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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How much of the Jonestown money actually got given to the USSR?
So, I was reading the Wikipedia page on the Jonestown massacre, and I noticed that several members of the People's Temple (including their leadership) willed all of their money to the Communist Party ...
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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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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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Was the population of Moscow wildly overstated during the Cold War?
The science fiction author Robert Heinlein was a socialist in his youth, but became a strident anticommunist during the Cold War. In 1960, he and his wife Virginia went as tourists to the USSR, and he ...
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Why was there so little information about sex in Eastern Block countries?
By "Taboo" I meant the lack of widespread access to the information (very few sources, sparse information in biology books etc). I've edited the title for clarification.
As you all probably ...
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What is this illustration portraying?
While doing my presentation I have come across this illustration titles "Downfall of the Soviet Union". I am, however, unable to determine, who are the people on this illustration and what is it ...
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What unique personal experiences contributed to the formation of Mao's brand of Communism?
Political scientists cite his personal attributes and exposure to the proletariat as synergistic in the formation of his doctrine. What particular experiences in Mao Zedong's formative years ...
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Was it ever possible to see students with burka/paranji having education at the schools and universities of the Uzbek Soviet Republic?
Despite strict 'hujum' (assault in English) policies against veiling as part of the liberation of women in Muslim populated less-developed areas of the Soviet Union during the early years of the ...
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Why did Romania create a personality cult long after Russia's "overcoming of the cult of personality"? [closed]
During the Cold War the Socialist Republic of Romania was aligned with the USSR and within the Soviet sphere of influence. What appears odd is that while Russian Communism slowly liberalised after ...
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Why doesn’t Cuba's flag have any communist symbolism?
The wikipedia page on the flag of Cuba says:-
It is one of the two flags of a currently socialist country (the other being Laos) that does not use any Communist Symbolism.
The symbolism is (from ...
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Are there any communist countries that were model high functioning societies? [closed]
low pollution rate
high living standards
Are there any historically model communist countries?
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Was there any politization of "hard" science (math, physics, chemistry, biology) in the Asian communist countries?
Where proven science results contradict political views, the most obvious solution is to try to discredit those results, by creating your own versions. It has been done multiple times in history, for ...
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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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Is this a true quote of Engels about vague Russian leaders and their vague followers?
In the recent movie "The Young Karl Marx", Engels refers to Russian communist leaders being confused and finding confused followers.
Is this a true quote and if yes, whom did he mean?
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Did Amadeo Bordiga tell off Stalin this way?
I read somewhere that Amadeo Bordiga, Italian Communist, said something along these lines to Stalin's face:
If the Soviet Union is the homeland of all proletarians and the revolution, then let it ...
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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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Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
Have there been cases where a sovereign Communist government ran in an open and fair multi-party election and conceded a loss?
The reason for the sovereign qualifier is simple. If, for example, the ...
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How (not why) did the Bolshevik party seize such complete control of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets?
How (not why) did the Bolshevik party seize such complete control of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets ("the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917 ...
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"...as stated by its atheistic leaders more than 30 years ago" in McCarthy speech
I read this quote in a speech given on June 2, 1950 by Joseph McCarthy that said:
"We know that the major aim of communism, as stated by its atheistic leaders more than 30 years ago, is to create ...
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Ideological differences between Mensheviks and Bolsheviks
As I understand from this brief explanation, the main doctrinal difference was that the Bolsheviks were more radical (class struggle) while the Mensheviks were more in favor of class cooperation and ...
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Which historians argue that WWII was caused by Fascism as a reaction to Communism?
It's been suggested that fascist movements of post-WW1 Europe emerged
in reaction to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and against worker
sympathies to similar internationalist socialist movements ...
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Did Karl Marx Fight in the Second Schleswig War?
I have recently seen the Danish made series (1864) which is about two brothers fighting in the Second Schleswig War between Prussia and Denmark. It's a really gory and "raw" series about how brutal ...
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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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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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Why is North-Korean communist leader Kim Il-sung called Kim Ir Sen in some languages?
Looking on Wikipedia I see that in many of the languages of the former communist countries, namely East European, the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung (or Song) (1912-1994) is called Kim Ir Sen. (I am ...
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How many times was Vaclav Havel under arrest and under what - presumably trumped up charges - was he indicted?
Vaclav Havel, was one of the leading figures of the Velvet revolution that toppled the Czech communist government.
He was arrested multiple times by the regime, the longest being for four years. The ...
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Did China's life expectancy at birth rise 30.5 years from 1960 to 1980? If so, what were the particular changes made to their society's structure?
I have been reading The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy by Minqi Li. The author reads like a fan of Mao and is succeeding in convincing me I need to dig deeper in to the ...
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What were the policies of the Sammarinese communist party?
I've heard of things not going very well for many socialist countries in the 20th and 21st centuries with problems such as famine, civil war and genocide. However in contrast to states like the USSR ...
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During the Great Depression in America, was there an increase in popularity of Communism?
During the Great Depression, was there an increase in the popularity of Communism among the everyday American and if so, was this due to a longing for better living conditions?
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Why didn't the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia use the military to suppress the protests during the Velvet Revolution?
I've been reading a bit about the fairly peaceful transition of power in Czechoslovokia through the protests throughout the country, but I'm wondering, why didn't the ruling party attempt to bring the ...
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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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Why did Shock Therapy fail so badly?
Why did shock therapy fail during perestroika? Has shock therapy ever worked in other situations?
Was it responsible for the creation of the nomenclature and oligarchs?
Are there any authors who ...
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Can anyone find a picture of NSDAP & KPD Workers eating lunch together in 1932 during Berlin Transit Workers Strike?
A few months back I saw a picture on the web of NSDAP and KPD strikers eating lunch together during the November, 1932, Berlin Transit Workers strike. The picture showed strikers of both parties ...
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Was Nikolai Bukharin told at trial his job was “to confess and repent, not to argue”?
A recent Economist article claims:
As Nikolai Bukharin, a close Lenin ally, was told during his own
trial, his job was “to confess and repent, not to argue”.
I've searched without success for a ...
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How did Lenin secure his regime? [closed]
As we know, Bolsheviks seemed to overthow Provisional Government easily in November Revolution. Many political parties are inspired and feel like taking over the same way. War Communism also ...
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Are there biographies on Boris Shumyatsky that included his history before 1921?
Zhang Guotao in his memoir recounted his meeting with Shumyatsky in 1921. The then King of Siberia was very busy but managed to treat Zhang with a private dinner in his home. After the dinner, Zhang ...
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How does Louise Bryant's assessment of how the Soviet Union would fall hold up at the beginning of the 21st century?
Louise Bryant, an American bohemian spent six months in Russia during the turbulent times that presaged the October Revolution - and which she wrote up as Six Red Months in Russia. In her conclusion ...
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What good came from the Great Leap Forward?
I'm currently reading the book "Mao's Great Famine" by Frank Dikötter. It's a very harrowing book covering the unimaginable waste and destruction of resources, environment and life that occurred ...
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Were there any long-term benefits from sending Lenin back to Russia [closed]
Sending Lenin back to Russia to start a revolution is usually touted as a good idea by the Germans, since it helped to knock Russia out of the war. But the Great War was still lost for Germany, the ...
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Did Mao Zedong and Chinese communists collude with the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War?
Whilst answering another question on in which the CCP was militarily involved in the Sino-Japanese War, To what extent did the CPC avoid fighting with the Japanese? I came across groundbreaking and ...
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Is there a biography of Pavel Mif?
Pavel Mif by all Chinese accounts was a ruthless scheming Napoleon (the one in animal farm). Fortunate to the Chinese, Mif was later purged by Stalin. I wonder what sort of family he was from; where ...
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What was the Chinese Communist Party's organizational hierarchy in the two weeks between 15JUL1927 and 01Aug1927?
According to Zhang Guotao, Nanchang Upgrising (01Aug1927) was Li Lisan's initiative inaugurated and proposed by Zhou Enlai to Zhang GuoTao. The decision to go ahead was made between Zhou Enlai and ...
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Does anyone know the name of the student who died during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956? If not, why not?
I'm reading up on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and it seems that if that one student hadn't died, the revolution never would have started.
The revolt began as a student demonstration, which ...
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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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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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Why was most of Europe against communism right from the start?
In "Dark Continent" by M. Mazower, I read the following with regards to the 1920s:
In the first place, democracy’s international backers were less supportive as time passed. Woodrow Wilson’s legacy ...
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What was the program of the Mensheviks in their later years? How did they hope to achieve it?
The Mensheviks were an important force in Russia during the February Revolution of 1917. Within Russia proper, they were gradually sidelined after the Bolshevik October Revolution. The Menshevik ...
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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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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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What measures were taken by the Bolsheviks to consolidate their position? [closed]
What are four measures taken by the Bolsheviks before December of 1917 to suppress threats to their position?
I know that:
1)They promised elections to the assembly to be held in November 1917.
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