Questions tagged [communism]
An ideology derived from socialist theory of the nineteenth century. Communism defines a condition in which socialist development has lead to the virtual elimination of economic class. This is ultimately achieved by worker ownership and control of the means of production (defined as the tools & facilities which produce goods). Throughout the 20th century multiple nation states claimed either to have achieved communism or to have been developing it.
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Why is communism hated by some ppl? [closed]
Communists ideologies are against Capitalism and Privatization...Well it seemed a good thought in Marx's era...he was fighting against the "gap" what so called a "class" b/w rich and poor sections of ...
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Who is the historical figure in McCarthy's speech, "When a great democracy is destroyed..."?
During the Wheeling speech in 1950, McCarthy said :
As one of our outstanding historical figures once said, “When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be from enemies from without, but rather ...
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Did Farmers Survive Communist Famines?
Reference on mass killings, some of which include famines (this from Reason). Also, this site has an interesting question about the famines and Soviet leadership keeping it a secret.
Is there any ...
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Were there any westerners who entered the soviet bloc to escape capitalism? [closed]
It is a well known fact that many people from the soviet bloc fled to the west to escape communism, and that during the entire soviet time frame, from the beginning of the Russian civil war in 1918 ...
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How did the KPD relate to the German state during the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?
Between August 1939 and June 1941, Germany and the USSR had the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. During this time, many USSR-oriented communist parties in Europe and North America were (forced to be) rather ...
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Why is Marx more prominent than Engels?
Both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coauthored the Communist Manifesto. However, the philosophies described in the book are commonly referred to as Marxism. Also, Marx is a much more common name found ...
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What made the generation-switch hard in Soviet Union?
I always wondered, why didn't the Soviet leadership have similar generation changes like Chinese had later with Deng Xiao Ping?
Only Gorbachev could get the leadership as second-generation communist ...
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Was Lenin's 'Socialism and Religion' a reaction to something specific? What?
In 1905, Lenin wrote the text 'Socialism and Religion' Some quotes:
Religion is one of the forms of spiritual oppression which everywhere weighs down heavily upon the masses of the people, over ...
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Why was communism at odds with pan-Arabism?
I can't figure this out. Communism was supposed to be against nationalism. This would seem to favor pan-Arabism, which espoused the ideal of uniting the Arab lands instead of remaining divided up more ...
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Why and how did the CIA/OSS support non-communist French trade unions after WWII? [closed]
Why and how did the CIA/OSS support non-communist French trade unions after the WWII?
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Why did Stalin keep the famine of 1932 a secret?
The famine of 1932 took millions of lives, before the Soviet authorities took some measures to alleviate the lives of the peasants. During the whole time, and for decades afterwards, the affair was ...
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How did the European and international left react to the Cafe War?
During Algerian decolonization, one episode was the Cafe War, when the mainstream Algerian independence group FLN and the communist MNA killed each other's members. This left several thousand dead in ...
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How was Chinese Communism connected to the New Culture Movement?
Looking for ways that the New Culture Movement was associated with Chinese Communism or the Chinese Communist Party.
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Who were the exponents of what Marx dismissed as 'German socialism'?
In the following passage from the Communist Manifesto, Marx takes aim at some of his socialist rivals. He criticises 'feudal' and 'petty bourgeois' socialism... I think I understand what he is ...
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What is 'real socialism'?
I have been assigned a monograph about the countries of real socialism. While I understand the topic and have been successful at writing up the work, I am having difficulty in finding a definition for ...
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When did the Great Purge start?
In what month of what year did the Great Purge begin in the Soviet Union?
Wikipedia's individual page says it it started in 1934, but if I Google search for "Great Purge" and "1934," nothing much ...
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Communist resistance groups in the Nazi German military
In a recent newspaper article about a Jewish man concealing his identity in Norway during the five years of Nazi German occupation, a reference is made to a "secret Communist group" among German ...
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What was the legal status of an East German once he had reached West Germany?
Cold War histories usually state something like "any German able to reach West Germany was automatically granted West German citizenship" to explain how easy it was to go from East to West, if only ...
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How much was the wealthy elite harmed by the Bolshevik revolution?
One of the stated benefits of communism is supposed to be that the property of the extremely wealthy will be seized and redistributed. However, a common criticism states that the extremely wealthy ...
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Was Marine Corps B. Gen. Evans Fordyce Carlson -- leader of the Carlson Raiders -- suspected of being a communist?
Brig. Gen. Evans Fordyce Carlson is known in history as a three-time awardee of the Navy Cross, a Marine who had served in several wars as an enlisted man and officer, the co-founder of the Marine ...
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Did the Germans purposefully arrange to send Lenin to Russia to start a revolution?
A recent documentary, The World Wars, on the History Channel suggested, strongly, that the Imperial German government secretly arranged safe-passage for Vladimir Lenin to return to Moscow from ...
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Why is the color red associated with communism?
The color red is traditionally associated with communism. You can find it in the flags of the Soviet Union and China, and the Red Star is a a common symbol in communist countries. Why is the color red ...
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Did technical managers have to join the Nazi party?
In the Soviet Union a person who was rising in technical management (say, becoming the director of a plant) was usually expected to join the Communist Party as a pre-requisite of getting the job.
I ...
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What were the effects of US foreign policy in the South East Asian region in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s on states with capitalist economies?
US foreign policy in South East Asia in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was ostensibly anti-communist. It involved civil and military action in a wide number of countries in this region.
Most notably, in ...
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Why did the Soviet Union's economy grow fast in the 1950's-1960's?
Communist economic systems self-implode. Today it has been recognized that Communism is bad for economic progress. There is no dispute that Communism makes countries poor based on what has happened in ...
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Why did the communist party lose in Telangana in India's first general elections?
The communist party played a key role in ending feudalism in telangana, then lost in the first general elections against Congress. How did the party deteriorate within 1 or 2 years after the end of ...
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Stalin cultivated a "Friend of the Children" image: Why? Did other communist/socialist leaders do the same?
Part of Stalin's cult of personality was his promulgation of a "Friend of the children" image.
What was the reason for this?
What other communist or socialist leaders also used this tactic?
(I ...
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Does U.S. law still apply to persons who were deported to Russia in 1919 using the "Soviet Ark"?
"Attorneys General: Enforcing the Law" by Phyllis Raybin Emert, states that 249 persons, were subjected to deportation to Russia via Finland.
The leaders of the deportees Alexander Berkman and Emma ...
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Were dissident KPD members ratted out to the Gestapo?
In her essay "Gestern Morgen", Bini Adamczak tells a story from Manes Sperbers "Wie eine Träne im Ozean." I'll paraphrase:
In 1935, a member of the German Communist Party (KPD) finds himself
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Did Stalin believe Israel would go communist?
In Anne Applebaum's recent book Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956, she claims the USSR supported the new state of Israel and states
Stalin believed Israel would quickly join the ...
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Looking for a symbol for Southern USA communism [closed]
For a novel I'm writing I'm looking for a symbol, akin to hammer and sickle, that would represent a socialist republic created in Florida plus a but of Alabama and surrounding states. The hammer in ...
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How independent were the Eastern European countries from the Soviet Union?
How much influence did the Soviet Union have over the other Warsaw Pact countries? Did Moscow directly control them, and direct what they did? Did they often disagree with the USSR over policy? If so, ...
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Kazakhstan and anti-capitalism in the 1990s
What drove anti-capitalist sentiments from Kazakh intellectuals and economists in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union?
It is my understanding that Kazakhstan was a low level ...
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Did Gorbachev say that his intention was to destroy Communism?
As I remember the 1980s and the Perestroika epoch, the reforms were advertised to the people as "return to Leninist principles", even deeper implementation of Socialism. The posters claimed it was "...
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How far should I go back in Russian History in order to understand Communist Russia? [closed]
I'm writing a story and need information on the Russian communist rule because I'm writing a book about a government much like that of communist Russia, specifically focused on a police state ...
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What was the reaction of Western Communist Parties to Kruschev's 1956 speech denouncing Stalin?
I am also curious about the reactions of left-leaning intellectuals (aka "fellow-travellers").
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Was the IMF complicit in destroying the Romanian economy?
Wikipedia claims that despite the unprecedented growth of Romanian industry and food and production at the rate of 22% per year, Romania experienced serious shortage of food and petrol in the late 80s ...
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Credibility of "Mao: The Unknown Story" [closed]
I was reading a controversial book, Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, and found it quite biased. However, they cite a variety of sources to back up their information. Therefore, I ...
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How would one have gone about setting up a business during Communist Revolutionary China?
In 1966, Mao Zedong launched a movement towards Socialism, to, solidify his power after a disastrous Great Leap Forward, called the Cultural Revolution. Though the movement moved towards a total ...
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When did the Vietnam War start?
I embarrassingly don't know much about the history of the Vietnam War.
I would like to learn more about the war, but I can't figure out when exactly the war started and ended. World War 2 was from ...
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Did Leon Trotsky get stopped by authorities in Halifax?
In Antony C. Sutton's book Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution he argues that Leon Trotsky was given $10,000 in New York.
http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/bolshevik_revolution/chapter_02....
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How did the Chinese Self-Criticism work in practice?
During the Maoist era often "enemies" were put through "self-criticisms" where they needed to note where they were in error and how they strayed from the party. I've seen multiple records of this in ...
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Why was the Republican government of Spain so slow to react to the Nationalist revolt?
I have been reading the Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor. One of the arguments the author makes is that the first 48 hours of the July 17th military uprising was the most vital period in which a ...
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How Successful Were the International Brigades?
During the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) to what extent did the International Brigades play a role in fighting the fascists coup? My understanding is that they were a relatively minor element, ...
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What was the reason of extreme anti-Communism in the first half of 20th century? [closed]
It is often alleged that a grand part in the success of the Nazi and fascist movements in Europe was their hard-line anti-Communism. Thy used anti-Communist sentiments to gain popularity and even many ...
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What sources or documentation exists to indicate Stalin's level of popularity in Russia today?
To what extent is Stalin still loved and/or respected by Russians (and for extra points former USSR states)?
While articles like these
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7802485.stm
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/...
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Are there any communist leaders without a record of acts we consider as a crime (against humanity)? [closed]
I have taken an interest in dictators a while ago, especially communist dictators and the Cold War in general. As I read through the articles throughout time about these individuals, it came to me ...
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Correlation between capitalism/democracy and communism/dictatorship?
Some people often equate capitalism with democracy and communism with dictatorship, is this necessarily true?
What are good examples and counter-examples of these associations?
Should kingdoms etc. ...
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What was Lenin's major criticism of or differences with Marx?
I'm interested in what specific differences in Lenin's writing might address what he perceived to be the shortcomings of Marx's work. Wikipedia is weak on this topic.
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Why were the Prague Spring leaders treated more leniently than Nagy and his colleagues?
Following the Warsaw Pact's 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia the lead Czech reformer Alexander Dubček was dismissed and given a lowly job with the forestry commission.
A decade or so earlier, the ...
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