Communism

1
Communism

• POSC 150
• Introduction to Political Theory
• Braunwarth

2
Russian Society late 19th c.

• Keeping up with the rest of Europe?
• No, very backward, illiterate, and superstitious
• The nobility spoke French
• Semi-Feudal, peasant society
• Economy based on agriculture
• Is this the setting for a Marxist Communist
  Revolution?
• No - very small proletariat

3
Russian Politics

• Much Discontent
• from both Peasants and Intellectuals
• No freedom of debate/discussion
• opposition parties outlawed
• spies and informers everywhere
• prisons full of dissidents
• some illicit pamphlets, terrorism

4
Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov)

• Older brother executed for trying to assassinate
  Tsar Alexander II
• Went underground, became a revolutionary, and
  took the name of Lenin
• Plunged into an extensive study of Engels and
  Marx

5
Leninism

• Learned class struggle is the driving force of
  historical development
• Must take advantage of class distinctions
• Any means necessary to achieve ends
• Hardened against softness

6
Vanguard Party

• What is it?
• Small, organized group of revolutionary
  intellectuals
• Need to agitate, organize, and educate the
  workers to their true interests
• Needed to overcome trade union consciousness
• Revolution would be more likely with
  immiserated proletariat and vanguard

7
1917 Russian Revolution

• Fed up with defeats and shortages WWI
• March riots in big cities, troops join in
• Tsar Nicholas replaced by Kerensky
• October Bolsheviks storm Winter Palace
• Seized mines, mills, factories, etc.
• Led to counter-revolution by landowners and other
  privileged groups (whites)
• 1918-1920 civil war Reds won

8
Russian Communism

• Lenin needed the Vanguard of the Proletariat to
  bring about the revolution in Russia
• Did the resulting state whither away as predicted
  by Lenin?
• Why or Why not?
• Example of The Iron Law of Oligarchy

9
China Overview

• About same size as U.S.
• over 1 billion people v. 255 million
• Similar Climate, settled East to West

10
China 19th c.

• Decline to Desperation (much starvation)
• Situation very similar to Russia
• Very small proletarian (1 in 200)
• Large Peasant population
• Very poor, largely feudal (war lords)
• Also, exploited by Imperialist Powers
• Opium Wars
• 1850s series of Peasant Revolts

11
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen

• Born 1866 in a poor farming family
• founded Kaomintang Party (KMT)
• Led rebellions against emperors including
  successful 1911 revolution
• Good intentions but co-opted by foreigners
• Died 1925

12
Mao 1893-1976

• Librarian (educated)
• restricted to what had been translated into
  Chinese Communist Manifesto, Lenins Imperialism
• Founding member of Chinese Communist Party 1921

13
Chiang Kai-Shek

• General in imperial army
• Joined KMT
• Succeeded Sun yet-sen
• Actively opposed to Mao and communists

14
1935 The Long March

• Mao with army of 200,000
• 1 year capture 160 cities, cross 16 mountain
  ranges, innumerable rivers,
• average 24 miles/day
• with conscripts, lost 400,000
• end up in caves in Yenan province
• guerilla warfare, befriended people
• swim like fish in the ocean
• set up small self-sufficient communism

15
Japan invades 1937

• Chiang Kai Shek solidifies power
• More concerned with communists disease of the
  heart
• KMT blunders in both wars
• Mao fights much better
• 1946 Communists begin taking over
• After 1949 Chiang Kai Shek takes wealth and flees
  to Taiwan

16
Revolution 1949

• Nation instead of Class
• Not so much internal class warfare as
• anti-imperialist war of national liberation
• Rural Proletariat
• Lot of emphasis on oppressed people
• They supported him
• Revolution began in countryside
• Model for revolution in Asia and Africa

17
Progress under Mao

• Virtually eliminated starvation, prostitution,
  female infanticide, female foot binding,
  profiteering
• kicked out foreign corrupters
• Agriculture increases 4/year
• Industrial production increases 11
• small is beautiful
• built dams, reclaimed land, etc.

18
Always Fighting USSR model

• 1957 Hundred Flowers
• encouraged criticism of entrenched elite
• 1958 Great Leap Forward
• Industry in small cottage industries
• Neither worked well
• Still very poor country
• People largely enthusiastic

19
Cultural Revolution 1966

• Revolution within the revolution
• Saw problems in USSR
• Tried to return power to people rather than
  entrenched elites
• Moved elite and intelligentsia to country
• Set back production some and education a lot
• Ultimately couldnt stop the ILOO
• C.R. eventually manipulated by elite

20
Post Mao

• After death in 1976 Deng Xiaoping
• emphasis on Economic Development
• some introduction of Free Mkt economy
• No corresponding Political Freedoms
• Tiananmen Square 1989