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In the mid 19 th century Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto, which brought Communist Party views to world attention. Seventy years later communism overcame Russia in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In the next 50 years Cuba, North Korea, China, and Vietnam also adopted communist form of government. Although each of the previously mentioned countries possesses slightly different reasons why a communist revolution was successful, all have something in common. Communist revolutions succeeded in developing 3 rd world countries striving for national independence and / or social change. Before we discuss why the reasons individual countries adopted communism, we must first look at the positives that communism offers to developing nations.
In Karl Marx's book, The Communist Manifesto, he defines communism as a utopia that exists when all resources and production facilities are the property of the entire society rather than individuals. Marx said that communism would consist of a classless society. Every member of society would be a member of the proletariat, or working class. Marx envisioned the society would function on the principal of from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. (Marx 60) Keep in mind; this is the ideal form of communism, not what came into practice in Eastern Europe and Asia. Its no wonder that communism appealed to the masses of poor workers. Communism promised to level the playing field and ensure everyone was provided with what they needed.
Predictably, countries that succumbed to communism typically had polar societies. A small percentage of elite possessed nearly all of the wealth while the remaining masses of society were forced to fight for scraps. Marx envisioned a communist nation would exist without social classes or a government. He believed the working class would govern itself. Why does this appeal to struggling countries? Many of the countries that adopted a communist form of government in the 20 th century came from a long history of oppressive, overpowering, and corrupt governments.
Marx, an anti-capitalist, said that the rich upper class prospered through the exploitation of the powerless lower class. He believed that capitalism would choke on its own wealth and collapse. Next the poor would rise up against the former oppressors and form a classless society. This anti-capitalist ideology led to hoards of propaganda against capitalism.
Phrases like capitalism is a crime against humanity or Capitalism is the source of all evil spread like wildfire among communist revolutionaries. A key point Marx makes in The Communist Manifesto is the only way to rid of society of capitalism is the working class to rise up and revolt against oppressors. Revolution and violence, according to Marx, is the first step to achieving the Marxism utopia. This favors communism because it appeals to the masses, which is a key ingredient in revolutionary warfare. Revolutionary warfare, as spontaneous as it may seem, is actually a recipe that calls for some key ingredients. The revolution must have support of the masses in order to succeed.
The revolutionaries must demonstrate that the movement is capable of providing an alternative and better administration than that of the existing government. This is where propaganda was a major player in aiding communist takeovers. The communist revolutionaries used propaganda to create uncertainty of the current government in the minds of the masses. (Krupnick 450) Marx envisioned that these revolutions would occur in industrialized economies that would essential choke on their own capitalistic wealth. Similar to the state the U.
S. was in the 1930 s. We were in a depression caused by excess not scarcity. The irony in history is none of the countries that adopted a communist economy suffered from the conditions described by Marx. Rather these countries possessed little industry and poor production. Take Cuba for example, before the Cuban revolution started, Cuba's national annual income was one-third of the poorest state in the United States, Mississippi, and one-seventh of the richest state, Delaware. (Huberman 3) This was far short of their potential considering Cuba is one of the richest countries per natural resources in the world.
Cuba is a good example of how a struggling nation came to adopt a communist economy. The cause of Cuba's revolution was primary caused by a struggle for a national independence. Yes the economy was struggling but the popular consensus in Cuba was the economy would never recover unless purified of U. S. involvement / interference . At the peak in 1926, U.
S. controlled 60 % of the sugar production in Cuba, the staple of the Cuban economy. (Huberman 12) Cuban nationalists felt that the flow of money to the U. S. was devastating their island. Ideal Communism stated that Cuban workers and not wealthy American investors would own all property.
This made communism a shoe in economically in Cuba. Though U. S. influence was not desired, discontent started long before the U. S. got involved.
Cuba had been a colony of Spain since 1492. Cuba suffered from Spanish misrule until the U. S. took Cuba from Spain as a result of the Spanish-American War in 1989. Cuban hardships did not end there. According to a 1926 census one-quarter of Cubans could not read or write, primarily because only 30 % of children attended school. (OConnor 15) Cuba maintained a 25 % unemployment rate, a rate only experienced temporary in the U.
S. during the Great Depression of 1929. Even as late as 1953 another census found that 42 % of Cubans did not have electricity. (OConnor 17) Cuban nationalists blamed this poverty to the flow of Cuban money to foreign countries. Cuba demanded social change. In the midst of this economic turmoil Fulgencio Batista, with the support of the U. S. , overthrew the Cuban government in 1934 and remained Cuba's strongman until 1959.
Batista became a symbol of U. S. domination of Cuba. Cuban nationalists labeled him as a puppet of the United States.
Discontent with Batista grew exponentially with time. It was only a matter of time before a Cuban nationalist took action to rid Cuba of its social turmoil and corrupt political leader. That nationalist came in the form of Fidel Castro. Castro launched his first attack against Batista on July 26, 1953. Castro and his band of rebels waged guerilla war against Batista in the coming years. Two and a half years later Batista fled Cuba and Castro came into power.
As stated earlier in the paper, countries susceptible to a communistic revolution were developing nations striving for national independence and social change. The above paragraphs prove that Cuba possessed all of these characteristics. It was only a matter of time before Cuba succumbed to communism. Soon after Castro solidified his power he started nationalizing property in Cuba to cut the United States out of the Cuban economy. The Cubans slowly started drifting towards stronger relations with the USSR and developed a political and economic system dubbed Cuban Socialism. (OConnor 279) Cuba never came close to reaching the government less utopia that Marx had envisioned. As shown from the Cuban example, Marx was wrong in predicting the state a nation would be in prior to a revolution.
Communism did not affect the industrial giants like the United States or Great Britain, but rather developing nations like Cuba, China, Russia, Vietnam, and Korea. In addition history has proven that ideology of pure Marxism was merely a propaganda tool used by dictators to help overthrow government and establish a far more horrible system. A quote from Cuban statesman and poet, Jose Martini, summed communist revolutions up well: Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand. Works Cited Craig, Albert M. , et al. The Heritage of World Civilizations.
Combined 5 th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. Huberman, Leo. Cuba, Anatomy of a Revolution. 2 nd ed. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press, 1961. Krupnick, Charles.
Foundations of the Military Profession. New York, NY: Custom Publishing, 2000. Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engles. The Communist Manifesto.
New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. OConnor, James. The Origins of Socialism in Cuba. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1970.
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