The Philosophies Of Communism

Throughout the 20th century, society was faced with many new and powerful ideologies, ideas like Nazism and terrorism haunt the world. However, the most dangerous ideology that society combatted was communism. For the majority of the twentieth century, roughly “one-third of the world’s population lived under communist regimes” (Ball). Therefore, during the twentieth century communism is the most significant ideology that plagued society.

Communism is defined as an “economic-political philosophy founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the second half of the 19th century” (Communism). In a true communist community, society would exist without class divisions and “production and distribution of goods would be based upon the principle ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’” (Ball). The ideology was promoted as an end to the exploitation of workers. One of the main philosophies of communism is that “the needs of a society would be put above and beyond the specific needs of an individual” (Communism). Most communist states went through a phase, similar to socialism, and then the community would settle on a pure communist government.

Globally, communism affected nations through what came to be known as the domino effect. The domino effect is defined as “the

idea that if one country in Southeast Asia were to fall to communism, that other countries would follow one after the other resembling the effect that if one domino falls, it will cause the others to fall” (Domino Theory). Despite the fact that the definition of the domino effect specifically mentions Southeast Asia, communism was a threat to the entire globe. After the communist revolution in Russia in 1917, the world began to fall to this new, major political ideology. By the end of the 1940s Eastern Europe had fallen, and Southeast Asia is the next target.
One of the most well-known communist states in the twentieth century is China. The Chinese communist party was created in 1921 and under the control of Mao Zedong until 1927. In 1947, a revolution led by Mao allowed the communist party to obtain control of the Chinese government. Following the Soviet model, China began developing “through heavy industry with surpluses extracted from peasants” (Communism). In addition, China stopped the production of consumer needs deeming that the needs of the country were greater than that of individuals. China also began emphasizing a one party dictatorship where the only acceptable party was the communist party.
After Stalin’s death in 1953, “Mao split from [the] traditional Marxism-Leninism” form of communism and developed Maoism (Communism). Maoism is “the ideology and methodology for revolution developed by Mao Zedong and his associates in the Chinese communist party” due to Mao’s frustration “with the Soviet leader Khrushchev’s position of peaceful coexistence between the communists and capitalists” (Maoism; Communism). In an attempt to revive China, Mao initiated the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. These plans were designed to catch up with the most advanced industrial powers and overtake them.
The Great Leap Forward was “a socioeconomic plan designed to transform China’s agrarian socioeconomic culture towards an industrialized one” (Jacob).

The ultimate goal for this program was to accomplish economic development in a very short period of time through extensive economic collectivization and mobilization of the populace. Also known as the five-year plan, the Great Leap Forward was put in place in 1958 through the earlier 1960s. As stated, the main goal of this plan was to avoid the more typical process of industrialization while proving to the western world that China is a major superpower and to take over the position of nations like Great Britain and the United

States.
China worked to achieve this goal through creating people’s communes and increasing iron and steel production. Thousands of people were relocated into these communes. The objective of the communes was to promote efficiency and productive of the population, thus boosting economic development. In the communes, life was highly regulated and militarized and family/personal life was abolished. Members of the community were worked all day and into the night leaving no family time. In addition, the homes in the communes had no private kitchen forcing all members of the community to eat together in dining halls again eliminating any time for family time.
The second goal of this program was an increase in the production of steel and iron. Mao believed that if China out produces both the United States and Great Britain, China will prove that they are the superior nation. In order to achieve this goal of production, backyard steel furnaces were built across China. The furnaces were manned 24/7 by peasants with no knowledge or prior experience in iron or steel production. The Chinese dismantled anything with metal parts to use for the production including nails, window frames, woks, eating utensils, etc. Ultimately, the quality of the metal was extremely low and impure. This aspect of the Great Leap Forward resulted in pollution, deforestation, and a waste of human resources.
The Great Leap Forward led directly to the Great Famine. Competition between the different communes led to false information regarding food production and ultimately leading china to believe that they had produced enough food for the nation, however the number was greatly exaggerated. The Great Famine was the largest famine in Chinese history. Roughly forty-five million Chinese died during the famine due to starvation and the birth rate dropped to nearly nothing. Because of the famine the Great Leap Forward was remembered as the most disastrous campaigns in Mao’s China.
Due to the failure, Mao stepped aside letting more moderate political leaders to lead the nation. Within the next few years, China experienced an economic boost and private ownership was promoted by the new leaders. The new economic growth worried Mao who thought that this reform would lead to the return of capitalism. As a result, Mao began to struggle against the other top party leaders for dominance of the Chinese Communist Party. This complex social upheaval called for continuing revolution throughout China, referred to as the Cultural Revolution.
The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was launched by Mao Zedong towards the end of his political reign to “renew the spirit of the Chinese Revolutions” (Lieberthal). The plan had four ultimate goals “to replace [Mao’s] designated successors with leaders more faithful to his current thinking; to rectify the Chinese Communist Party; to provide China’s youth with a revolutionary experience; and to achieve some specific policy changes to as to make the education, health care, and cultural systems less elitist” (Lieberthal). These goals were created to prevent China from following the same path as the Soviet Union, fearing that the Russian Revolution had led the nation astray.
One of the biggest parts of the Cultural Revolution were the Red Guards. The Red Guards was a group of middle school students who were “fanatically loyal to Mao Zedong” (Kucha). The group was dedicated to protecting Mao and the Cultural Revolution. The students were encouraged to attack authority figures such as school teachers, especially is they were seen as counter-revolutionary. The students quickly rebelled against school, leading to the suspension of all education during the ten-year revolution. In addition to the Red Guards, there was one other aspect of the Cultural Revolution that proved important, the little red book. This book contained Mao’s political views and writing and was viewed as the Bible of Mao’s China. Every Chinese citizen was required to carry the book, and if caught without the book the individual was committing treason and labeled as a “bad element”.
As a result of the Cultural Revolution “millions of people were killed or persecuted” and ultimately, it was a major disaster. (Communism). The Cultural Revolution also resulted in “severe generation gap” (Lieberthal). During the ten years of the Revolution, since young adults were denied education and taught to “redress grievances by taking to the streets”, however in post-revolution China education was stressed along with “initiative over radical revolutionary fervor” (Lieberthal). These changes left no room for the red-guard generation to have productive careers.
China achieved something that not many nations could attempt, “The People’s Republic of China is the only global superpower still ruled by a communist party” (Ball). In the years following Mao’s death, China shifted into “a form of ‘market socialism’” under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping (Communism). One of the major changes to China was the introduction of “the ‘Four Modernizations’, describing agriculture, industry, science and technology, and the military” (Communism). Commonly credited as the leader who transformed China into the economic world power it is today, Deng successfully industrialized China and opened the nation to the rest of the outside world.
The threat of communism varies in each area of the world. In Europe, November 9, 1989 is regarded as the end of communism; when “hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Europe congregated in streets and squares and demanded the end of communist rule” (Dragostinova).