Variants of communism have been developed throughout history, including
anarchist communism,
Marxist schools of thought, and
religious communism, among others. Communism encompasses a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include
Marxism,
Leninism, and libertarian communism, as well as the political ideologies grouped around those. All of these different ideologies generally share the analysis that the current order of society stems from
capitalism, its
economic system, and
mode of production, that in this system there are two major social classes, that the relationship between these two classes is exploitative, and that this situation can only ultimately be resolved through a
social revolution. The two classes are the
proletariat, who make up the majority of the population within society and must sell their
labor power to survive, and the
bourgeoisie, a small minority that derives profit from employing the working class through private ownership of the means of production. According to this analysis, a
communist revolution would put the working class in power, and in turn establish common ownership of property, the primary element in the transformation of society towards a
communist mode of production.
Communism in its modern form grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe that argued capitalism caused the misery of urban factory workers. In the 20th century, several ostensibly
Communist governments espousing
Marxism–Leninism and its variants came into power, first in the
Soviet Union with the
Russian Revolution of 1917, and then in portions of Eastern Europe, Asia, and a few other regions after
World War II. As one of the many
types of socialism, communism became the dominant political tendency, along with
social democracy, within the international socialist movement by the early 1920s. (Full article...)
The Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party (
German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) is a short 1848 book written by the German
Marxist political theorists
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the
Communist League, it laid out the League's purposes and program. It presents an analytical approach to the
class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.
The book contains Marx and Engels' Marxist theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own words, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by
socialism, and then eventually communism.
Paul Verner (26 April 1911,
Chemnitz – 12 December 1986,
Berlin[1]) was a
Germancommunist politician. He joined the communist movement at a young age, and went into exile during
Hitler's rule. Verner became a prominent political personality in the
German Democratic Republic after the war.
In 1925 he joined the
Young Communist League of Germany (KJVD). In 1929 he became a member of the
Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He worked as a volunteer in the communist publishing house Kämpfer-Verlag in Chemnitz. He became a member of the regional leadership of KJVD in Saxony. In 1932 he became editor of Junge Garde ('Young Guard').
With the
National Socialist takeover in Germany, Verner went into exile. Towards the end of 1933, he became a member of the Scandinavian Bureau of the
Young Communist International, and edited Jugendinternationale (the
German-language publication of the Young Communist International). In 1934 he shifted to
Paris, where he became editor-in-chief of Junge Garde (now published in exile), a position he held until the spring of 1935. He moved to
Belgium, as the KJVD reorganized. Verner fought as a volunteer in the
International Brigades in the
Spanish Civil War. After the Spanish Civil War, he emigrated to
Sweden.
...that Moscow City Hall, built in the 1890s to the tastes of the Russian
bourgeoisie, was converted by
Communists into the Central
Lenin Museum after its rich interior decoration had been plastered over.
Everyone is welcome to participate in WikiProject Socialism, where editors collaborate to improve all aspects related to
socialism on Wikipedia.
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But the
Bolshevik Party knew that these were only the first, not the decisive successes of the
Red Army. It was aware that new and far more serious battles were still to come, and that the country could recover the lost food,
raw material and fuel regions only by a prolonged and stubborn struggle with the enemy. The Bolsheviks therefore under took intense preparations for a protracted war and decided to place the whole country at the service of the front. The
Soviet Government introduced
War Communism. It took under its control the middle-sized and small industries, in addition to large-scale industry, so as to accumulate goods for the supply of the army and the agricultural population. It introduced a
state monopoly of the
grain trade, prohibited private trading in grain and established the surplus-appropriation system, under which all surplus produce in the hands of the
peasants was to be registered and acquired by the state at fixed prices, so as to accumulate stores of grain for the provisioning of the army and the workers. Lastly, it introduced universal labour service for all classes. By making physical labour compulsory for the
bourgeoisie and thus releasing workers for other duties of greater importance to the front, the Party was giving practical effect to the principle: "He who does not work, neither shall he eat."
All these measures, which were necessitated by the exceptionally difficult conditions of national defense, and bore a temporary character, were in their entirety known as War Communism.
The country prepared itself for a long and exacting
civil war, for a war against the foreign and internal enemies of the Soviet power. By the end of 1918 it had to increase the strength of the army threefold, and to accumulate supplies for this army.
