Chapter 21

Why did the communist experiment, which was committed to equality, abundance, and a humane socialism, generate failed economies and oppressive, brutal, and totalitarian regimes?

The first Communist Revolution occurred unexpectedly, according to Marxist theory, in the backward country called Russia.  Marxists thought that revolution would occur in the most advanced industrialized countries where the combination of class struggle by the industrial working class and the high productivity of advanced Capitalism would lead to a revolution in which the workers would control production and everyone would have plenty to live on.

Unfortunately, the revolution took place in a backward peasant country that was very poor, illiterate, and wracked by a disastrous war. This was followed by a ruinous civil war.  The Russian Marxists did not believe their revolution could succeed without revolution in the West, especially Germany. However, revolution in Germany did not succeed.” For the next 25 years the Soviet Union remained a communist island in a capitalist sea. “(Strayer , 935)

This plus the lack of a  democratic past in Russia as well as the strains of the need to industrialize and conflict within the communist  party itself led to a totalitarian society and a command economy which was bound to fail. In the process the Marxist belief in a society run by the working class itself never materialized. Neither did the humane egalitarian society that Marks envisioned. Subsequent communist countries followed the Russian model either on their own   whether they were satellites of the Soviet Union or independent countries like China.