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	{{~~Template:~~Communism}}		{{Communism}}
			{{dablink\|This article is about communism as a political movement and a form of society. For issues regarding communist organizations, see the '']'' article. For issues regarding communist party-run states, see ].}}
	] from the ] flag has become known as the international symbol of communism; it stands for the unity between urban workers (hammer) and rural workers (sickle).]]

			'''Communism''' is a ] that seeks to establish a future classless, stateless social organization based upon ] of the ]. It can be classified as a branch of the broader ]. The term communism also refers to a variety of politics claiming the establishment of such a social organization as their fundamental intention. Early forms of human social organization have been described as "]," but communism as a political goal generally is a conjectured form of future social organization which has never been implemented.

			Especially when the word is ], ''Communism'' is often meant to refer to the political and economic regimes of ]s under a ] which claimed to be implementing the ]. ] held that society could not be transformed from the capitalist mode of production to the communist mode of production all at once; rather, it required a transitional period of ] over the ].
	'''Communism''' is a term that can refer to one of several things: a certain social system, an ] which supports that system, or a political movement that wishes to implement that system.

			There is a considerable variety of views among self-identified communists, including ], ], ], ], and various currents of ]; these are generally considered to be the more widespread varieties worldwide. However, various offshoots of the ] (what critics call the "]") and ] forms of ] comprise a particular ] of communism that has the distinction of having been the primary driving force for communism in world politics during most of the ]. The competing branch of ] has not had such a distinction.
	As a social system, '''communism''' is a type of ] society with no ], no ] and no ]es. In communism, all ] is owned by the ] as a whole, and all people enjoy equal social and ] status. Perhaps the best known principle of a communist society is "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need".

			In the late 19th century Marxist theories motivated ] parties across Europe, although their policies later developed along the lines of "reforming" capitalism, rather than overthrowing it. The exception was the ]. One branch of this party, commonly known as the ]s and headed by ], succeeded in taking control of the country after the toppling of the ] in the ]. In 1918, this party changed its name to the Communist Party, thus establishing the contemporary distinction between communism and other trends of socialism. After the success of the ] in ], many socialist parties in other countries became communist parties, signaling varying degrees of allegiance to the new ]; see '']''. After ], regimes calling themselves communist took power in ].
	As an ideology, the word '''communism''' is a synonym for ] and its various derivatives (most notably ]). Among other things, Marxism claims that human society has gone through various stages of development throughout its history, and that ] is the current stage we are going through. The next stage will be ], and the one after that will be communism. Therefore, it should be noted that communists do not seek to establish communism right away; they seek to establish ''socialism''
	first, which is to be followed by communism at some point in the future.

			In ], communists in ] came to power and established the ]. From ] until the death of its principal leader, ], the ] was the main inspiration for the worldwide communist ]. During the ]s and ]s "]" represented a powerful branch of communism that existed in opposition to the ]'s "]" of "]". Meanwhile, beginning in the early ], the term "]" was used to refer to the policies of communist parties in ] which sought to break with the tradition of uncritical and unconditional support of the Soviet Union and align more closely with the ]. Such parties were especially politically active and electorally significant in ] and ], where the ] and the ] had played a defining role in ] resistance movements during ] and continued to exercise significant political clout well after the war. Among the other countries in the ] that adopted a communist form of government at some point were ], ], ], ], ], and ]. By the early ] almost one-third of the world's population lived in ]s.
	As a political movement, '''communism''' is a branch of the broader ] movement. The communist movement differentiates itself from other branches of the socialist movement through various things - such as, for example, the communists' desire to establish a communist system after the socialist one, and their commitment to revolutionary strategies for overthrowing capitalism.

			In the case of the Communist Party of China, the adoption of a so-called "]" — formally known as "]" — has in the past few decades led many communists and communist parties worldwide to argue that it has either partially or completely abandoned communism for ] (a charge the CPC vigorously denies). The ]'s adoption of '']'' has led to similar allegations from critics, as have recent ] policies dating from during and after the "]" of the ]. Meanwhile, in ], ] has been officially superseded by the ideology of ].
	== "Communism" and other related terms ==
	===History of use of the word "communism"===
	The words "communism" and "communist" first came into use in France after the ]. They began to enter common speech in the 1840s. In particular, in ], the first "]" was held in ]. The term was also used to refer to supporters of ], a ]. In ], the root of the word "communism" could be interpreted to refer both to a ''commune'', a self-governing village or community, and to ''communauté'', common ownership. The later Marxist use of the word "communism" contains elements from both interpretations. "Communism" came into usage in England through the French exile community and had a ] of militancy, as opposed to the milder connotation of "socialism". This is why Marx and Engels chose to use "communism" in the title of the '']''<!--pages 7 and 8, ''A History of Socialist Thought'' (1965)-->.

			The strong ] communism tends to carry in the ] is generally due to a ]. Despite this, many sections of ], ] and ] continue to have strong communist movements of various types. With the collapse of the communist governments in ] in the late 1980s and the ] on ], ], communism's influence as a cohesive, unified ] around the world has been noticeably reduced, although it is still much stronger throughout ] than it is, or ever was, in the ]. Around a quarter of the world's population still lives in ]s.
	==="Communism" and "socialism" ===
	Much confusion surrounds the words "communism" and "socialism", particularly in the ]. The aim of this paragraph is to dispel that confusion. In terms of ideology and politics, communism is a sub-category of socialism. Communist ideology is a specific branch of socialist ideology and the communist movement is a specific branch of the larger socialist movement. A person who calls himself or herself a "communist" is a certain kind of socialist; in other words, all communists are socialists but not all socialists are communists. In terms of socio-economic systems, communism and socialism are two different things. For example, socialism involves the existence of a state, while communism does not. Socialism involves public ownership of the ] and private ownership of everything else, while communism abolishes private ownership altogether.

			==Early communism==
	=== Communism and "communist states" ===
			{{main\|History of communism}}
	As noted several times above, a communist system does not involve the existence of a state. Thus, the term "communist state" is an ]. No country ever called itself a "communist state" and no government ever claimed to have established a communist system (in fact, no government can ever claim to have established a communist system, since the very existence of that government shows that the system is not communist).
			The notion of communism has a history long predating Marx and Engels. In ancient Greece the idea of communism was connected to a myth about the "]" of humanity, when society lived in full harmony, before the development of ]. Some have argued that ]'s '']'' and works by other ancient political theorists advocated communism in the form of ] living, and that various early Christian sects, in particular the early Church, as recorded in ], and ] tribes in the ] Americas practiced communism in the form of communal living and common ownership. (''see'' ])

			In the 16th century, ] portrayed a society based on common ownership of property, whose leaders administered it through the application of reason in his 1516 treatise '']''. ] also described such an utopian society in his books through the mythic ]. In the 17th century, communist thought arguably surfaced again in England. ], in his 1895 ''Cromwell and Communism'' argued that several groupings in the ], especially the ] (or "]") espoused clear communistic, agrarian ideals, and that ]'s attitude to these groups was at best ambivalent and often hostile.<ref>Eduard Bernstein, (1895). ''Kommunistische und demokratisch-sozialistische Strömungen während der englischen Revolution'', J.H.W. Dietz, Stuttgart. ISBN 081246303. Sources available at </ref>
	Nevertheless, there have been a number of countries ruled by Communist ''Parties'', and those countries were often called "communist states" by people living in other parts of the world. They called themselves ''socialist'' countries, and their ruling Communist Parties claimed to have established a ''socialist'', democratic system, with the aim of eventually reaching communism. However, these countries were generally not seen as democratic by anyone except their leadership, and were not seen as socialistic by any (non-communist) socialists living outside their borders. In fact, most socialists strongly opposed them. Due to these reasons (as well as a number of others), the term "communist states" was invented to refer to those countries.

			Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the ] era of the ], through such thinkers as ].
	However, the term "communist state" is itself quite inappropriate. Besides the problem noted above (the fact that "communist state" is technically an oxymoron), there is one further issue with this term: there were (and are) many communists who opposed the governments of those countries and who argued that their ruling parties were communist in name only. The best known of these dissenting communists are probably the ].

			The word "communist" itself was coined in 1840 by ], after the French word ''communisme'', while discussing the ] associated with ], one of the most radical participant in the 1789 ], and the ]. A correspondent of Engels, Goodwyn Barmby himself founded the London Communist Propaganda Society in 1841. "]," a term itself coined by Marx in contrast with "]" (a term coined by Engels), designed all ]n writings and foundation of settlements by writers such as ], ], and ].
	A better term for "communist states" would be "states ruled by communist parties". But that name is generally considered too long to be practical. Another term could be "Stalinist states", since all of them were governed by communist parties that were either clearly Stalinist themselves or could trace their roots back to ].

			Karl Marx saw ] as the original ] state of mankind from which it arose. When humanity was capable of producing surplus, private property developed, society became unequal, resulting in classical society, and then to the ] ], to its current state of capitalism reached by a violent ], which in part depended on the development of ]. He then proposed that the next step in social evolution would be a return to communism, but at a higher level than when mankind had originally practiced primitive communism (in accordance with the influence of Hegel's dialectic on Marx).
	=== Communism and Marxism ===
	Today, the term "communism" is almost universally identified with its specifically Marxist meaning(s). However, the idea of a stateless, propertyless and classless society is not exclusively Marxist. In fact, the idea is much older (see for example ]). It is therefore possible to support communism without being a Marxist. Nevertheless, most people who support communism today are Marxists.

			In its contemporary form, communism grew out of the ] of 19th century Europe. At the time, as the ] advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for creating a new class of unskilled, urban factory workers who labored under harsh conditions, and for widening the gulf between rich and poor. Engels, who lived in ], observed the organization of the ] movement (''see'' ]), while Marx departed from his university comrades to meet the proletariat in France and Germany.
	=== Communism and anarchism ===
	A communist system is essentially identical to the kind of society that is advocated by ]. However, unlike communists, the anarchists do not believe that any other stage is needed between capitalism and the society they wish to establish. In other words, the anarchists wish to implement communism right away, without going through socialism first. This, as well as fundamental disagreements over how capitalism should be overthrown, has resulted in a very deep rift between communists and anarchists. Their ultimate goal is the same, but their proposed methods for reaching it are extremely different.

			==Marxism==
	=== Writing "Communism" or "communism" ===
			{{main\|Marxism}}

			Like other socialists, Marx and Engels sought an end to capitalism and the systems which they perceived to be responsible for the exploitation of workers. But whereas earlier socialists often favored longer-term social reform, Marx and Engels believed that popular revolution was all but inevitable, and the only path to socialism.
	According to the ] third edition of '']'', ''communism'' and derived words are written with the ] "c" except when they refer to a political party of that name, a member of that party, or a government led by such a party, in which case the word "Communist" is written with the ] "C".

			According to the Marxist argument for communism, the main characteristic of human life in class society is ]; and communism is desirable because it entails the full realization of human freedom. Marx here follows ] in conceiving freedom not merely as an absence of constraints but as action having moral content. They believed that communism allowed people to do what they want but also put humans in such conditions and such relations with one another that they would not wish to have need for exploitation. Whereas for Hegel, the unfolding of this ethical life in history is mainly driven by the realm of ideas, for Marx, communism emerged from material, especially the development of the ].
	==Marxism and Leninism==

			Marxism holds that a process of class conflict and revolutionary struggle will result in victory for the ] and the establishment of a communist society in which private ownership is abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community. Marx himself wrote little about life under communism, giving only the most general indication as to what constituted a communist society. It is clear that it entails abundance in which there is little limit to the projects that humans may undertake. In the popular slogan that was adopted by the communist movement, communism was a world in which 'each gave according to his abilities, and received according to his needs.' '']'' (]) was one of Marx's few writings to elaborate on the communist future:
	Although many small communist societies have existed throughout human history, ] and ] were the first to write down a theoretical (and, according to them, scientific) basis for communism. The political ideology they created, namely ], became the chief advocate of communism in the modern world.

			:<blockquote>"In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic."<ref>Karl Marx, (1845). '']'', Marx-Engels Institute, Moscow. ISBN 1573922587. Sources available at </ref>
	Marxism seeks to explain historical phenomena in terms of ]. According to Marxists, human society consists of a number of ]es, which are differentiated by their relationship to the ]. For example, ] society consists of the ] (the capitalists; those who own the means of production) and the ] (the workers; those who must work for wages in order to make a living, because they do not posess any means of production of their own). One social class is the ], and it uses its wealth and power to ] the other class(es). For example, in capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat by drawing a profit from the proletariat's work (a business owner's profit equals what the workers produce minus what the workers get paid - thus, in order for the owner to make a profit, the workers must get paid less than what they deserve; see ]). Eventually, one of the exploited classes rises up to overthrow the ruling class and the existing system, establishing itself as the new ruling class of a new system (for example, capitalism was established when the bourgeoisie overthrew feudalism and the feudal ruling class - the aristocracy).
			</blockquote>

			Marx's lasting vision was to add this vision to a positive scientific theory of how society was moving in a law-governed way toward communism, and, with some tension, a political theory that explained why revolutionary activity was required to bring it about.
	As a result of the process described above, class struggle is the engine of a cycle in which socio-economic systems are created, destroyed and replaced. Marxism identifies several systems that have been created and destroyed by it since the beginning of human history. However, social classes - and therefore class struggle - have not always existed. They were created at the dawn of human civilization, when nomadic tribes first settled down and started practicing ]. Before that, human beings lived in a kind of classless society that can be described as ]. Primitive communism ended when agriculture created the conditions for private property over the means of production (which, at that time, simply meant private property over cultivated land). This private ownership of land differentiated people into land owners and those who needed to work other people's land for a living, and this in turn resulted in the slave-based system of the ancient world. That system eventually gave way to ], which eventually gave way to ].

			By the end of the nineteenth century the terms "socialism" and "communism" were often used interchangeably. However, Marx and Engels argued that communism would not emerge from capitalism in a fully developed state, but would pass through a "first phase" in which most productive property was owned in common, but with some class differences remaining. The "first phase" would eventually give way to a "higher phase" in which class differences were eliminated, and a state was no longer needed. Lenin frequently used the term "socialism" to refer to Marx and Engels' supposed "first phase" of communism and used the term "communism" interchangeably with Marx and Engels' "higher phase" of communism.
	According to Marxism, the class struggle within capitalism will eventually lead to the proletariat overthrowing the bourgeoisie and establishing ]. Socialism, in turn, will result in the gradual fading of social classes (as the means of production are made public property), which will lead to the final stage of human society - communism.

			These later aspects, particularly as developed by Lenin, provided the underpinning for the mobilizing features of 20th century Communist parties. Later writers modified Marx's vision {{fact}} by allotting a central place to the state in the development of such societies, by arguing for a prolonged transition period of socialism prior to the attainment of full communism.
	And that is the Marxist foundation for communism. Communism cannot change into another system because class struggle - the mechanism that drives such changes - no longer exists.

			Some of Marx's contemporaries, such as the anarchist ], espoused similar ideas, but differed in their views of how to reach to a harmonic society with no classes. To this day there has been a split in the workers movement between Marxist communists and ]. The anarchists are against, and wish to abolish, every state organization. Among them, ]s such as ] believed in an immediate transition to one society with no classes under gift economics, while ]s believe that labor unions, as opposed to Communist parties, are the organizations that can help change the society.
	Within Marxism, there are several different trends. The largest of these trends is ], which was based on the writings and actions of ]. According to Lenin, capitalism can only be overthrown by a ], not by parliamentary means. Furthermore, in opposition to Marx, Lenin argued that the revolution would occur first in the less developed nations, and that it would require a "vanguard of the proletariat" composed of a relatively small, tightly organized ] of workers de-classed intellectuals (see the article on ] for an explanation of the differences between Lenin and Marx, and their basis).

			==The growth of modern Communism==
	Most (but by no means all) present-day communists are of the Leninist variety.
			{{main\|Marxism-Leninism \|History of the Soviet Union}}

			In Russia, the 1917 October Revolution was the first time any party with an avowedly Marxist orientation, in this case the ], seized state power. The assumption of state power by the Bolsheviks generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx believed that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development. Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate ] and a minority of industrial workers. It should be noted, however, that Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois capitalism. Other socialists also believed that a Russian revolution could be the precursor of workers' revolutions in the west.
	== Leninism versus Democratic Socialism ==

			The moderate socialist ]s opposed Lenin's communist Bolsheviks' plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Bolsheviks successful rise to power was based upon the slogans "peace, bread, and land" and "All power to the Soviets," slogans which tapped the massive public desire for an end to Russian involvement in the ], the peasants' demand for ], and popular support for the ].
	As explained above, according to Marxism, the laws of class struggle would drive capitalism to evolve into socialism and then, eventually, into communism. However, Marx never claimed to know exactly how long this process would take, and Marxists have often made very different speculations on the subject. Some of the more optimistic ones believed that capitalism would begin to fall apart by the beginning of the 20th century. But as the years around 1900 came and went, with capitalist society showing no signs of collapse, these Marxists began to search for an explanation.

			The usage of the terms "communism" and "socialism" shifted after 1917, when the Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party and installed a ] devoted to the implementation of socialist policies under ]. The ] had dissolved in ] over national divisions, as the separate national parties that composed it did not maintain a unified front against the ], instead generally supporting their respective nation's role. Lenin thus created the ] (Comintern) in ] and sent the ], which included ], to all European socialist parties willing to adhere. In France, for example, the majority of the ] socialist party splitted in 1921 to form the ] (French Section of the Communist International). Henceforth, the term "Communism" was applied to the objective of the parties founded under the umbrella of the Comintern. Their program called for the uniting of workers of the world for revolution, which would be followed by the establishment of a ] as well as the development of a socialist economy. Ultimately, their program held, there would develop a harmonious classless society, with the withering away of the state. Following the "]" period, the Bolcheviks formed in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or ], from the former ]. In the middle of the ] (1918-1920), the Bolcheviks ] all productive property. After three years of war and the 1921 ], Lenin declared the ] (NEP) in 1921, which was to do a "limited place for a limited time to capitalism." The NEP lasted until 1930, when ]'s personal fight for leadership spelled the end of it.
	Some eventually concluded that a socialist society could be created without revolution, and could be brought about through the process of reforming existing capitalist institutions. This ideology became known as ] (not to be confused with ]) and formed the basis on which a number of political parties were founded, including the ] and the ].

			Following Lenin's democratic centralism, the Communist parties were organized on a hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base; they were made up only of elite ]s {{fact}} approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and completely subject to ].
	Others, however - including people such as ] and ] - argued that Marx had failed to analyze capitalism as a global system (since he had concentrated on the issue of how capitalism works and develops inside a single country). They looked at the larger picture, and concluded that capitalism was entering a new stage (called "]" by Lenin), in which rich countries colonized and exploited poorer ones (in much the same way as the rich exploited the poor within a single country). Therefore, a revolution in the poor countries - or a ] - was needed in order to begin the process of overthrowing capitalism and moving towards socialism (with the final aim of reaching communism). This ideology became known as ], and formed the basis on which the political parties of the ] were founded.

			The Soviet Union and other countries ruled by Communist Parties are often described as ']s' with 'state socialist' economic bases. This usage indicates that they proclaim that they have realized part of the socialist program by abolishing private control of the means of production and establishing state control over the economy; however, they do not declare themselves truly communist, as they have not established communal ownership.
	Thus, by the 1920's, Marxism had split into three distinct branches: The "classical" Marxists (those who held the original 19th century Marxist views), the Democratic Socialists and the Leninists.

			====Stalinism====
	It was the Leninist branch of Marxism that used the terms "communism" and "communist" most extensively. All political parties calling themselves "The Communist Party of " were/are Leninist parties.
			{{main\|Stalinism}}

			The Stalinist version of socialism, with some important modifications, shaped the Soviet Union and influenced Communist Parties worldwide. It was heralded as a possibility of building communism via a massive program of ] and ]. The rapid development of industry, and above all the victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, maintained that vision throughout the world, even around a decade following Stalin's death, when the party adopted a program in which it promised the establishment of communism within thirty years.
	== Stalinism versus Trotskyism ==

			However, under Stalin's leadership, evidence emerged that dented faith in the possibility of achieving communism within the framework of the Soviet model. Stalin had created in the Soviet Union a repressive state that dominated every aspect of life. Later, growth declined, and ] and ] by state officials increased, which dented the legitimacy of the Soviet system.
	In the early 1930's, Leninism itself fractured in two distinct branches: ] and ]. The reasons for this split revolved around the controversial policies of ] in the ]. Previous to Stalin's rise to power, the ] functioned on a democratic system (known as ]) and members were encouraged to form their own opinions. It was believed that freedom of speech and diversity helped strengthen the Party (and Soviet society in general). As such, a number of different currents of opinion formed within the Communist Party. The two most prominent of these were headed by Joseph Stalin and ], respectively. Stalin argued for the consolidation of ] (even one as underdeveloped as Russia was at that time) and claimed that, due to the ], it was necessary to enforce strict Party discipline and eliminate all dissent. Trotsky argued that the fate of socialism in the Soviet Union depended on the fate of socialist and communist revolutions around the world (therefore supporting the thesis of ]), and claimed that Stalin's authoritarian practices were harmful and dangerous (therefore calling for more ], both inside the Party and throughout the Soviet Union in general).

			Despite the activity of the ], the Soviet Communist Party adopted the ] theory of "]" and claimed that, due to the "]," it was possible, even necessary, to build socialism in one country alone. This departure from Marxist internationalism was challenged by ], whose theory of "]" stressed the necessity of world revolution.
	Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining full control of the Party and the Soviet government. He went ahead with his policies, which became known as Stalinism. Trotsky and his supporters organized into the so-called ], and their platform became known as Trotskyism. However, their attempts to remove Stalin from power failed. Stalin imprisoned, executed or exiled all dissenters - especially the Trotskyists. Trotsky himself was exiled, and eventually assasinated in Mexico in 1940 by a Stalinist agent.

			====Trotskyism====
	After ] and during the ], Stalinism spread to a number of new countries, and gave rise to a few different branches of its own. No country was ever ruled by Trotskyists.
			{{main\|Trotskyism}}

			Trotsky and his supporters organized into the "]," and their platform became known as ]. But Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining full control of the Soviet regime, and their attempts to remove Stalin from power resulted in Trotsky's exile from the Soviet Union in ]. After Trotsky's exile, world communism fractured in two distinct branches: ] and ]. Trotsky later founded the ], a Trotskyist rival to the Comintern, in ].
	==Other forms of communism==

			Most recently, Trotskyist ideas have occasionally found an echo among political movements in countries, such as ], where the ] has had contact with President ] of ]. Many Trotskyist parties are also active in politically stable, developed countries such as ], ], ] and ].
	Many communist societies (]s) have existed throughout history, and many non-Marxist (or pre-Marxist) Western intellectuals advocated ideas quite similar to what is today known as communism.

			However, as a whole, Trotsky's theories and attitudes were never re-accepted in worldwide mainstream communist circles after Trotsky's expulsion, either within or outside of the ]. This remained the case even after the ] and subsequent events exposed the fallibility of ] and ]. Today, even given the fact that there are areas of the world where Trotskyist movements are rather large, the rest of the communist movement, and the working class as a whole, continues to not take Trotskyism seriously enough to coalesce in a mass movement around it or any of its offshoots. Thus, Trotskyism has never been successful in building a mass ] capable of overthrowing a capitalist state apparatus.
	The first ], as well as many later groups of ]s and ]s, lived in communities organized according to communist principles. See ] for more information.

			===Maoism===
	]'s ] work '']'' depicted a society organised along communist lines.
			{{main\|Maoism}}
			<!-- This text might be more relevant in a [[history of communism article:
			Although the CPC was established in 1921, communism in China had been prevalent beforehand. Socialist ideas had begun to arrive in China during the late 19th century, and by 1907, ] was the dominant form of socialist thought in China. Following the overthrow of the ] in the and the establishment of the ], communist activities in China increased dramatically, and many leftist groups were accepted into or regarded as allies of the Nationalist ] (KMT) which was then headed by the ] revolutionary ].

			Following ]'s ], seizure of power and takeover of the Chinese central government, the Kuomintang faced setbacks, but following his death China descended into ], thus making Kuomintang and leader Sun Yat-Sen a promising ally for the Soviet Union, who set aid and advisors to China. The CPC was initially allied with many of the leftists in the KMT, and originally the entire KMT itself in the '']''. The CPC had also been instructed by the Comintern to cooperate with the KMT. Chinese anarchism at this point started to decline as Soviet and CPC influence increased, due to ], and the CPC overtook the anarchists in popularity.
	Ideas of communal ownership evolved during ], exerting varying amounts of influence on the '']''. The greatest of these influences were on ], the ], ] (whose thoughts extensively influenced the ], in particular the ]) and other revolutionary egalitarian clubs embodied in persons like ].

			After Sun Yat-Sen's death, his successor ] sought to purge many factions which he deemed dangerous, which included the leftist factions within the KMT, the CPC, the Soviet advisors and the warlords. This sparked the ]. The breakdown caused the establishment of two KMT governments in ] and ] for the left-wing and right-wing factions respectively, and eventually a fallout between the left-wing portion of the KMT and the CPC themselves.
	Many ] idealists, disgusted by the ongoing oppression and mass poverty created by the ], broke away from society to form short-lived communal "utopias". An example was ]'s '']'' community in ]. People who believe that communism can be implemented in such a way are called ] by Marxists.

			The administration at Wuhan would eventually fall, as did the warlords following Chiang's successful ]. Eventually the CPC, after having almost faced total annihilation in the ] recovered their strength and built up a massive positive reputation among the peasants in the ] from 1937 to 1945 while the the KMT became exhausted from fighting the ]. The CPC ended up taking over most of China, with the KMT fleeing to Taiwan.-->
	The French philosopher ], in his book "Voyage et aventures de lord William Carisdall en Icarie" ("Travel and adventures of lord William Carisdall in Icaria") (]), depicted an ideal society in which an elected government controlled all economic activity and supervised social affairs, the family remaining the only other independent unit. In ] he attempted to organize ''Icarian communities'' in the United States. His efforts were mostly in vain, but small Icarian communities existed even after his death, until ].

			After the death of Stalin in ], the Soviet Union's new leader, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced Stalin's crimes and his ]. He called for a return to the principles of Lenin, thus presaging some change in Communist methods. However, Khrushchev's reforms heightened ideological differences between China and the Soviet Union, which became increasingly apparent in the ]. As the ] in the international Communist movement turned toward open hostility, China portrayed itself as a leader of the underdeveloped world against the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.
	The short-lived ] (]) was arguably the main example followed by revolutionaries of the early 20th Century, and also the largest historical example of a communist society. The Communards held ] for two months against Prussian/German and French government soldiers. The Commune passed various laws reducing the power of property owners, such as cancelling rents and debts, before being bloodily suppressed. Marx later criticized the Commune for being too timid to secure its own survival, but praised it as the first successful revolution of the working class.

			Parties and groups that supported the ] in their criticism against the new Soviet leadership proclaimed themselves as 'anti-Revisionist' and that the CPSU and the parties aligned with it were ], "capitalist-roaders." Around the world the Sino-Soviet split resulted in splits and forming of new parties. Notably, the ] sided with China. Effectively CPC under Mao's leadership became the rallying forces of a parallel international Communist tendency. The ideology of CPC, ] (generally referred to as 'Maoism'), was adopted by many of these groups.
	Today, a small number of people, primarily from industrialized nations, have, like the Owenites, opted to "drop out" of the existing society, preferring to live on communes of their own design. This movement saw its zenith during the ] phenomenon of the 1960s and 70s in the West, and such people have been characterized as new ]s or ].

			One notable example of the influence of ] ideas of an egalitarian agrarian revolution under Mao's conception of ] was ], lead by ] and to a lesser degree ], although these are not considered Maoist parties. Still, China and North Korea were the only communist states where Khmer Rouge delegations visited during their reign. Later, China was to arm ] rebels, after they had been overthrown by Vietnamese invasion.
	Also in the present day, the tradition of religious communism continues in the form of Jewish ]im.

			After the death of Mao and the take-over of ], the international Maoist movement fell in disarray. One sector accepted the new leadership in China, a second renounced the new leadership and reaffirmed their commitment to Mao's legacy and a third renounced Maoism altogether and aligned with the Albanian Communist party.
	==The future of communism==

			===Other anti-revisionist currents===
	As with all attempts to forsee the future, it is difficult to tell with any degree of confidence what is in store for communism. And, of course, any prediction depends on which "communism" we are talking about (the social system, the ideology, or the political movement).
			After the break-up between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania in 1978, the Albanians rallied a new separate international tendency. This tendency would demarcate itself by a strict defense of the legacy of Joseph Stalin and fierce criticism of virtually all other Communist groupings. The Albanians were able to win over a large share of the Maoists in ], most notably the ]. This tendency has occasionally been labeled as 'Hoxhaism' after the Albanian Communist leader ].

			After the fall of the Communist government in Albania, the pro-Albanian parties are grouped around an ] and the publication 'Unity and Struggle'. Another important institution for them is the biannual ], which was initiated in 1970s.
	As a political movement, made up of parties and individuals that consider themselves communist (in the Marxist-Leninist sense), communism is tied up practically and ideologically with the ] and the ] movement. The tide of the communist movement can generally be gauged by the success of the labor and anti-globalization movements.

			==Cold War years==
	Outside of the industrialized core of developed nations, the communist movement takes on legal and extra-legal dimensions. There are several dozen ] groups in the world which identify themselves as communist in one form or another. In places like ], the ], ] and south-east Asia, the success of communism can be gauged by the success of guerrilla wars. In countries with strong Communist Parties, such as ] or ], the success of communism can be gauged by the success of those political parties.
			As the Soviet Union won important allies by victory in the ] in Eastern Europe, communism as a movement spread to a number of new countries, and gave rise to a few different branches of its own, such as ].

			Communism had been vastly strengthened by the winning of many new nations into the sphere of Soviet influence and strength in Eastern Europe. Governments modeled on Soviet Communism took power with Soviet assistance in ], ], ], ], ] and ]. A Communist government was also created under ] in ], but Tito's independent policies led to the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the ], which had replaced the ], and ], a new branch in the world communist movement, was labeled "]." ] also became an independent Communist nation after World War II.
	As far as "communist states" are concerned, there are five countries still ruled by Communist Parties belonging to the Stalinist tradition: ] (the ]), ], ], ] and ]. However, the experiences of these five states have starkly diverged, especially since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. On the one hand, ] and ] were hit hard by the lack of Soviet economic assistance, trade and military support. On the other hand, the world's other three remaining communist states (all in ]) were far less dependent on Soviet subsidies (and in China's case, not at all, given the ]) at the time of the collapse of the ].

			By ] the ] held all of ], thus controlling the most populous nation in the world. Other areas where rising Communist strength provoked dissension and in some cases actual fighting include ], many nations of the Middle East and Africa, and, especially, ] (''see'' ]). With varying degrees of success, Communists attempted to unite with nationalist and socialist forces against what they saw as Western imperialism in these poor countries.
	Following the lead of China under ], Vietnam and Laos have moved away from Soviet-style ], in favour of a private market economy that (at least in China's case) is very difficult to distinguish from outright capitalism. China has been particularly aggressive in its pursuit of "socialism with Chinese characteristics", even to the point of admitting entrepreneurs to the Communist Party. Therefore, China today is generally regarded as being capitalist ''de facto'', with just a little higher degree of government control than is seen in conventional capitalist countries. Many Marxists also regard the other four remaining "communist states" as being ] rather than socialist.

			==Communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union==
	In the early ], some thinkers have seen the prospect of communism emerging from a different direction. Economic and technological development have always been seen as key prerequisites to communism (Marx himself insisted on this point), and certain scholars are wondering whether our current technological development is leading in the direction of something that will essentially be a form of communism.
			In 1985, ] became leader of the Soviet Union and relaxed central control, in accordance with reform policies of ] (openness) and ] (restructuring). The Soviet Union did not intervene as ], ], ], ], ], and ] all abandoned Communist rule by ]. In ], the Soviet Union itself dissolved.

			By the beginning of the ], states under control by Communist parties under a single-party system include the ], ], ], ], and ]. President ] of ] is a member of the ], but the country is not run under single-party rule. Communist parties, or their descendent parties, remain politically important in many European countries and throughout the Third World, particularly in ].
	This vision is slowly coming to fruition. While the majority of Western economists and politicians follow ] in the belief that capitalism will endure forever, or simply do not have any theories spanning beyond it, some paint a vision not unlike the one described by Marx. In a particularly well-publicized example, ], a renowned web entrepreneur, described in his book ''Manna'' a world built with the help of ] that fits the classic definition of communism perfectly. Thus, though they shy away from the word "communism" itself (because of its negative connotations), some authors today actually describe how communism could be built in the 21st century.

			The People's Republic of China has reassessed many aspects of the Maoist legacy; and the People's Republic of China, Laos, Vietnam, and, to a lesser degree, Cuba have reduced state control of the economy in order to stimulate growth. The People's Republic of China runs ]s dedicated to market-oriented enterprise, free from central government control. Several other communist states have also attempted to implement market-based reforms, including Vietnam. Officially, the leadership of the People's Republic of China refers to its policies as "]."
	==Critiques==

			Theories within Marxism as to why communism in Eastern Europe was not achieved after socialist revolutions pointed to such elements as the pressure of external capitalist states, the relative backwardness of the societies in which the revolutions occurred, and the emergence of a bureaucratic stratum or class that arrested or diverted the transition press in its own interests. Marxist critics of the Soviet Union referred to the Soviet system, along with other Communist states, as "]," arguing that Soviet system fell far short of Marx's communist ideal. They argued that the state and party bureaucratic elite acted as a surrogate capitalist class in the heavily centralized and repressive political apparatus.
	''Critiques of "communist states" are to be found at: ].''

			Non-Marxists, in contrast, have often applied the term to any society ruled by a Communist Party and to any party aspiring to create a society similar to such existing nation-states. In the social sciences, societies ruled by Communist Parties are distinct for their single party control and their socialist economic bases. While ] applied the concept of "]" to these societies, many social scientists identified possibilities for independent political activity within them, and stressed their continued evolution up to the point of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s.<ref>{{cite journal\|author=H. Gordon Skilling\|date=April 1966\|title=Interest Groups and Communist Politics\|journal=World Politics\|volume=18\|issue=3\|pages=435-451}}�UNIQ3ab34e171166e61b-HTMLCommentStrip7c7dfbc41ccbeb7000000002</ref><ref>{{cite book\|author=Arch Getty\|year=1985\|title=Origins of the Great Purges: The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered: 1933-1938\|publisher=Cambridge University Press\|id=ISBN 0521335701}}</ref>
	=== Economic development ===
	According to Marxists, economic development is a major engine in human society. It can change the form of society and allow more efficient production. The Marxist case for communism is based not only on moral (ethical) concerns (i.e. "communism is good because it eliminates exploitation, gives most people a better life than in capitalism, etc."), but also on concerns of economic efficiency (i.e. "communism is good because it is more efficient than capitalism"). These claims regarding the superior efficiency of communism are highly contested by capitalist economists.
	<!--Before you add anything, keep in mind that criticisms of communist states - such as things related to their death toll - go in the communist state article-->

			Today, Marxist revolutionaries are active in ], ], and ].
	Also, number of arguments are presented against ], which was a base of most ]s.

			==Criticism of communism==
	=== Human nature ===
			:''Main article: ].''

	One line of criticism of communism has always been that it ignores (or pays attention to, but is wrong about) ] -- for example, that it would remove ]s necessary for productivity, that it would require super-human calculational ability on the part of planners (or voters, or workers council members).

			A diverse array of writers and political activists have published criticism of communism, such as Soviet bloc dissidents ] and ]; social theorists ], ], ], ], and ]; economists ], ], and ]; historians and social scientists ], ], and ]; anti-communist leftists ], ], ], ], and ]; novelist ]; and philosophers ] and ]. Some writers such as Conquest go beyond attributing large-scale human rights abuses to Communist regimes, presenting events occurring in these countries, particularly under Stalin, who rejected the form of fair treatment, as an argument against Marxism itself. Some of the critics were former Marxists, such as Wittfogel, who applied Marx's concept of "Oriental Despotism" to communist societies such as the ], and Silone, Wright, Koestler (among other writers) who contributed essays to the book '']'' (the title refers not to the Christian God but Marxism itself).
	To such objections, communists reply that human nature is being misrepresented by capitalists.

			There have also been more direct ], such as criticisms of the ] or Marx's predictions. Nevertheless, Communist parties outside of the ], such as the Communist parties in Western Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa, differed greatly. Thus a criticism that is applicable to one such party is not necessarily applicable to another.
	==Related topics==

			==Comparing "Communism" to "communism"==
			According to the ] third edition of '']'', ''communism'' and derived words are written with the ] "c" except when they refer to a political party of that name, a member of that party, or a government led by such a party, in which case the word "Communist" is written with the ] "C." Thus, one may be a communist (an advocate of communism) without being a Communist (a member of a Communist Party or another similar organization).

			==See also==
			{{Political ideology entry points}}

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	==Further reading==
	* Rodney Carlisle and James H. Lide, ''Complete Idiot's Guide to Communism'', , March, 2002, trade paperback, 362 pages, ISBN 0028643143
	* Francois and Deborah Furet, ''Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century'', University of Chicago Press, 1999, hardcover, 506 pages, ISBN 0226273407

	==External links==		==External links==
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			===Online resources for original Marxist literature===
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	===Communist Parties===
	Communist parties are too numerous and diverse to list here. See ].

	===Other===
	* - a Web site dedicated to Che Guevara, featuring the Internet's largest leftist, and particularly communist, .

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Revision as of 20:10, 9 June 2006

v t e Communism
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This article is about communism as a political movement and a form of society. For issues regarding communist organizations, see the communist party article. For issues regarding communist party-run states, see Communist state.

Communism is a political ideology that seeks to establish a future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production. It can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. The term communism also refers to a variety of politics claiming the establishment of such a social organization as their fundamental intention. Early forms of human social organization have been described as "primitive communism," but communism as a political goal generally is a conjectured form of future social organization which has never been implemented.

Especially when the word is capitalized, Communism is often meant to refer to the political and economic regimes of communist states under a communist party which claimed to be implementing the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx held that society could not be transformed from the capitalist mode of production to the communist mode of production all at once; rather, it required a transitional period of state ownership over the means of production.

There is a considerable variety of views among self-identified communists, including Maoism, Trotskyism, council communism, Luxemburgism, and various currents of left communism; these are generally considered to be the more widespread varieties worldwide. However, various offshoots of the Soviet (what critics call the "Stalinist") and Maoist forms of Marxism-Leninism comprise a particular branch of communism that has the distinction of having been the primary driving force for communism in world politics during most of the 20th Century. The competing branch of Trotskyism has not had such a distinction.

In the late 19th century Marxist theories motivated socialist parties across Europe, although their policies later developed along the lines of "reforming" capitalism, rather than overthrowing it. The exception was the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party. One branch of this party, commonly known as the Bolsheviks and headed by Vladimir Lenin, succeeded in taking control of the country after the toppling of the Provisional Government in the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1918, this party changed its name to the Communist Party, thus establishing the contemporary distinction between communism and other trends of socialism. After the success of the October Revolution in Russia, many socialist parties in other countries became communist parties, signaling varying degrees of allegiance to the new Communist Party of the Soviet Union; see Communist International. After World War II, regimes calling themselves communist took power in Eastern Europe.

In 1949, communists in China came to power and established the People's Republic of China. From the sixties until the death of its principal leader, Mao Zedong, the Communist Party of China was the main inspiration for the worldwide communist social movement. During the 1960s and 1970s "Mao Zedong Thought" represented a powerful branch of communism that existed in opposition to the Soviet Union's "revisionism" of "peaceful coexistence". Meanwhile, beginning in the early 1970s, the term "Eurocommunism" was used to refer to the policies of communist parties in western Europe which sought to break with the tradition of uncritical and unconditional support of the Soviet Union and align more closely with the new social movements. Such parties were especially politically active and electorally significant in France and Italy, where the French Communist Party and the Italian Communist Party had played a defining role in anti-fascist resistance movements during World War II and continued to exercise significant political clout well after the war. Among the other countries in the Third World that adopted a communist form of government at some point were Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Angola, and Mozambique. By the early 1980s almost one-third of the world's population lived in Communist states.

In the case of the Communist Party of China, the adoption of a so-called "socialist market economy" — formally known as "socialism with Chinese characteristics" — has in the past few decades led many communists and communist parties worldwide to argue that it has either partially or completely abandoned communism for capitalism (a charge the CPC vigorously denies). The Communist Party of Vietnam's adoption of doi moi has led to similar allegations from critics, as have recent Communist Party of Cuba policies dating from during and after the "Special Period" of the 1990s. Meanwhile, in North Korea, Marxism-Leninism has been officially superseded by the ideology of Juche.

The strong social stigma communism tends to carry in the United States is generally due to a history of anti-communism in that country. Despite this, many sections of South America, Central America and Latin America continue to have strong communist movements of various types. With the collapse of the communist governments in eastern Europe in the late 1980s and the breakup of the Soviet Union on December 8, 1991, communism's influence as a cohesive, unified social movement around the world has been noticeably reduced, although it is still much stronger throughout Europe than it is, or ever was, in the United States. Around a quarter of the world's population still lives in Communist states.

Early communism

Main article: History of communism

The notion of communism has a history long predating Marx and Engels. In ancient Greece the idea of communism was connected to a myth about the "golden age" of humanity, when society lived in full harmony, before the development of private property. Some have argued that Plato's The Republic and works by other ancient political theorists advocated communism in the form of communal living, and that various early Christian sects, in particular the early Church, as recorded in Acts of the Apostles, and indigenous tribes in the pre-Columbian Americas practiced communism in the form of communal living and common ownership. (see Christian communism)

In the 16th century, Thomas More portrayed a society based on common ownership of property, whose leaders administered it through the application of reason in his 1516 treatise Utopia. François Rabelais also described such an utopian society in his books through the mythic Abbey of Thélème. In the 17th century, communist thought arguably surfaced again in England. Eduard Bernstein, in his 1895 Cromwell and Communism argued that several groupings in the English Civil War, especially the Diggers (or "True Levellers") espoused clear communistic, agrarian ideals, and that Oliver Cromwell's attitude to these groups was at best ambivalent and often hostile.

Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Enlightenment era of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The word "communist" itself was coined in 1840 by Goodwyn Barmby, after the French word communisme, while discussing the egalitarianism associated with Gracchus Babeuf, one of the most radical participant in the 1789 French Revolution, and the Abbé Constant. A correspondent of Engels, Goodwyn Barmby himself founded the London Communist Propaganda Society in 1841. "Utopian socialism," a term itself coined by Marx in contrast with "scientific socialism" (a term coined by Engels), designed all utopian writings and foundation of settlements by writers such as Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, and Saint-Simon.

Karl Marx saw primitive communism as the original hunter-gatherer state of mankind from which it arose. When humanity was capable of producing surplus, private property developed, society became unequal, resulting in classical society, and then to the feudal mode of production, to its current state of capitalism reached by a violent primitive accumulation of capital, which in part depended on the development of mercantilism. He then proposed that the next step in social evolution would be a return to communism, but at a higher level than when mankind had originally practiced primitive communism (in accordance with the influence of Hegel's dialectic on Marx).

In its contemporary form, communism grew out of the workers' movement of 19th century Europe. At the time, as the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for creating a new class of unskilled, urban factory workers who labored under harsh conditions, and for widening the gulf between rich and poor. Engels, who lived in Manchester, observed the organization of the Chartist movement (see History of British socialism), while Marx departed from his university comrades to meet the proletariat in France and Germany.

Marxism

Main article: Marxism

Like other socialists, Marx and Engels sought an end to capitalism and the systems which they perceived to be responsible for the exploitation of workers. But whereas earlier socialists often favored longer-term social reform, Marx and Engels believed that popular revolution was all but inevitable, and the only path to socialism.

According to the Marxist argument for communism, the main characteristic of human life in class society is alienation; and communism is desirable because it entails the full realization of human freedom. Marx here follows Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in conceiving freedom not merely as an absence of constraints but as action having moral content. They believed that communism allowed people to do what they want but also put humans in such conditions and such relations with one another that they would not wish to have need for exploitation. Whereas for Hegel, the unfolding of this ethical life in history is mainly driven by the realm of ideas, for Marx, communism emerged from material, especially the development of the means of production.

Marxism holds that a process of class conflict and revolutionary struggle will result in victory for the proletariat and the establishment of a communist society in which private ownership is abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community. Marx himself wrote little about life under communism, giving only the most general indication as to what constituted a communist society. It is clear that it entails abundance in which there is little limit to the projects that humans may undertake. In the popular slogan that was adopted by the communist movement, communism was a world in which 'each gave according to his abilities, and received according to his needs.' The German Ideology (1845) was one of Marx's few writings to elaborate on the communist future:

"In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic."

Marx's lasting vision was to add this vision to a positive scientific theory of how society was moving in a law-governed way toward communism, and, with some tension, a political theory that explained why revolutionary activity was required to bring it about.

By the end of the nineteenth century the terms "socialism" and "communism" were often used interchangeably. However, Marx and Engels argued that communism would not emerge from capitalism in a fully developed state, but would pass through a "first phase" in which most productive property was owned in common, but with some class differences remaining. The "first phase" would eventually give way to a "higher phase" in which class differences were eliminated, and a state was no longer needed. Lenin frequently used the term "socialism" to refer to Marx and Engels' supposed "first phase" of communism and used the term "communism" interchangeably with Marx and Engels' "higher phase" of communism.

These later aspects, particularly as developed by Lenin, provided the underpinning for the mobilizing features of 20th century Communist parties. Later writers modified Marx's vision by allotting a central place to the state in the development of such societies, by arguing for a prolonged transition period of socialism prior to the attainment of full communism.

Some of Marx's contemporaries, such as the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, espoused similar ideas, but differed in their views of how to reach to a harmonic society with no classes. To this day there has been a split in the workers movement between Marxist communists and anarchists. The anarchists are against, and wish to abolish, every state organization. Among them, anarchist-communists such as Peter Kropotkin believed in an immediate transition to one society with no classes under gift economics, while anarcho-syndicalists believe that labor unions, as opposed to Communist parties, are the organizations that can help change the society.

The growth of modern Communism

Main articles: Marxism-Leninism and History of the Soviet Union

In Russia, the 1917 October Revolution was the first time any party with an avowedly Marxist orientation, in this case the Bolshevik Party, seized state power. The assumption of state power by the Bolsheviks generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx believed that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development. Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. It should be noted, however, that Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois capitalism. Other socialists also believed that a Russian revolution could be the precursor of workers' revolutions in the west.

The moderate socialist Mensheviks opposed Lenin's communist Bolsheviks' plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Bolsheviks successful rise to power was based upon the slogans "peace, bread, and land" and "All power to the Soviets," slogans which tapped the massive public desire for an end to Russian involvement in the First World War, the peasants' demand for land reform, and popular support for the Soviets.

The usage of the terms "communism" and "socialism" shifted after 1917, when the Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party and installed a single-party regime devoted to the implementation of socialist policies under Leninism. The Second International had dissolved in 1916 over national divisions, as the separate national parties that composed it did not maintain a unified front against the war, instead generally supporting their respective nation's role. Lenin thus created the Third International (Comintern) in 1919 and sent the Twenty-one Conditions, which included democratic centralism, to all European socialist parties willing to adhere. In France, for example, the majority of the SFIO socialist party splitted in 1921 to form the SFIC (French Section of the Communist International). Henceforth, the term "Communism" was applied to the objective of the parties founded under the umbrella of the Comintern. Their program called for the uniting of workers of the world for revolution, which would be followed by the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat as well as the development of a socialist economy. Ultimately, their program held, there would develop a harmonious classless society, with the withering away of the state. Following the "war communism" period, the Bolcheviks formed in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Soviet Union, from the former Russian Empire. In the middle of the Russian Civil War (1918-1920), the Bolcheviks nationalized all productive property. After three years of war and the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion, Lenin declared the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, which was to do a "limited place for a limited time to capitalism." The NEP lasted until 1930, when Joseph Stalin's personal fight for leadership spelled the end of it.

Following Lenin's democratic centralism, the Communist parties were organized on a hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base; they were made up only of elite cadres approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and completely subject to party discipline.

The Soviet Union and other countries ruled by Communist Parties are often described as 'Communist states' with 'state socialist' economic bases. This usage indicates that they proclaim that they have realized part of the socialist program by abolishing private control of the means of production and establishing state control over the economy; however, they do not declare themselves truly communist, as they have not established communal ownership.

Stalinism

Main article: Stalinism

The Stalinist version of socialism, with some important modifications, shaped the Soviet Union and influenced Communist Parties worldwide. It was heralded as a possibility of building communism via a massive program of industrialization and collectivization. The rapid development of industry, and above all the victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, maintained that vision throughout the world, even around a decade following Stalin's death, when the party adopted a program in which it promised the establishment of communism within thirty years.

However, under Stalin's leadership, evidence emerged that dented faith in the possibility of achieving communism within the framework of the Soviet model. Stalin had created in the Soviet Union a repressive state that dominated every aspect of life. Later, growth declined, and rent-seeking and corruption by state officials increased, which dented the legitimacy of the Soviet system.

Despite the activity of the Comintern, the Soviet Communist Party adopted the Stalinist theory of "socialism in one country" and claimed that, due to the "aggravation of class struggle under socialism," it was possible, even necessary, to build socialism in one country alone. This departure from Marxist internationalism was challenged by Leon Trotsky, whose theory of "permanent revolution" stressed the necessity of world revolution.

Trotskyism

Main article: Trotskyism

Trotsky and his supporters organized into the "Left Opposition," and their platform became known as Trotskyism. But Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining full control of the Soviet regime, and their attempts to remove Stalin from power resulted in Trotsky's exile from the Soviet Union in 1929. After Trotsky's exile, world communism fractured in two distinct branches: Stalinism and Trotskyism. Trotsky later founded the Fourth International, a Trotskyist rival to the Comintern, in 1938.

Most recently, Trotskyist ideas have occasionally found an echo among political movements in countries, such as Venezuela, where the Committee for a Marxist International has had contact with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Many Trotskyist parties are also active in politically stable, developed countries such as Great Britain, France, Spain and Germany.

However, as a whole, Trotsky's theories and attitudes were never re-accepted in worldwide mainstream communist circles after Trotsky's expulsion, either within or outside of the Soviet bloc. This remained the case even after the Secret Speech and subsequent events exposed the fallibility of Stalinism and Maoism. Today, even given the fact that there are areas of the world where Trotskyist movements are rather large, the rest of the communist movement, and the working class as a whole, continues to not take Trotskyism seriously enough to coalesce in a mass movement around it or any of its offshoots. Thus, Trotskyism has never been successful in building a mass social movement capable of overthrowing a capitalist state apparatus.

Maoism

Main article: Maoism

After the death of Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union's new leader, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced Stalin's crimes and his cult of personality. He called for a return to the principles of Lenin, thus presaging some change in Communist methods. However, Khrushchev's reforms heightened ideological differences between China and the Soviet Union, which became increasingly apparent in the 1960s. As the Sino-Soviet Split in the international Communist movement turned toward open hostility, China portrayed itself as a leader of the underdeveloped world against the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.

Parties and groups that supported the Communist Party of China in their criticism against the new Soviet leadership proclaimed themselves as 'anti-Revisionist' and that the CPSU and the parties aligned with it were revisionist, "capitalist-roaders." Around the world the Sino-Soviet split resulted in splits and forming of new parties. Notably, the Party of Labour of Albania sided with China. Effectively CPC under Mao's leadership became the rallying forces of a parallel international Communist tendency. The ideology of CPC, Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-Tung Thought (generally referred to as 'Maoism'), was adopted by many of these groups.

One notable example of the influence of Maoist ideas of an egalitarian agrarian revolution under Mao's conception of New Democracy was Democratic Kampuchea, lead by Khmer Rouge and to a lesser degree Pol Pot, although these are not considered Maoist parties. Still, China and North Korea were the only communist states where Khmer Rouge delegations visited during their reign. Later, China was to arm Khmer Rouge rebels, after they had been overthrown by Vietnamese invasion.

After the death of Mao and the take-over of Deng Xiaoping, the international Maoist movement fell in disarray. One sector accepted the new leadership in China, a second renounced the new leadership and reaffirmed their commitment to Mao's legacy and a third renounced Maoism altogether and aligned with the Albanian Communist party.

Other anti-revisionist currents

After the break-up between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania in 1978, the Albanians rallied a new separate international tendency. This tendency would demarcate itself by a strict defense of the legacy of Joseph Stalin and fierce criticism of virtually all other Communist groupings. The Albanians were able to win over a large share of the Maoists in Latin America, most notably the Communist Party of Brazil. This tendency has occasionally been labeled as 'Hoxhaism' after the Albanian Communist leader Enver Hoxha.

After the fall of the Communist government in Albania, the pro-Albanian parties are grouped around an international conference and the publication 'Unity and Struggle'. Another important institution for them is the biannual International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Youth Camp, which was initiated in 1970s.

Cold War years

As the Soviet Union won important allies by victory in the Second World War in Eastern Europe, communism as a movement spread to a number of new countries, and gave rise to a few different branches of its own, such as Maoism.

Communism had been vastly strengthened by the winning of many new nations into the sphere of Soviet influence and strength in Eastern Europe. Governments modeled on Soviet Communism took power with Soviet assistance in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania. A Communist government was also created under Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia, but Tito's independent policies led to the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform, which had replaced the Comintern, and Titoism, a new branch in the world communist movement, was labeled "deviationist." Albania also became an independent Communist nation after World War II.

By 1950 the Chinese Communists held all of Mainland China, thus controlling the most populous nation in the world. Other areas where rising Communist strength provoked dissension and in some cases actual fighting include Laos, many nations of the Middle East and Africa, and, especially, Vietnam (see Vietnam War). With varying degrees of success, Communists attempted to unite with nationalist and socialist forces against what they saw as Western imperialism in these poor countries.

Communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union and relaxed central control, in accordance with reform policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). The Soviet Union did not intervene as Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary all abandoned Communist rule by 1990. In 1991, the Soviet Union itself dissolved.

By the beginning of the 21st century, states under control by Communist parties under a single-party system include the People's Republic of China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. President Vladimir Voronin of Moldova is a member of the Communist Party of Moldova, but the country is not run under single-party rule. Communist parties, or their descendent parties, remain politically important in many European countries and throughout the Third World, particularly in India.

The People's Republic of China has reassessed many aspects of the Maoist legacy; and the People's Republic of China, Laos, Vietnam, and, to a lesser degree, Cuba have reduced state control of the economy in order to stimulate growth. The People's Republic of China runs Special Economic Zones dedicated to market-oriented enterprise, free from central government control. Several other communist states have also attempted to implement market-based reforms, including Vietnam. Officially, the leadership of the People's Republic of China refers to its policies as "market socialism."

Theories within Marxism as to why communism in Eastern Europe was not achieved after socialist revolutions pointed to such elements as the pressure of external capitalist states, the relative backwardness of the societies in which the revolutions occurred, and the emergence of a bureaucratic stratum or class that arrested or diverted the transition press in its own interests. Marxist critics of the Soviet Union referred to the Soviet system, along with other Communist states, as "state capitalism," arguing that Soviet system fell far short of Marx's communist ideal. They argued that the state and party bureaucratic elite acted as a surrogate capitalist class in the heavily centralized and repressive political apparatus.

Non-Marxists, in contrast, have often applied the term to any society ruled by a Communist Party and to any party aspiring to create a society similar to such existing nation-states. In the social sciences, societies ruled by Communist Parties are distinct for their single party control and their socialist economic bases. While anticommunists applied the concept of "totalitarianism" to these societies, many social scientists identified possibilities for independent political activity within them, and stressed their continued evolution up to the point of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Today, Marxist revolutionaries are active in India, Nepal, and Colombia.

Criticism of communism

Main article: Criticisms of communism.

A diverse array of writers and political activists have published criticism of communism, such as Soviet bloc dissidents Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Václav Havel; social theorists Hannah Arendt, Raymond Aron, Ralf Dahrendorf, Seymour Martin Lipset, and Karl Wittfogel; economists Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman; historians and social scientists Robert Conquest, Richard Pipes, and R. J. Rummel; anti-communist leftists Ignazio Silone, Saul Alinsky, Richard Wright, Arthur Koestler, and Bernard-Henri Levy; novelist Ayn Rand; and philosophers Leszek Kołakowski and Karl Popper. Some writers such as Conquest go beyond attributing large-scale human rights abuses to Communist regimes, presenting events occurring in these countries, particularly under Stalin, who rejected the form of fair treatment, as an argument against Marxism itself. Some of the critics were former Marxists, such as Wittfogel, who applied Marx's concept of "Oriental Despotism" to communist societies such as the Soviet Union, and Silone, Wright, Koestler (among other writers) who contributed essays to the book The God that Failed (the title refers not to the Christian God but Marxism itself).

There have also been more direct criticisms of Marxism, such as criticisms of the labor theory of value or Marx's predictions. Nevertheless, Communist parties outside of the Warsaw Pact, such as the Communist parties in Western Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa, differed greatly. Thus a criticism that is applicable to one such party is not necessarily applicable to another.

Comparing "Communism" to "communism"

According to the 1996 third edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, communism and derived words are written with the lowercase "c" except when they refer to a political party of that name, a member of that party, or a government led by such a party, in which case the word "Communist" is written with the uppercase "C." Thus, one may be a communist (an advocate of communism) without being a Communist (a member of a Communist Party or another similar organization).

v t e Political ideologies
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See also	Authoritarianism Anti Collectivism Colonialism Culturalism Inter Mono Multi Extremism Federalism Globalism Imperialism Individualism Internationalism Localism Militarism Nihilism Pacifism Pluralism Populism Progressivism Reformism Regionalism Separatism Statism Syncretism Totalitarianism

References

Eduard Bernstein, (1895). Kommunistische und demokratisch-sozialistische Strömungen während der englischen Revolution, J.H.W. Dietz, Stuttgart. ISBN 081246303. Sources available at
Karl Marx, (1845). The German Ideology, Marx-Engels Institute, Moscow. ISBN 1573922587. Sources available at
H. Gordon Skilling (April 1966). "Interest Groups and Communist Politics". World Politics. 18 (3): 435–451.�UNIQ3ab34e171166e61b-HTMLCommentStrip7c7dfbc41ccbeb7000000002
Arch Getty (1985). Origins of the Great Purges: The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered: 1933-1938. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521335701.

Revision as of 20:10, 9 June 2006

Early communism

Marxism

The growth of modern Communism

Stalinism

Trotskyism

Maoism

Other anti-revisionist currents

Cold War years

Communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union

Criticism of communism

Comparing "Communism" to "communism"

See also

Schools of communism

Organisations and people

References

External links

Online resources for original Marxist literature

Wikinfo links