The principle idea of communism is that everything is shared equally amongst the people; there is no ownership of land, private business, or sometimes even individual choice. People were generally assigned jobs that served the greater good of the country, and they had no choice in the matter. Food and property were things shared by the masses, nobody could own land, a farmer could not even keep the crops he tended to, and everything was evenly distributed. While communism can be successfully implemented in urban society, it is not meant for rural societies.
After the Russian Revolution communist ideas began to spread throughout Russia. Many people supported these ideas, since Russia was struggling so much; people viewed this communist idea as a way out of suffering and a way to return Russia to its former glory. These ideas were spread in urban societies, so land ownership was a luxury only a select few could afford and with the multitude of impoverished people in the cities being jobless and homeless, ideas of equally shared food, employment, and housing were incredibly successful. These people supported the communist movement, since they had everything to gain from it. While support was building in the city, small rural communities were not pleased with the prospects of communism.
People in rural communities began hearing about these popular communist ideas, and were displeased. Since many communities were self-sufficient, or close to it, the prospect of sharing with other communities seemed unsavory. An excerpt from the book Red Bread, by the writer Maurice Hindus, shows the dissatisfaction that the peasants have with the communist agenda. Many people disliked the notion that they wouldn’t be able to rely on themselves for th...
... middle of paper ...
...ds of the urban societies made Russia’s communist society benefit the cities.
Communism is meant to serve all equally, but at the core it cannot accomplish that goal. The varying needs between urban and rural societies conflict greatly with one another, and both cannot be simultaneously satisfied. The working class living in urban centers would experience the best of communism, gaining a job, residence, and steady food supply out of it. While those living in the country would lose much more than they would gain, their property, independence, and piece of mind would all be robbed of them as the communist system was set into place, forcing them to work at large collective farms, and not allowing them to be able to stock up for themselves in case of a time of famine. Communism only destroys rural communities and solely serves the purpose of benefiting urban society.
To see how the Communists looked at the peasants the anarchist view needs to be considered as it can be argued the the anarchists were a precursor to the Communists in the view of peasants. The anarchists tried to instil the idea of class struggle by saying the peasant revolution is showing resistance to taxes and opposition to the government and landlords. By showing opposition to taxes and the government the anarchists tried to bring about collapse due to lack of money which would in turn bring about a communitarian property system where the peasants would share land. The anarchists also did not seem that it was a stretch that peasants could be united citing that villages will work to protect their own, so if the idea can spread that all peasants are one big village that they would be able to unite.
Since the end of World War II until the mid- eighties , most Americans could agree that communism was the enemy. Communism wanted to destroy our way of life and corrupt the freest country in the world. Communism is an economic system in which a person or group of persons who are in control. The main purpose of communism is to make social and economic status of all individuals of the same . Deletes inequalities in property ownership and wealth distributed equally to everyone . The main problem with this is that a person who is rich can be stripped of most of his fortune to someone else can have more material goods and be his equal .
Most thought this because of the consequences of communism and mass destruction it can cause within a country. Kovaly says "Rudolf could decide on the basis of statistics- mostly falsified, or course- that under communism people lived a better and happy life. I saw from close-up and with my own eyes that this was not true. (p.65) While it is great that citizens live under similar economic terms and are assured of the same paycheck every week, communism is not an environment that will allow businesses or people to flourish. On the opposite of a Capitalist society, where businesses are abled skyrocketed earnings, a Communist society affects businesses ability to grow. If each worker is given the same amount of money this can affect their motivation to do things and go above and beyond. Everyone who earns the same amount of money for the same amount of work seems like a peaceful agreement and a proletariat paradise but it does not always turn out that way. Unfortunately, communism can often lead to widespread corruption and sometimes encourages greed. Kovaly says "It is often said that power corrupts, but I think that what corrupted people in our country was not the power alone but the fear that accompanied it." (p.71) Communist nation 's ruling class tend to be greedy since it is impossible for classes that are beneath them to gain any insight into how the nation truly works. One last underlying cause on why post-war victims disliked the idea of communism was because there was no personal freedom. Capitalist societies often take for granted many personal freedoms that are completely eliminated under Communist Regimes. Freedom of speech is completely taken away, and those who criticize any workings of their government often subject severe and very harsh punishments. Communism often focuses on agriculture and production, things in which
”1 Stalin may have viewed collectivization as a means to win support from younger party leaders, rather than from the peasants and Lenin’s men. “Privately he advocated, industrializing the country with the help of internal accumulation.” 2 Once the peasantry had been split, Stalin believed that the rural proletarians would embrace collectivization. Before this idea had a chance to work, a grain shortage induced the Politburo to support Stalin’s sudden decision for immediate, massive collectivization. Initially, the sudden change to collectivization was a success....
The Russian revolution of February 1917 was a momentous event in the course of Russian history. The causes of the revolution were very critical and even today historians debate on what was the primary cause of the revolution. The revolution began in Petrograd as “a workers’ revolt” in response to bread shortages. It removed Russia from the war and brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, replacing Russia’s monarchy with the world’s first Communist state. The revolution opened the door for Russia to fully enter the industrial age. Before 1917, Russia was a mostly agrarian nation. The Russian working class had been for many years fed up with the ways they had to live and work and it was only a matter of time before they had to take a stand. Peasants worked many hours for low wages and no land, which caused many families to lose their lives. Some would argue that World War I led to the intense downfall of Russia, while others believe that the main cause was the peasant unrest because of harsh living conditions. Although World War I cost Russia many resources and much land, the primary cause of the Russian Revolution was the peasant unrest due to living conditions because even before the war began in Russia there were outbreaks from peasants due to the lack of food and land that were only going to get worse with time.
Ironically, Communism has never existed anywhere. There has never been a system implemented in our entire history by which a society has been utterly classless. Communism would be a type of egalitarian society with no state, no privately owned means of production and no social class (Wikipedia). Today there is a selection of “Communist” states that exist in a variety of locations on our globe. Sadly, all of the claimed Communist states including the late Soviet Union were and are despicable and corrupted examples of the idea of Communism. By using Stalin as an example it is quite possible to portray to the reader a simple and effective example of the flip side of attempted Communism. Stalin took control of a weak government and crafted an illusionary Communist state. Ironically, Stalin had set himself up as the dictator of a completely totalitarian society. By using the people of Russia, he was able to harness the government and use it for his own needs. This is quite similar to 1984 with the concept of Big Brother. Although Big Brother is not a person, the inner society that controls “him” creates a Stalinist nation; this was quite purposefully included by Orwell.
Marx believed that the class system was the main problem and should be demolished. He believed that everyone should be equal and should work together in order to create. In his thoughts in The Communist Manifesto, he tells of all the benefits due to the many changes that will be made in his classless society. Socially everyone will be looked upon as equal, and everyone will contribute to their society. Intellectually, the people will not be selfish and will all come together to combine their ideas. Politically things will be different since there will be no government. Also, religions will be abolished and there will be no higher beings. Economically, property will not be privately owned and everything will be shared by all. In this society, there are many problems and this seems like a great way to bring about change.
Communism was the ideology followed by the Soviet Union. Originally founded by Karl Marx, it said that everything should be owned by the government and then divided up equally among the people who would then all work for it. For the communist party in Russia, their political system was always in danger. From the start of the Russian Revolution there have been dangers to communism. Before World War II most of the western nations ignored Russia simply because it was a communist state and the western nations actually supported Hitler because they believed that Germany would provided a buffer against Communism. The permanent threat against Russia gave the incentive to expand and spread communist influence as much as possible to keep their way of life intact, it was very much Russia against the world. However not only was the Soviet Union communist, they were totalitarian, meaning all the power was with the rulers. While this was effective for keeping the standard average of living the same for everyone and preventing poverty, it also led to a poor work ethic among the working population...
The "Communist Manifesto" Mountain View College Reader. Neuleib, Janice. A. Cain S., of Kathleen. Ruffus, Stephen. The.
After the emancipation of the Russian Peasantry, land was given to the peasants. This was between 1861 and 1866, but because the nobility had lost their land when the peasants were given land, the peasants had to pay a tax until 1905. As the years passed, the land allotted to each person decreased from 13.8 acres to 7.3 acres as the population increased. Due to this increase in population and decrease in land, a series of famines struck the rural areas. As the peasants mainly occupied the rural areas, they were perceived to be living in poor conditions by the Russian people, and as response to their conditions, peasants started taking a stand, and voicing their opinions; change was proposed in the end when peasants were given more freedom,
Though the rewards are pleasing to the ear, the path to obtaining the benefits of communism is a violent one. This strict governing idea was derived from Communist Manifesto, a book written by two German economists, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, who declare that many problems in society are caused by the unequal distribution of wealth. These two believe that “Communism deprives no man of the ability to appropriate the fruits of his labour. The only thing it deprives him of is the ability to enslave others by means of such appropriations.” To achieve the goal of happiness and prosperity for all, the lines that distinguish the differences between the rich and poor must be erased. Obviously, the rich will never voluntarily give up their goods or status; therefore the figureheads must force equality among the citizens. Communism places their citizens, whether they be the wealthy or the laborers, into working classes that specify their contribution to the government. With such balanced placement of the people, individuality is impossible for any single person to achieve.
This is significant because people are the foundation on an economic system, for example consumers are the buyers or the products or services and suppliers supply the consumer with the products or services. In capitalism the people set the business, which is having entrepreneurial abilities. The entrepreneurs then supply the consumer with jobs, products, and services. As a result the wealth is unequally distribute meaning the lowest person in the business change pay wage vary than the highest person. Where as in communism the wealth is equally distribute due to the fact that the people do not own their own business instead all of the people own the factories. In other words the government own the businesses and supply the consumer with the jobs, products, and service. As a result of both Capitalism and communism, there are have negative and positive effects on the people such as losing efficiency leading to failure of capitalism and corruption or scarcity leading to unsuccessful growth of communism.
In western capitalist societies, communism is portrayed as a system that practices wealth distribution where everyone makes the same amount of money and own the same exact things with no competition. In reality Marx’s idea of communism gives people the chance to develop their skills and advance their potential to the fullest extent, that is actually denied under the capitalist class system. Marx agrees with rousseau that political and civil rights are important and gives the people more power but he takes it further and argues that in order for people to be truly free they must have control on their labor and their production by democratizing the economic and labor system.
Everything is run by the state and should be run by the government on behalf of the people. No private person is allowed to profit from the work of other citizens. Communism is a controlled economy. All profits don’t go into the pocket of one owner; the profits go to the state, which benefits everyone.... ...
He saw communism as a way for all people to be truly free and equal. There would be no more class discrimination and everyone would have resourced based on what is needed. He exclaimed that communism would give individuals the freedoms that the bourgeoisie denied them. While this is what Karl Marx predicted and believed would be successful, the reality over time has taken a much different path proving that Marx’s ideas cannot be accurately applied