What is Communism?

Communism is an economic and social system proposed by two

Germans, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, in a book called the Communist
Manifesto, written in 1848. During the mid-nineteenth century, Europe had
undergone a rapid advance in technology known as the Industrial
Revolution. In major cities across Europe, large factories with
complicated machinery used for production began to emerge. Overtime,
the rapid advance in technology produced both positive and negative
effects. On the positive side, the rapid development in industry and
technology meant that nations were becoming more modern and
advanced. However, on the negative side, those who were employed in
these new factories, worked extremely long hours in appalling and
dangerous conditions and were often paid very little for their efforts. In
fact, conditions in many factories were so terrible, that some in society
began have great sympathy for the working class.
Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels were just two intellectuals in the era
who believed that the factory workers (who they called the proletariat)
were being unfairly exploited by those who owned and controlled all the
businesses (who they called capitalists). In the Communist Manifesto, Marx
and Engels claimed that the workers were being exploited so that the
capitalists could make large profits. They also believed that this unfair
situation could not continue and would inevitably lead to rebellion and
finally revolution.

Above: Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels

In this revolution the workers would violently overthrow the capitalists and
the corrupt governments that had not stopped the unfair treatment of
workers. The resources of the nation would then be shared equally
amongst the workers and so a new, classless society would emerge. In this
communist society, people would work according to their abilities and in
return would receive enough to meet their needs. In a communist society,
the people would also be cooperative with one another and decisions
about work, production and the distribution of goods and services would
be made based on the principles of equality. There would hence be no
need for a large central government and decisions would be made both
democratically and locally by the people.

Although Marx and Engels had lived in Germany, the first successful
revolution inspired by their theories took place in Russia in 1917. Before
1917, Russia had been a society ruled by a monarch or king. Under the
rule of Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian people had little say in the governing
of Russia and all those who criticised the system were imprisoned or
exiled. In the cities and countryside, many Russian workers and peasants
were living terrible and impoverished lives. In Russia, the royal family,
nobility and the capitalists owned most of the land and factories, whilst
the factory workers and peasants worked day after day for little reward.
Malnutrition, disease and utter exhaustion from working excessive hours
characterised the life of an ordinary Russian.

Above: Tsar Nicholas and the Russian royal family (The Romanovs)

Above: Impoverished Russian peasants and factory workers

Given this bleak outlook, many educated people in Russian society
became revolutionaries who were constantly looking to overthrow the
monarchy and improve the livelihood of ordinary Russians. Some were
influenced by the writings of Karl Marx and believed that only a communist

system could save Russia and her people. To achieve the overthrow of the
monarchy and the transformation of Russian society, they formed illegal
political parties and began to preach to the masses the concept of
communism. One of these revolutionaries was Lenin who headed the
Bolshevik Party. Lenin along with other Marxists (those who believed in
Marxs theories) staged a successful communist revolution in October
1917. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) emerged from this
revolution and was the first communist country in the world. The flag of
the Soviet Union was red with a picture of a hammer and sickle in the lefthand corner. The colour red represented the blood split by those who died
in the revolution and the hammer and sickle symbolised the union of
ordinary factory workers and peasants in building the communist utopia.

Above: Lenin addresses a crowd of workers

Above: Lenin

Above: Flag of the Soviet Union

Unfortunately after the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, they found that
the building a communist society based on the principles of equality was
extremely difficult. After Lenin died in 1924, the Bolshevik Party (now
called the Communist Party) was no nearer to building a communist
society in Russia than they were in 1917. At this time, a man named
Joseph Stalin, an original member of the Bolshevik Party who had slowly
risen up the ranks, became the leader of the Communist Party.

Above: Lenin

Above: Joseph Stalin

Under his rule, society in the Soviet Union was tightly controlled and the
people were once again forced to live wretched and miserable lives. To
help improve the economy, drastic measures were taken, such as the
establishment of work prisons known as Gulags. In these prisons, millions
of Russians were worked to death to modernise Russia and build bridges,
dams, roads, railways and power stations. These events seemed to betray
the ideas of Marx and Engels. As opposition to Stalins policies grew within
the Soviet Union, many more millions were put on trial, sent to jail and
executed by his secret police force established to maintain order and
control in society. The Soviet Union, a communist country by name, had
actually become a dictatorship. Thus the word communism and the
communist system became associated with cruelty and loss of freedom
instead of the equality envisaged by Marx and Engels.

Above: A Gulag

Above: Working conditions and death in a Russian Gulag

Questions:
1. Define the following terms:
Communism
Industrial Revolution
Proletariat
Capitalist
2. Briefly describe role the following people had in the history of
Communism and/or Russia:
Karl Marx
Tsar Nicholas II
Lenin
Joseph Stalin
3. Explain in your own words why the social and political system of
communism may have been viewed negatively in history during the
twentieth century.

World Communism and the Cold War

During the Second World War, despite the cruel dictatorship established in
the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union was an ally of
democratic Britain and United States in the fight against Nazi Germany.
However, as the Second World War was coming to a close, tension
between the Soviet Union and the United States began to surface. In the
aftermath of the Second World War, the conflict between the Soviet Union
and the United States, known as the Cold War, dominated the politics of
the world.

Above: Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, the enemy of both the
United States and the Soviet Union

Above: Allies during the Second World War the United States and Soviet
Union
The system of communism, whether the one envisaged by Marx or the
dictatorship established by Stalin in the Soviet Union was vastly different
to the political system of democracy. Obviously, Stalins dictatorship in the
Soviet Union was in stark contrast to the parliamentary democracy of

nations such as United States, Britain and Australia. However, even the
communist system as described by Marx was at odds with democracy.
Under communism the wealth of society is distributed equally. Democracy
is however synonymous with the economic system of capitalism.
Capitalism refers to a system where the means of production (for example
factories, machines and even natural resources) are privately owned and
used to generate profit for those who own them.
As the Second World War was drawing to a conclusion, the United
States envisaged a post-war world where democracy would spread in
Europe and replace the corrupt system of fascism that was established in
Nazi Germany, Italy and those nations in Europe conquered by Germany
during the war. However the Soviet Union under Stalin wished to create
communist societies in these very countries. Clearly, although allies during
the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union had
different visions for the post-war world would thus not remain allies for
very long.

Above: The Big Three Churchill (Britain) Roosevelt (USA) and Stalin (USSR) Allies during the Second World War, but soon to become bitter enemies

The path towards future tension and conflict began when the Soviet Union
started to drive the German army out of Russia and back into Germany. As
the German forces were driven back, the Red Army (armed forces of the
Soviet Union) liberated other German occupied nations in Eastern Europe
such as Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia. Eventually, the Red Army entered eastern Germany and
captured Berlin brining the war in Europe to an end. However, with despite
her surrender, the nations liberated from Germany were not free at all.
They were occupied by the Red Army. These nations, against the wishes of
the United States and Britain were given communist style governments
and were now essentially under the thumb of the Soviet Union.

Above: The Communist Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe

The treatment of Germany after the war also caused problems between
the Soviet Union and the United States. When the war ended, the Red
Army occupied the eastern half of the country including the capital Berlin,
while American, British and French forces occupied the western half.
Consequently, at wars end, Germany itself was divided into four military
districts, one each controlled by the United States, France, Britain and the
Soviet Union. Although Berlin was in the territory allotted to the Russians,
it too was divided into four districts each controlled by one of the four
allies. The United States, France and Britain hoped that overtime the four
quarters of Germany would be re-united to form a stable democratic
country. The Soviet Union however had other ideas.

Above:The division of Berlin after the Second World War

Above: The Berlin Airlift

A communist government in East Germany was declared and attempts
were made to seize control of the whole of Berlin. In response, the other
three sections of Germany were united to form democratic West Germany.
However, to coerce the United States, Britain and France into giving up
their sections of Berlin, all roads leading into Berlin were blocked off. In
response, the United States airlifted supplies to starving civilians in West
Berlin. In response, the Russians erected a wall separating West Berlin
from East Berlin, essentially blocking it off from not only the rest of
Germany, but also the whole world. This wall, known as the Berlin Wall,
had large watch towers and machine gun posts to trap those living inside
West Berlin. This famous wall came to symbolise the division in the world
during the Cold War.

Above: A section of the Berlin Wall

Above: The division of Germany

Truman

Above: President

With all of Eastern Europe under the influence of the Soviet Union, many
politicians in the democratic nations around the world began to fear that
communism was spreading rapidly. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
described Soviet control of the Eastern Bloc as being like an Iron Curtain.
United States President Harry Truman in 1947 declared that the United
States was going to give financial and if necessary military support to any
nation that was under the threat of communist takeover. Greece and
Turkey immediately took up the offer. By making this promise, the United
States was warning the Soviet Union that it would resit any future spread
of communism throughout the world.
In 1949, the United States had become so concerned that it
organised an alliance to defend Western Europe against communism. This

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alliance, known as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), included

nations such as the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Turkey and
Greece. In response, the Soviet Union organised its own alliance in Eastern
Europe known as the Warsaw Pact. Thus by the mid-1950s, the world was
clearly divided into two powerful sets of alliances, each with clear political
and ideological differences.
In the decades that followed, a battle of conflicting ideologies
raged. The Eastern and Western blocs clashed on every major issue, with
world tension increasing on every point of disagreement. The political
future of nations that were on the road to independence became a
particular source of Cold War conflict. Each side accused the other of
warlike intentions, so large standing armies were kept in a state of
readiness for war. The world lived with the danger that the Cold War could
escalate into full-scale warfare, or a Hot War, with the superpowers
stockpiling immensely destructive weapons. Huge defence budgets
consumed money that could have been better spent on improving the
quality of life of ordinary citizens. The Cold War was a drawn-out conflict
over issues that were often vague and confusing. In Australia, the fear of
communism was kept alive by events beyond our shores and by the

perception that communism had become a threat to our national security.

Above: Cold War alliances NATO and the Warsaw Pack

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