The Birth of Communism
The early 20th century was a breeding ground for the radicals. Radical social change, radical advances in technology, and of course, radical politics. In this crucible of the radical, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was born, commonly known as the U.S.S.R, and for most of the remainder of the 20th Century, it remained a dominant force in global politics. Today the Soviet Union is nothing but a distant memory. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was not the first event of its kind. It was the ultimate climax of what had been happening in several communist countries for the better part of the previous decade. As of today, there are only five self-proclaimed communist countries in the world. Vietnam and China have adopted de facto capitalist policies and the rest, which include North Korea, Laos and Cuba, are highly isolated and sidelined in the world today [1].
To better understand the rapid rise and fall of communism we must take a deeper look at its origins [2]. Though some of the aspects of communism, and the much wider idea of socialism have been around since time immemorial, the first codified document that specifically laid out the foundations of what a truly communist industrial society would look like, was in the works by Karl Marx (1818-1883), a German political theorist and philosopher, and his wealthy associate and friend, Frederick Engles (1820-1894).
Marx’s works, the “Communist Manifesto” (published 1848) and “Das Kapital” (published 1868) criticized the working conditions formed by the recent industrialization, which kept the working class, or “Proletariat” poor, whereas the wealthy factory owners, the “Bourgeoisie” kept the bulk of profits. The core idea of Marxist philosophy was the dismantling of the status quo, and creating a utopian state where the workers would be in charge of the factories they worked in and the farmers in charge of the lands they ploughed.
Though the works of Marx and others before him inspired many political outfits, they remained on the fringe of global politics. That was, until the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, in the Russian empire, which overthrew the Tsar, or Emperor of Russia, where the revolutionaries attempted to establish a communist state. This was not well received by many parties at the time and led to the brutal Russian civil war, between the newly established communist government and various anti-communist forces.
Toiling in the Worker’s State
Despite wishing to establish a utopian workers’ state, the successive leaders of the USSR employed brutal use of force to keep the population in line. Though somewhat lenient in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, the leader of the Bolsheviks, Vladimir Lenin, seized power, as he feared that democratic elections would undermine the revolution. His successor, Joseph Stalin was even more autocratic. The Soviet Union quickly became a totalitarian state, with a rubber stamp electoral process, wherein only members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were allowed to compete. On the global front, many other socialist and communist revolutions were brutally crushed such as the Bavarian Soviet Republic [3]. For the longest time, the USSR remained isolated from the rest of the world. The nation was highly agrarian and generally poor. This did not sit well with Soviet leadership, who wanted their nation to catch up to their western capitalist enemies. Mass industrialization campaigns were carried out, and the policy of “collectivization” of farmlands was introduced, wherein the privately owned farms of peasants were consolidated and put under the control of soviet officials, and the peasants were forced to work as per the will of the local party officials.
Those who resisted the new order were not spared, with them being the victims of many instances of ethnic cleansing and mass genocide. The Soviet State erected massive “correction facilities” or concentration camps for prisoners of conscience, known as “gulags” [4]. Entire groups of people who could have been seen as obstacles to the goals of the state were done away with such as man-made famines imposed on Ukrainians during the Holodomor, and the deportation of Crimean Tatars from their homelands to Central Asia [5].
During the War
In light of such events, it is not surprising that the growth of global communism stalled, that was, until the initiation of the Second World War. During the war, the USSR faced multiple heavy losses, they suffered more loss of human life than any other nation, and more so than the combined civilian and military losses of the Axis powers, with Soviet losses, standing at 24 million [6]. Much of this has been attributed to the lack of preparedness of the Red army and their assumption that Germany would not invade the USSR and initiate a war on two fronts.
Despite so much working against them, the Red Army eventually gained the upper hand, and successfully pushed back against the German Wehrmacht, after the decisive battles of Moscow and Stalingrad, between 1941-1943. After this, the USSR pushed back the German assault, and eventually reached Berlin in 1945, and ended the war in Europe. A consequence of this conflict was that the USSR now controlled most of Eastern Europe. After the war, it was quick to establish communist puppet governments across most of these countries, with the important exception of Yugoslavia, which remained communist but outside the control of the USSR. In addition, the USSR found a new ally in the recently proclaimed People’s Republic of China (PRC), whose leader Mao Zedong had overthrown the Nationalist government of Leader Chiang Kai Shek. Soviet foreign policy-oriented itself towards establishing communist governments in new independent developing countries in Asia and Africa. This put it in direct conflict with its temporary allies from the previous war, the West and, in particular, the United States of America.
A Cold Truce
The two powers sparred over ideological supremacy, in the conflict known as the “Cold War”. In the course of these conflicts, Communist governments were successfully established in countries such as Cuba, Laos, Cambodia, and North Korea.
Cracks had started to emerge within the Communist camp. China and the USSR became distant after the death of Stalin, due to ideological differences between the ruling elite of both nations. Infighting within the communist camp was one of the major reasons for its eventual collapse, with various communist nations picking sides after the Sino-Soviet split.
The idealistic principles of communism also never came to fruition. The planned economies of many communist states were mismanaged and could not react to market changes quickly. This led to economic stagnation and general dissatisfaction with the powers that be. Popular dissent however was dealt with harsh reprisals. The East German uprising of 1953, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1962, were some uprisings with popular support. However, local authorities, and the Soviet Army, were quick to crush dissent.
The Ball Goes Tumbling Down
This was until the late 1980s. After the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, he wished to address some of the aforementioned issues that plagued the USSR. As part of his campaign, he loosed restrictions on freedom of the press and attempted to give more freedoms to the constituent republics of the USSR. As part of his foreign policy [7], he withdrew the Red Army from Afghanistan, where the battle against the local mujahideen fighters was not going well for the troops. He also refused to send Soviet troops into the now very politically active nations of Eastern Europe. China also started making gradual changes towards establishing a market economy after this.
All these changes culminated into massive protests across Eastern Europe [8]. The first one took place in Poland in 1989, and then began to spread quickly. Very soon, Hungary, Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia), and Romania overthrew their communist governments, some peacefully and some more violently. All these events also led to renewed nationalism within the USSR, with constituent countries demanding more rights. The cracks opened into rifts when the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania demanded independence in 1991. Very soon the remaining republics also demanded independence, and as such, the USSR officially ceased to exist on 31st December 1991. The fall of the USSR had a domino effect on the few remaining communist states in the world. Without the patronage of the USSR, many of them abandoned communism, and the few that did not become increasingly isolated.
Hence, we come to today. Communism is nothing but a spectre. Its legacy consists of brutalist architecture, massive monuments and crushed economies. Even after the fall of communism, the succeeding governments failed to respond to rapid changes appropriately. Now, former communist nations though not in dire poverty, suffer from massive corruption, fast-falling populations and stagnant economic growth.
Article by:
Samarth Bhandary,
Training and Development team,
PES MUN Society, RR Campus
Commentaires