Friday, November 7, 2014
Marxism's fall in the Soviet Union
After the overthrow of the Russian monarchy in 1917, Communism and the theology made famous by Karl Marx took control of the Russian Empire. Communism, established by Vladimir Lenin, thrived and grew in Russia as well as China, Cuba, and much of Eastern Europe until its collapse in the 1980's and 1990's. As Marx states, Communism is better for society as a whole and far superior than Capitalism. If the Marxist theory was true, why did Communism fall to Capitalism? What would Marx's response be if he were alive today?
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Well I think Marx's response to this would be that what the countries you listed as becoming communist went through was not indeed communism at all. Marx would be right in saying that and I would have to agree with him. Some of the more obvious reasons why capitalism survived over these other forms of government is in large part do to economic strength and production with the United States, among other Western powers, having a thriving economy as the Russian economy experienced a slow downfall. Much like Russia is experiencing now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Taylor, Communism in the countries that you listed above were not truly a form of a communist state. Majority of these countries fell due to corruption in the powers of the government. The one major flaw in Communism is that if the wealth of the country is not evenly distributed, and is held out for the highest power (the government) then it makes a power higher than ever before, and there is almost nothing they can do about it. For example look at North Korea's form of "Communism" while the Un family is able to thrive and have anything they desire while the people of North Korea suffer and live in extremely poor environments. Along with this the governments would try to push out or kill anyone who spoke out against the corruption of the government. Marx would never consider these forms as true communism. A great way to understand the flaw of communism is by reading a book called Animal Farm which discusses the beginning where communism was used correctly to ultimately leading to corruption and brain washing the animals of the farm.
ReplyDeleteWell, Marx's ideology of communism is not like what we think about today. He wanted a form of system where everybody got an equal share no matter if rich and poor. Everybody worked for one common goal and that was to thrive and to expand. The problem is that communism is not as strong and it can easily be changed and the prefect example would be Lenin. Also Russia did not have a thriving economy as compared to the United States. So overall, communism theoretically the best form of government but easily not the strongest compared to capitalism.
ReplyDeleteThe former soviet union did not in fact have a thriving economy like Diego said in his comment, a major factor that might have played in the downfall of communism in Russia. During the arms race the soviets spend billions of dollars trying to out do the united states ultimately failing and causing the downfall of communism. If the communist form of government don't distribute the wealth evenly then it is bound to fail in my opinion. North Korea for example is nothing like the communism Marx's ideology is trying to define, people are starving because of the economy and corruption of the government there.
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