Why did communism fail in the USSR?
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by Stan Wephen
A lot of people are going to be shouting about how the Soviet Union failed and how communism can never work etc. This article will be about why communism failed originally, not because of communism as an ideal, but because of other factors.
1) The Soviet Union never reached communism. Ok, this statement will have a lot of you going "What?! That makes no sense! I know the USSR was communist!" Well, think again. Yes, there was a Russian Revolution, and yes, for perhaps the first few years there was a communist ideal in place. But by 1920, Stalin took control. And then USSR became Stalinst, not communist.
"Hang on! What's the difference?" Well, Stalinism was a dictatorship that took away the personal freedoms of the people, something communism never aims to do. Stalinism was a dictatorship, whilst communism advocates the people choosing a leader. Stalinism has been described by many communists as "bureaucratized degenerated workers' state", "state capitalism" and "bureaucratic collectivism". Clearly not communist.
2) It wasn't the communism Karl Marx envisioned. Karl Marx believed in a gradual process of developing socialism, as people began to see how corrupt capitalism was. Unfortunately, he died before his dream could be realised, but he knew it could take decades, even centuries to truely achieve. His dream didn't involve any bloodshed or violence. The Russian Revoluton was bloody and violent. If we as true communists took Karl Marx's original dream, a beautiful dream, and made that a reality then I promise you, communism would flourish.
3) The USSR was on its own. The capitalist countries of the west, the USA, the UK, were very happy to see the USSR fail. Communism was meant to be a world-wide movement, one that would spread through the world like dominoes. That way, the entire world and its resources could be shared out, more than enough for mankind. But it was the capitalist countries that hoarded the resouces, stopped the USSR from expanding, and was why it was bought to its knees.
I could go on, giving reason after reason for its failure. But I maintain my stance that communism can and will work. Let us work together to build a state where there is no rich elite, no poor oppressed, but only equals, brothers and sisters. A nation where we know we can stand together and work for a better future.
"From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his needs." (Karl Marx)
Stan Wephen
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I don\'t like communism either but it is a well written article. I\'ve subscribed.
I would like communism, if I was poor and I was lazy, but if communism happens then everything most people have worked for is gone.
Communism doesn\'t leave room for change. Things change, communism needs a solid and set in concrete method of doing things.
That and the age of blah blah of \'human nature\' which is only half true, it is human nature to be greedy and totally self oriented, but it\'s also human nature to be brainwashed into following a different ideology....and THEN it\'s human nature to have opposition to an ideology for the simple fact it is an ideology.
Humans are not robots, communism can\'t work.
age of should read \'age old\'
\"didn\'t involve any bloodshed or violence.\"
if I remember correctly (which I most of the time do), CM wrote that weapons must be used to spread communism amongst all ppl, but later, when it is implanted globaly, all those weapons must be destroyed. (this is not a quote, but I read something that came down to this last time I read das kapital)
\"The USSR was on its own\"
the USSR never was on it\'s own. they had conquered half of Europe, half of Asia and Southern America was communistic. And they had China on their side. At the it\'s peak, there where more communist countries then capitalist countries.
\"The capitalist countries of the west, the USA, the UK, were very happy to see the USSR fail\"
As well as the USSR would have been very happy to see the capitalist countries fail.
\"But it was the capitalist countries that hoarded the resouces, stopped the USSR from expanding, and was why it was bought to its knees.\"
Care to explain the 100 million deaths communism caused in only a few years? Care to explain the \"re-education\" camps that the USSR builded? And don\'t bring me the \"the west have also killed ppl\", coz there has never been any regime in the world that has killed so many ppl as the USSR and it\'s commie buddies in such a short time period.
\"From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his needs\"
what about: \"all are equal, but some are more equal then others\"?
Communism was the greatest and most cruel lie in the history of humanity. The lives Hitler destroyed are nothing compared to the lives Carl Marx ruined.
This poem says it all to me:
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/3452/communismbyrapierwitt2mo4.jpg
Yes, but Shadow, you\'ve simply gone on to expound the flaws of Stalinism, which as Stan pointed out, isn\'t communism.
\"all are equal, but some are more equal then others\" is a corruption of communism, and therefore that point is void as to whether communism is, in itself, a valid ideology.
True communism wouldn\'t result in explotation and oppression of the many for the benefit of a few, which is what happened under Stalin (and \'incidentally\' happens under capitalism)
Zaney, i don\'t see why communism doesn\'t leave room to change, because there is a constant effort to improve the lives of all humans, rather than an effort to improve ones own, which takes a much larger collective effort. And it\'s not set in stone that that is human nature either, greed and self-obsession are ideals taught by society.
None of this is relevant to whether communism would work in erepublik though, so i wouldn\'t just assume that communism cannot work here either simply because it\'s failed in the real world.
Thank you for all the comments, its nice to know people have read the article!
Ok, in response to Shadow\'s first point, read this:
\"As such, Capital, does not propose a theory of revolution (led by the working class and its representatives) but rather a theory of crises as the condition for a potential revolution, or what Marx refers to in the Communist Manifesto as a potential “weapon,” “forged” by the owners of capital, “turned against the bourgeoisie itself” by the working class\" (Source - Wikipedia)
The \'weapons\' Karl Marx talked about were in fact, the Communist Manifesto and other communist books. Hardly bloodshed and violence.
\"There were more communist countries than capitalist countries\"
Yes, but these were the poor, under-developed countries that the capitalist countries had exploited or disallowed to expand. The poor can\'t feed the poor whilst the rich buy all the food. The USSR didn\'t so much want the capitalist countries to fail as to help the poor and get down from their high rich horses and start feeding people.
\"Care to explain the 100 million deaths\"
Yes. Stalinism. If you had read the article point number 1 you would see the ideal of communism was brutally perverted by Joseph Stalin. Imagine if I went out today and wrote a book called \'The Democractic Manifesto\'. This book totally condemns dictatorships and supports free voting. Then somebody, in the name of democracy, takes advantage of the book and starts a dictatorship, yes, a dictatorship, the exact opposite of democracy, then is the ideal I wrote in the book wrong? Is it my fault, despite in my book that is what I condemn! No! It\'s the person who took my book and perverted it for his own means. In the same way, Stalin took the Communist Manifesto, took the pure dream of Karl Marx and perverted it.
I could go on and on, but I think I\'ll let my past and future articles speak for themselves.
You\'d like to say, that before Stalin it was everything about communism??? Lenin\'s regime could be called \"regime of criminals\"... it was all about robberies of those \"who has more\"...
there was a terror times - before Stalin, with him ruling and after his death...
After Stalins death: Budapest 1954, Prague 1968, Vilnius 1991(this was after fail)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2SvhDY23So&feature=related
Why it failed in USSR... it\'s just an Utopia, communism can\'t succeed in any real country on the Universe... Humans has too much of \"free mind implemented\"... with it comes selfish things... everyone wants \"better than his neighbor\" (competition principle)... and idea - all equal can\'t be successful... (sadly)
The economy of country was all \"war based\" and what left was used for propaganda.. no economists where left after Lenin\'s, Stalin\'s repressions... the costs of production was much bigger than price for products... with it they tried to show \"stinky capitalists\" how good is to live in communism... the economy, education, health care and every other systems in SU was ruled by \"related idiots\"... at the end it had to crash economically and with no economics Imperia couldn\'t exist itself...
ffs shadow.
I would start and argument now but thats all i really have to say.
\"ffs shadow\"
why? because I\'m bringing in valid arguments? This discussion is about RL communism, not E-rep communism and I think all the arguments I made have point.
and sure, you can blame stalinism. As well as you can blame Maoism... and Leninism... and Trotskyism.... and Titoism... and many other branches of communism. but basically they have all contributed the same to our history. They have ruined lives, killed innocents, caused famine and created the biggest lie ever: That we can all live as equals. Is it cruel of me to say that? no, because if you are honest with yourself you know it\'s true.
Can you name me one society in the history of mankind that managed to successfully implant the ideals of communism? In our whole history there must have been billions of civilisations and I cannot find one. Or let\'s even go further to the basics: Why look into the animal kingdom? Can you find me one species that lives according to the rules of communism? or even implants only the basics of it?
COMMUNISM COMMUNISM!
well if your rich then you don\'t like it because your part of the 10% of America that owns 90% of the wealth... such a cruel world.
even if i can\'t join in a so complicated discussion (because of my bad english), i\'ve understood and appreciated many of your comments and i vote the article
Can you name me one society in the history of mankind that managed to successfully implant the ideals of communism?
No. That\'s exactly the point; they weren\'t communist. They called themselves communist, but they weren\'t.
Or let\'s even go further to the basics: Why look into the animal kingdom? Can you find me one species that lives according to the rules of communism? or even implants only the basics of it?
Ants, bees etc.
I agree with Shadow, communism, as Marx thought of it, cannot exist or work in RL. I also have to ask was there ever a successful, true communist government?
\"well if your rich then you don\'t like it because your part of the 10% of America that owns 90% of the wealth... such a cruel world.\"
It\'s ALOT less than 10% ...
communism = hive mind activity so therefore
Ants, bees etc. are examples of communism but sorta a dictatorship communism according to the queen bee/ ant.
Do you know how it was to live in socialistic country that evaluated from comunism?
If you don\'t know I would ask you and all of you to shut up and not to speak stupid things because you are the children of the West.
Your mother went in the shop and bought a milk!
What do you know?
@ Latch: I know.. I\'ve lived in USSR... and I stood at shop \"rows\" to get sugar or meat... so I know how it was 😉
I agree with Latch\'s intent as it were, but I think he\'s missing the point. I don\'t think there\'s a single person here (I hope) who condones the persecution, genocide and mistreatment of the millions of people in so-called \'communist\' states. However, I don\'t think that capitalism has served us too well either.
My parents lost their jobs, their home and their business thanks to capitalism, their \'free market\' and cheaper competition. Oh, but the capitalist might say, \'The harder you work, the more you earn\'. Isn\'t the primary thought of capitalists \'success off your own back\'? Well obviosuly my parents didn\'t work hard enough. They worked from dawn to dusk, earning just enough to feed our family. Barely. Don\'t you dare say that my parents didn\'t work hard enough, because they did. And even then, we\'re not getting into those who are the real losers of capitalism. The starved, the homeless, the naked. The exploited, the subjecated, the oppressed. Just so a few fat-cats with their billions of pounds can add another zero to their bank account.
What do I know? I know that capitalism has led to billions of those starving today, had led to the enslavement of many African people, and racism that exists today. What do I know? I know that capitalism has failed me, my family, and many close friends, and the few winners in capitalism don\'t deserve it when others starve. What do I know? I know that the persecution under the communist regime was unforgivable, but that every other single government type, be it democratic or facist, monarch or democratic, has had as many unforgivable actions that we must never forget.
What do I know? I know enough, that I can make a reasoned judgement and believe in a fairer system than what we have today.
the fairer system... believe me you\'ll not find any... despite the fact you are planning to leave to one of Pacific islands... and spend your life alone there... by the way it should not be the nice one, better pick one near south polis... or you\'ll be bored and abused by tourists of both types: capitalism and communism sacrifices.... 😉
Reality is harder than a dreams... and human race is able to break any of self created ideals... 😉
\"coz there has never been any regime in the world that has killed so many ppl as the USSR and it\'s commie buddies in such a short time period.\"
Actually, based on deaths/minute, the US boasts the 2 highest ratios, Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
You also seem to be confusing ideals with history, a worrying trend.
\"and sure, you can blame stalinism. As well as you can blame Maoism... and Leninism... and Trotskyism.... and Titoism... and many other branches of communism. but basically they have all contributed the same to our history. They have ruined lives, killed innocents, caused famine and created the biggest lie ever: That we can all live as equals. Is it cruel of me to say that? no, because if you are honest with yourself you know it\'s true.\"
Yeah, and what the West is doing to Africa & South America right now is perfectly fine, no-ones dying there are they?
I\'m not going out on a limb to say that ALL capitalism is bad because of previous experience, I\'m saying that ALL forms of governing are equally bad given corruption.
Unless you have some point to make about myself or any member of the PCP being corrupt or having ulterior motives, then stop trying to liken us to history\'s tyrants.
\'Actually, based on deaths/minute, the US boasts the 2 highest ratios, Nagasaki and Hiroshima\'
That was during war, they didn\'t do it because they were capitalistic fanatics, they did it because they had to. Unlike Stalin and Lenin who basically did it for the lulz.