Communism impacted the countries of Russia and China in both strikingly similar and different ways, for the better, or for the worse. During the time period of 1900 to 1945, communism in China and Russia were developed both differently and similarly by the audience to whom they appealed, the programs they sponsored, how they incorporated nationalism into those programs, how effectively they were resisted, and in how the Communist rules were structured. They both appealed to the peasantry, sponsored programs that would call for equal opportunity given to the people, and were resisted ineffectively but the Chinese altered their programs, due to the difference in politics, geographic location, and social problems. The audience in which they appealed to were similar, for they both appealed to the peasantry due to harsh times. They both rose to power due to the fact that the country wanted to end war but their opposing political party did not meet these needs. Nationalism was an important feature of both as China needed nationalism to fight the Japanese while Russia needed nationalism to pull out of the war. The programs they sponsored essentially were similar in many aspects although they did not match up perfectly because of the geological, social, and political differences of China. Communism affected both countries in a variety of different ways. The Communist programs of Russia and China both appealed to a wide range of audiences but they focused primarily on the working class, or also known as the proletariat class. First, the Chinese worked on creating a conscious working class, making sure that they understood how low they were on the social ladder so that discontent could form, fueling the revolution (“Communism in China”, 3... ... middle of paper ... ...1 (1949): 1-13. Print. Harper, Samuel N. "The Soviet Five-Year Plan." Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science 14.3 (1931): 83-96. Print. Harrison, James P. "“The Li Li-san Line and the CCP in 1930”." The China Quarterly 24 (1965): 140-94. Print. Kuromiya, Hiroaki. "Stalin and His Era." The Historical Journal 50.03 (2007): 711-24. Print. Mark, Max. "Chinese Communism." The Journal of Politics 13.2 (1951): 232-52. Print. "Memorandum on Communism in China -- A." Memorandum (Institute of Pacific Relations, American Council) 1.8 (1932): 1-4. Print. Rostow, W. W. "Russia and China Under Communism." World Politics 7.04 (1955): 513-31. Print. Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print. Turin, S. P. "The Second Five Year Plan." The Slavonic and East European Review 11.31 (1932): 58-64. Print.
The birth of the early 20th century gave way to many political changes around the world such as the emergence of communism as a new way to govern countries. The Soviet Union was the first country to convert to this way of governing through the Russian Revolution in 1917. With the rise of the Bolsheviks party, a small socialist party who supported the working class more than the upper class, as an outcome to this revolution many countries were inspired to follow their footsteps. One such country was China. As China fell imperially in 1911, the Chinese Communist party emerged, reflecting the same values as its inspiration by organizing the country’s urban-working class. With the invasion of Japan, China’s enemy, in 1937 the CCP’s internal opposition,
Osborne, Evan. "China's First Liberal." Independent Review 16.4 (2012): 533+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
..., J., Dubois, A.-M., Le Barbier, F., Olivier, J.-F., Peemans, J.-P., & Wang, N. (1979). China: The people's republic, 1949-1976. New York: Pantheon.
The two-line struggle which broke between Mao Zedong’s promotion of socialism and his opponents’ lapsed into revisionism. The designation of Liu Shaoqi with the dominant authority was an assertion that consensus had diminished over a variety of issues, including the economy and ‘spontaneous developments towards capitalism’ in the countryside. The party was accused of having become ‘divorced from the masses’ and education thrived of ‘bourgeois individualism’. The struggle between the Soviet Union and China was escalating, in which a split seemed to be inevitable. Mao as a result attempted to spur China’s independent economic development through the Great Leap Forward. Hence the social violence of the Revolution was caused by the incoherence of pre-Cultural Revolution political system as explained by Richard Kraus, “Maoism itself was embodied in the paradox that Mao wanted people to act voluntarily exactly as he wanted them to, without quite trusting they would do so.” Shifting from this political argument, Lynn T. White III interpreted the Cultural Revolution as an unintended result of administrative policies, claiming the campaigning, controlling and labelling of such swayed students’ attitudes towards each other and their leaders, hence seen as merely the long term cost of these
Douglas Reynolds, China, 1898-1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
During the late 1920’s up until World War II, the United States went through a period of severe economic depression, also called the “Great Depression”. Multitudes of Americans everywhere were inadequately clothed, nourished, and sheltered. As hunger and unemployment reached never before seen levels, despair reigned. During these times Labor Union enrollment dramatically increased and Americans were searching for a panacea to their social and economic problems. It was at this time that groups of citizens, jobless and hungry, looked upon Communism favorably. These individuals longed for what seemed to be a utopian society, which they viewed in the USSR, where everyone was employed and cared for. Communist political parties sprung up everywhere, literature and newspapers in support of Communism proliferated. More and more, seeing the success and the promises, the enrollment in Communist parties increased. Members of the American Communist party idealized the leaders of the USSR, Lenin and Stalin.
Overstreet, Harry, and Bonaro Overstreet. What We Must Know about Communism. New York: W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1958. Print.
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 late 19th century and the beginning of the early 20th century marks a critical turning point in Chinese history. The high pressures of western imperialism and regenerated peasant revolutions caused a sudden shift in the Chinese social order. The fear of western imperialism caused a demand for modernization, self-strengthening, and defense. Sons of the traditional landlord-bureaucratic lost confidence in Confucian values and traditional institutions; this elite class was too weak to withhold foreign invasion. The sons of the gentry, soon became the most important contributors to the revolution that would rise up against the Confucius bureaucrats intellectuals. The new revolutionaries visioned not only a fortified, modern China with a powerful defense system, but also a unified country. One without “class struggle” or the unfair socio-economic differences between the impoverished masses and higher social classes. To achieve this new political vision, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed in 1921 but not with ease.
The rise of communism in the Soviet Union and China in the 20th century had both gains and costs in each country. Some of these gains benefited society as a whole in terms of economic improvement and rapid industrialization. However, with these gains came many costs that affected millions of people all around the world, not just in the Soviet Union and China. While the main ideas of communism were about spreading equality and making society an equal place to live, most citizens of these countries found the idea of communism to be unfair, serving no benefits to society, such as the taking and redistributing of land so that all peasants could have their own land to produce goods on. Even though the effects of communism in China and the Soviet
1-13 A well-researched college paper that uses 12 different scholarly sources. Well documented and well documented. 4. What is the difference between a.. Young, Graham, “Mao Zedong and Class Struggle in Socialist Society”, The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 78, pp.
This essay has critically analysed and examined the effect of Communism on the Chinese Society during the period of 1946-1964. The overall conclusion that can be drawn is that the Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat the Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party and achieve victory in the Civil War, in spite of alienation by the Soviet Union and opposition from the U.S. This was primarily because of the superior military strategy employed by the Communists and the economic and political reforms introduced by this party which brought more equality to the peasants in the form of land ownership and better public services. This increased China’s production and manufacturing which not only boosted the country’s economy but also provided a more sustainable supply of food, goods and services for the Chinese people.
Taubman, William. Stalin's American Policy: From Entente to Detente to Cold War. New York: Norton, 1982. Print.
He Lian Bo Bo Da Wang (Mei Yi), Yi Jiu Yi Yi, Ge Ming Yu Su Ming (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Open Page Publishing Co, Ltd., pp.1-35, 138-157. Hsueh, Chun- tu, The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives (Hong Kong: Joint _____Publishing Co., 1986), pp.1-15, 119-131, 139-171. Lin Jiayou, Xin Hai Ge, Ming Yu, Zhong Hua Min, Zu De Jue Xing (Guangzhou, Guangdong _____Ren Min Chu Ban She, 2011), pp.
China has chosen to take the natural, more gradual approach to democracy while Russia has chosen the fast-paced, more dangerous approach. These two nations have chosen to change their economies from a collectivized command one to a market oriented one in order to increase the standard of living in their countries. In recent years, China is booming and becoming more and more successful, while Russia seems like it is regressing back to parochial ways. It is impossible to compare anything but Russia and China's approaches to change, and the results that incurred. The two nations have vastly different economies and to compare one economy to another would be illogical.