Free Custom «Impact of Communism» Essay Paper

Communism is a system where individuals work and receive rewards as per their needs. The returns to each person are independent of the amount of work done. However, those working need to do it to the best of their potential with no influence. The society has a bond and concern for every member. No member is ahead of the other and none of him or her suffers starvation. The birth of communism dates back in 1847. Karl Max German philosopher fathered it. However, his ideas were not readily accepted. During this time, most economies were capitalist characterized by forced labor, poor wages, and control of the economy by inherently few capitalists. Emergence of socialist facilitated the actualization of Marx’s ideas. In Russia, governance was czarist with most workers receiving low pays. Czar Nicholas II was then the Russian poor manager. Land was by then owned by a few wealthy individuals who were exploiting the workers. The Bolshevik party led by Lenin, Leon Trostky and Joseph Stalin eventually overthrew czar in 1997 (Daniels, A Documentary history of Communism in Russia: from Lenin to Gorbachev 34).

 

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Lenin was the undisputed communist leader whose reign took several years. The division of the Russian social democratic labor party into Bolshevik and Menshevik incepted this. He whole-heartedly protected communism in his reign and even persuaded those who were against his reign. Lenin died in 1926. There was a power struggle between Trotsky and Stalin who eventually ruled while Trotsky went to Mexico where he his assassination occurred. It is worth noting that Stalin was a dictator and deported to Siberia all those opposed him. He also killed those people who assisted him to get power. This is because he feared that they would play a critical role in eliminating or overthrowing him. As Stalin reigned, the government acquired all the resources. No individuals had the right to own property. It said they did excess work and even some died because of lack of food. Food shortage resulted from the fact that only few were producing (Daniels, The rise and fall of Communism in Russia 54).

Historically, we can define communism as that concept of a liberal and free society where there is no division and alienation of individuals. No human being is suffers to oppression or scarcity of resources. In a communist society, we do not have cases like governments or divisions in terms of social class. The transition period during which a country is moving from a capitalist state where ownership of property is private, towards collective ownership is the proletariat dictatorship.

Politically, we can explain the term communism as a form of government where only one party exists and government that owns the factors of production. Government decisions on what to produce and on what policies to pursue are usually in the best society’s interests. It is usually not the usual form of governance structure where the rich own the factors of production and the rest work for them in return for wages. Under communism, the interests of the whole society are at heart of the planning agency, in this case; the government. A communist state provides for equal allocation of work as per the technical ability and potential of each individual in the community. The allocation of the benefits from the factors of production is also on the basis of needs of each individual in society. In the year 1922, the communists came up with a constitution, which had traits of democracy and socialism. The constitution had a provision for a legislature that was elective. This constitution gave the people the right to vote as long as they were 18 years and above. The constitution also had a provision that all the political power, the available resources and all the production means were to belong to the workers and small-scale farmers. However, it is the party of communists that had all the power and control over the union’s resources and the means of production. Since the communist party was fully aware that they were not following the requirements of the constitution, they resolved to use the police and the army in enforcing their own will (Daniels, The rise and fall of Communism in Russia 36).

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During the communism period, millions of men, women, and children died through mass executions, death camps, and famine. This famine was a product of the government’s own plans.i.e a planned famine. In the year 1921, the communist government stage-managed the famous Russian Famine, which caused the death of more than 5 million people.

It is also during this period of communism in the Soviet Union that thousands of prisoners and hostages underwent unfair execution in the hands of the soviet government. The same communist government executed the murder of highly many rebellious workers during the period of 1918 to 1922.

Within the same period of communism in the Soviet Union, the Don Cossacks underwent extermination and later on deportation in the year 1920. The Russian army killed/murdered thousands of individuals dwelling in concentration camps between 1918 and 1932.

Another impact of the communist rule in the Soviet Union is the Great Purge Which killed almost 690,000 people. Another 4 million Ukrainians also died during the 1932 and 1933 famine (Daniels, A Documentary history of Communism in Russia: from Lenin to Gorbachev 77).

In general, the communist regime in the Soviet Union has killed almost 100 million people. This is a clear indication that Communism had a more negative impact on the Soviet Union than its positive impact. The large number of deaths of innocent people clearly shows this reality. Initially, the goal of embracing communism in the Soviet Union was to take resources to the public or the workers. However, at the end of it all, we find that the government still uses its force silently through the army to exercise their power. This leads to many deaths and injustices.