Failure of the Communist System
The communist system fell for various reasons. In time, I don't think
that this could have been avoided as the communist ideal had a basic
flaw in it. It misunderstood human nature. Their ideology was based on
every man working to the best of his ability for the good of the
nation. However, humans will not work for more than they have to and
therefore this massive decline in the quality of the work in communism
led to its downfall as there was no will to work.
One of the main reasons that communism fell in the 1980's was that
over the years, the Cold War had drained them of their money. The
Space Race stripped them of 20% of their entire national income as
they spent billions on their defence. This took away lots of money
from their economy which they could have spent on the poor and needy
but since this was not the case, the communist standard of living,
especially in the USSR, declined. This caused communism to have a bad
image and most of the people disliked it as they saw the riches and
wealth of the west in contrast to their rags. The war in
Afghanistantook a large chunk out of their budget ($8 billion a year)
and this left them very short handed and unable to economically hold
the Soviet Empire together. The freedom to do what they wanted
appealed to the people as the Stalinist regime was fresh in their
minds. The saw a glimpse of hope to experience democracy as in October
1983, the US troops over throw the regime in Grenada. This further
instigated the people with feelings of hate against the communist
system.
Another thing wrong with the system was that there was lots of
corruption i...
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...d a hard-line communist government.
As you can see these countries were both brought back under the Soviet
control through force. They both had reforms passed that the USSR did
not like and were therefore responded to viciously. However, in the
1980's the USSR was in a great economic crisis. It did not have the
money to deal with the uprisings as it did before. With the
introduction of the new president (Gorbachev), who was realistic and
knew that it was inadvisable to use the same tactics as his
predecessors. They had just pulled out of Afghanistan, which cost them
billions and received international condemnation. If they started to
attack another country, to suppress the people, not only would it take
a huge toll on the Soviet economy but the international image would be
very shaken and could lead to confrontation.
How far do you agree that the communist government faced severe economic & political challenges in the years 1917-28?
the downfall of communism, as it were, took so long was the veto power of
A Comparison of Communism versus Capitalism Communism versus Capitalism is a debate that has raged on for over two centuries. Whether to allow everyone equal opportunities and to do with those opportunities as they please or to mandate class equality in order to keep peace has in itself been the cause of war. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels saw the working class of the world—the proletariat—being squashed by the greedy business owners—the bourgeoisie. In their view, the bourgeoisie owned too much and the proletariat had no chance to make their own fortunes. In Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto, they propose doing away with private property, nationality, and even countries in order to take power away from the bourgeoisie.
The opinion of communism in American culture has been negative for as long as com-munism has been around. Throughout history, the United States, has told its citizens that com-munism is evil, taught children in schools that it is a dangerous idea, and has even gone to war to prevent the spread of it in foreign nations. But is it really that "evil" of an idea? In The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the idea of communism is painted in a much different picture than what is depicted in the United States. Although it was a controversial concept at the time, Marx published this work in 1848, and he provided a convincing case for the benefits of communism. He does this by comparing and criticizing the social classes of citizens throughout history while utilizing different types of appeals to convince the reader that this type of govern-ment should be put into action. Marx believed very strongly in the ideas he put forth in this mani-festo and it shows by how aggressively he conveys the benefits and defends the criticism towards his concept; he is in fact so persuasive in the style of his argument that his theories are still relevant today.
revolution in which there is a break up and elimination of the state and no
The cold war was failed by the Soviet Union for many reasons, including the sudden collapse of communism (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This sudden collapse of communism was brought on ultimately by internal factors. The soviet unions president Gorbachev’s reforms: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (political reconstructering) ultimately caused the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Gorbachev’s basics for glasnost were the promotion of principles of freedom to criticize; the loosening of controls on media and publishing; and the freedom of worship. His essentials of perestroika were, a new legislature; creation of an executive presidency; ending of the ‘leading role’ of the communist party; allowing state enterprises to sell part of their product on the open market; lastly, allowing foreign companies to own Soviet enterprises (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Gorbachev believed his reforms would benefit his country, but the Soviet Union was ultimately held together by the soviet tradition he was trying to change. The Soviet Union was none the less held together by “…powerful central institutions, pressure for ideological conformity, and the threat of force.
Why did modern communism fail? Is it because it did not fulfill its promises? Well, what exactly was it promising? In this essay, the reasons will be presented. Then we can decipher why communism did fall.
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...
It is undeniable that Ronald Reagan’s approach to the Soviet Union was vital in its defeat. The Encyclopedia Britannica acknowledges that “His policies have been credited with contributing to the demise of Soviet communism.” Reagan had no qualms in confronting the Soviets and communism, as shown when he described the Soviet Union as both an “evil empire” and “the focus of evil in the modern world” (Britannica).
to assume the role of dictator. This was a phenomenon which was to become a
Did Communism fail because of the lack of leadership or the lack of support. Vladimir Lenin’s ideology of was to gain control of the working class and create a more agrarian society. If we go back to the beginning to the creation of Marxism, Karl Marx had a dream to create a more utopian society. A classless society where everyone worked, and everyone shared in the fruits of their labor. Subsequently, Vladimir Lenin wanted to develop an economic plan that would take the Soviet Union further by granting states control of large industries but encouraged individual leadership, private enterprise, and the profit among farmers and owners of small businesses. Today, property would not have an important impact on the Soviet economy. Except for
This essay explains the fall of multiple Communist governments in Eastern Europe and what those countries
Communism did pose a threat to the united states, not only did they pose a threat to the U.S. but they had goals for us. “ … In July 1947, George F. Kennan defined the central goal of U.S. foreign policy during the cold war: containment of the Soviet Union in its postwar sphere of influence.” As stated in the text “he perceived the Soviet threat to be more political than military, and he thought that the economic well-being of the west, more than its military might …” During that same year the united states developed a foreign policy based on the idea of containment and on the “domino theory,” a belief that if communism were allowed to take root in one country or region. On January 10, 1963 some communist goals were to do away with all loyal oaths. As well as to capture one or both political parties in the united states, use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. Another goal was to get control of the schools and, use students’ riots to foment public protest against programs and
The most powerful communist country in history, the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, also known as the Soviet Union. Although being the biggest country the world has come to know, the country’s domestic struggles led to its downfall. Others suggest the Union’s desperation to outperform the United States of America in military and space flight led to excessive spending and in the end, stagnation. Moreover after decades of repressive communist rule, domestic attitudes towards the governments went to their all-time lows and led to the population’s unrest. Economic and political issues failed to get prioritized and continued to get ignored. Mikhal Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, introduced his plans, attempting to change the flaws of their government while keeping the same fundamentals of Communism. In the end, his plans backfired and the population used its new found freedom of speech, given to them by Gorbachev, against the communist government.
There were many events that lead up to the Bolshevik Revolution. First off, in 1848, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels published a thought-provoking book. The Communist Manifesto expressed their support of a world in which there was no difference in class. A world in which the workers and commoners ran the show and there was no high and supreme ruler. Many intellectual Russians began to become aware of this pamphlet as well as the advanced state of the world compared to Russia. Other countries were going through an industrial revolution, while the Czars had made it clear that no industrial surge was about to happen in Russia. The popularity of the Czars further went down hill as Nicolas II’s poor military and political decisions caused mass losses in World War I. Eventually, the citizens could take no more and began a riot in St. Petersburg that led to the first Russian Revolution of 1917.