Marxism

Implementation of political and economical theories often alters from writer to practice. This alteration is often due to the incompatible environment in which the model is put into exercise or the idealistic nature of the concept. Within Marxism, socialism signifies a definite historical period of economic development and its consequential social relations that replace capitalism in the plan of historical materialism (Habib, 1993: 5). To progress into socialism, according to Marx, a state must undergo the struggles of the working class against the attacks of the capitalist class to establish its own collective control over production; these are the fundamental basis of a socialist society (Habib, 1993: 5). Examples of this lack of implementation of socialism have been perceived in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Both republics have not sufficiently developed into the socialist phase due to their prominently peasant societies. Economic and political situations in the USSR almost parallel those in the PRC, both states were weakened by wars and political turmoil, however, how each addressed their peasant difficulty are somewhat contradictory. This paper will examine the peasant conditions of the USSR and PRC and how they attempted to adjust to it whilst progressing into socialism.

To commence with, the analysis of the condition of the USSR before the Russian Revolution of 1917 and World War 1 was not arable to cultivate socialism. It was central not only to future socialism implementation but also its events parallel those in China that established the PRC. The combination of inadequate labour due to both wars and threat of a collapsed economy with the political demora...

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...mentation of Marxist theory of socialism was unsuccessful in the USSR and the PRC. This has been established by the means of analysing the conditions, the structural aliment and the manner in which the USSR and PRC have responded to the peasantry. The execution of socialism in unripe societies of the USSR and the PRC demonstrated disastrous consequences through the development of inadequate plans such as the Five Year Plan and the Great Leap Forward, and contradictory policies to administer the peasants by mechanism of Anti-Kulak policies and the Cultural Revolution. It is further being contended that Weber’s liberal criticism of communism has shed light on the utopian element of this theorem. However, societies predominantly composed of peasants are not suitable to cultivate socialism as the theorem is intended for capitalistic advanced societies (Nove, 1982: 35).