134
votes
Accepted
Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
Moldova
The Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova came to power in the 2001 Moldovan parliamentary election but went into opposition after the July 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election ...
- 108k
77
votes
Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
I believe the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia matches your criteria. It started with popular protests in November 1989. During December, the (Communist) president nominated a new government where ...
64
votes
Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
If you consider it sovereign, East Germany did that.
Well, they had already lost almost all control anyways, but after the wall fell they simply ran for the first election with other parties, and - ...
- 1,093
42
votes
Why wasn’t the USSR “rebranded” communist?
The reason is that there are two different concepts that are named "communism". One is the final stage in the Marxist(-Leninist?) development model (after archaic/primitive classless ...
- 8,037
40
votes
Accepted
Why did this anti-communist pamphlet, from the USA in the 1950s, include UNESCO among its targets?
You're talking about fringe political pamphlet here, so be careful generalizing from it. To paraphrase Tolstoy, all mainstream thinking may look alike, but fringe beliefs are all fringe in their own ...
- 117k
38
votes
Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
In the Republic of San Marino, an elected Communist-Socialist coalition government ruled from 1983 to 1988. They lost their majority when the Socialists scored badly in the 1988 elections, and the ...
- 5,800
34
votes
What was the ethnic composition of Soviet government?
Historical Background
Continuity is the key word when you think about Russia.
There have been major upheavals in Russian history in the 20th century (the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 - and the ensuing ...
- 26.8k
33
votes
Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) won elections in 2008, and subsequently lost power to the Nepali Congress in the 2013 elections.
The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) ...
- 431
27
votes
Why wasn’t the USSR “rebranded” communist?
It is good to know that by Lenin's stance USSR was not in fact a socialist state. Their aim was socialism and eventually communism (in modern parlance people think of socialism and communism, usually ...
- 371
26
votes
Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
I think the election to the upper chamber of Polish parliament (Senat) in 1989 can be considered such case.
According to the agreements of the Round Table (Okrągły Stół) the lower chamber (Sejm) had ...
- 361
25
votes
Why would this word have been an unsuitable name in Communist Poland? Is it because it's a racial slur?
As a Pole, I'm confused by all the comments trying to find a racial angle here. I don't recognize either the original name "Samba" or its translation "Sambo" as a racist slur, and ...
- 351
24
votes
Who said, "Freedom to do what?"
It's Lenin who's reported to have said this. I found this quote from a Ph.D. thesis -
"At first, the Socialists were[...] in favour of affiliation to the Comintern. Before committing themselves ...
- 14k
23
votes
How does Louise Bryant's assessment of how the Soviet Union would fall hold up at the beginning of the 21st century?
"The most significant fact is that it will not fall from inside pressure. Only outside, foreign, hostile intervention can destroy it."
In fact, some historians have argued the exact opposite: the ...
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21
votes
Why would this word have been an unsuitable name in Communist Poland? Is it because it's a racial slur?
In the original, Polish version, the dog's name is "Samba", not "Sambo"
Samba is a lively dance of Afro-Brazilian origin in 2/4(2 by 4) time danced to samba music. The term "...
- 3,400
20
votes
Accepted
What do Marxists mean by "class basis of law"? As seen in linked article
Marxist Theory
Marxism, as taught and practiced in the USSR, claims that human society consists of
base: economic structure (ownership of means of production, relationships between the owners and ...
- 26.8k
20
votes
What prompted Cuba to fight against South African Imperialism?
The Cuban intervention in Angola was entirely in keeping with the regime's outlook since the revolution. C. Sobers, in Investigating Cuban Internationalism: the First Angolan Intervention, 1975, ...
- 108k
19
votes
Why is North-Korean communist leader Kim Il-sung called Kim Ir Sen in some languages?
The Korean language has a different set of phonemes compared to most Indo-European languages.
Phonemes are individual sounds that are distinguished in pronunciation and used to differentiate words. ...
- 472
18
votes
Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
Austria in 1945 had, like most of Eastern Europe, a provisional government which was approved by Stalin and had a large Communist contingent. Unlike other countries, however, the Austrian Communists ...
- 1,005
18
votes
Accepted
Why was there so little information about sex in Eastern Block countries?
Was it "taboo"?
This is just not correct on a lot of levels.
First of all, the "Eastern bloc" was not a so much like a real 'bloc'. Differences existed for each and every country. Then over time, ...
- 80.6k
18
votes
Who said, "Freedom to do what?"
To develop Carlos Martin's comment, you can find the phrase on page 73 of Mi Viaje a la Rusia sovietista by Fernando de los Ríos:
El periodo de transición de dictadura - continuó diciendo Lenin - ...
- 2,580
15
votes
Accepted
Why is Marx more prominent than Engels?
The main work which lays the foundation of Marxism is not the Communist Manifesto.
It is the many-volume theoretic work which is called Capital (Das Kapital) by Marx alone. The Manifesto is just a ...
- 38.4k
15
votes
Accepted
Who is the historical figure in McCarthy's speech, "When a great democracy is destroyed..."?
Probably Abraham Lincoln.
While the specific "quote" is almost certainly manufactured, the core idea could easily have been taken from Lincoln's Lyceum Address. In that speech, Lincoln warned that ...
- 97.2k
14
votes
How many Bolsheviks were Jewish?
I understand that by "bolshevik" we're really just referring to the
majority party within the USSR (if that is correct?)
This is the original, most concrete definition of "Bolshevik", yes. Outside ...
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14
votes
What was the logic behind Stalin's brutality?
Summary:
Don't confuse cause and effect - Stalin succeeded because he was the most brutal and ruthless Politburo member. Only someone even more brutal and ruthless could have succeeded in his place.
...
- 71.9k
14
votes
Accepted
How much of the Jonestown money actually got given to the USSR?
It would appear no money was paid out to the communist party, but it wasn't directly paid the the individuals heirs either.
Any funds associated with the Peoples Temple cult were located in a lengthy ...
- 38.5k
13
votes
Accepted
Was the population of Moscow wildly overstated during the Cold War?
Russian urbanization in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras (2012), p. 22, states:
However, the GPW rapidically reshaped the population dynamics of the
region. Even as late as 1959, the populations ...
- 6,789
13
votes
Is this a true quote of Engels about vague Russian leaders and their vague followers?
I cannot certify that the precise wording is accurate, but the sentiment most certainly is. This essay on the relationship of Marx and Engels with the 19th Century Russian revolutionaries notes this ...
- 71.9k
13
votes
Accepted
Did Soviet people know Stalin's birth name?
Of course it was widely known. In Lenin's case, in 1924 they even renamed his native city Ulyanovsk. For instance, the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): Short Course, which was ...
- 6,265
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