The paper on ‘Communism and the pursuit of political equality’ brings forth the events which occurred during the communist regime. The regime was ruled by leaders like Karl Marx, Lenin and Stalin who were the prominent ones. Events like famine, mass killings and executions which occurred during this period have been mentioned in the essay. Communist regime was prevalent in Russia, China and Korea, besides some other countries. The dictatorship attitude of the rulers led to its failing of being a good rule. No other political party was allowed to survive in this regime and this aspect has been shown in the paper by answering the question, ‘Did Russia allow the existence of other political viewpoints?’ The following references were used for seeking answers ‘Communism’ and ‘Lessons from a century of communism’.
Communism is a political and economic system which strives to form a classless society. Factories and other production units are in the hands of the public. The generated money is distributed among the citizens according to their requirement. Karl Marx was the one who along with Friedrich Engels was instrumental in writing the Communist Manifesto in 1848.Vladimir Lenin, a Soviet leader proposed some changes in communism. Communist regime first originated in Soviet Union and thereafter, it spread to China, North Korea, Laos, Cuba and Vietnam. The party was named as All Russian Communist Party and this regime was under the rule of a single party which was intolerant with opposition. The economy was under the control of states and bureaucrats, which proved inefficient and was responsible for the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991.The word ‘Communism’ was first used in 1840 and is derived from the Latin word ‘Communis’ which means ‘shared’ (Ball,T. et.al .2019).
The period of Stalin rising to power after Lenin’s death came to be known as Marxism-Leninism. There were three assertive principles and the philosophical method of consumption and management became a forerunner for other regimes in the Soviet Union. This made the communist regime rule one third of the world (Münz,R.2001). The regime under him saw people being killed and more than a hundred million had died. Karl Marx copied a principle from German philosopher G.W.F.Hegel who was a supporter of a ‘rational liberal state’. Hegel maintained the fact that states were a ‘Divine Idea’ and was against the government. Marx did not think of the consequences of Hegel’s principles and allowed the state to deteriorate. He preached the law that people would be given benefits according to their needs and he wanted to end the ‘class struggle’. This led to the people becoming dictated by the government, who punished them if they were unaware of any rules. Since many steel industries and factories kept running, pollution posed a dangerous threat to environment and the people. There was fear in each individual’s mind regarding the mention of the word politics (Bovard,J. n.d.).
Lenin was a socialist leader who formed a party to make the working class tread on a revolutionary path. He along with his friend Trotsky, wanted to hold all the power in their Bolshevik Party. The party members enforced rules like a dictator where no laws could be passed without their consent. Lenin was the head of a cabinet called ‘Sovnarkom’.The Bolshevik party received only 24 percent of votes in the elections as against the Socialists Revolutionaries, whose first assembly was held for only one day and thereafter it was shut down by the former. No non- Bolshevik activities were allowed and a secret police named ‘Cheka’ were given orders to shoot anybody who went against their rules. When Lenin’s party refused to listen to the proposal offered by the Germans, he threatened to submit his resignation. Lenin used to forcibly make the farmers sell their produce at throw away prices and this resulted in a civil war where thousands of lives were lost. Mass killings were ordered by him and more than 140,000 people died. He as well inflicted heads of all religions with atrocities (McCauley,M. et.al. 2018).
The Maoist regime in China created a famine which led to the death of more than 45 million people. There were mass deaths in other
