Definition+Communism+and+it's+influence+on+people

One definition of communism is that, it is an economic and political system based on the principle of "From each according to their own ability, to each according to their need." It was supposed to be a "classless society", where there was no ruling class or bosses. And fundimental to that was that the workers who produced the goods were collectively the owners of the means of production of those goods.



The workers revolution which brought about communism was encapsulated by Karl Marx's book 'Das Kapital' where he concluded by saying that "Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains."



Communism has had a number of effects on people throughout history. Both the spread of communism and the western effort to contain it has resulted in a number wars and uprising including the Korean War and The Hungarian Uprising.

__**The Korean War**__

Technically between the UN and North Korea this ‘Police Action’ as it is known in the US, is just one example of the many wars that resulted because of The Cold War. At the end of World War II, both the Soviet Union and the United States occupied the peninsula after Japans defeat. The decision was made do divide the county in two, along the 38th parallel. The Soviet Union would occupy the north and the US the south. Local Governments were set up in the two sectors of the peninsula, american educated Syngman Rhee in the south and communist supporter Kim Il-sung in the north. Each of these leaders wanted to unite the whole of Korea, but under their respective ideology.

Kim Il-sung requested Soviet support from Stalin to invade the South but Stalin did not want to follow a course that could lead to war with the USA. However he did supply the North Korean army with Soviet weapons, tanks and appointed Soviet Generals to lead the North Korean forces. Giving them a superior advantage over The South and finally on June 25 1950,the North Korean Army struck in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, crossing the 38th parallel behind a bombardment of Russian supplied artillery

The United Nations Security Council was convened in a few hours and passed the a resolution condemning the North Korean aggression unanimously. The resolution was adopted mainly because the Soviet Union, a veto-wielding power, had been boycotting proceedings since January, in protest that the People's Republic of China could not hold a permanent seat on the council.

Within days, under equipped South Korean forces were in full retreat or defecting en masse to the North. North Korean forces occupied Seoul on the afternoon of June 28. By August, the South Korean forces and the U.S. forces had been driven back into a small area in the southeast corner of the Korean peninsula around the city of Pusan (the Pusan Perimeter). As the North Koreans advanced, they rounded up and killed civil servants. On August 20, MacArthur sent a message warning Kim Il Sung that he would be held responsible for further crimes committed against UN troops

A daring landing of US troops at Inchon halted the North Korean assaults by cutting of their supplies and dividing their forces. Within days the North Korean army was driven back to the 38th parallel. The counter attack didn’t stop there. UN troops crossed the border and continued advancing right up to the Yalu River bordering China. This made the Chinese uneasy and With General MacAuthor threatening war and escalating the situation The Chinese attacked. Crossing the river and drove the UN forces back to the 38th parallel were the war was fraught to a stalemate. The Korean War was the first armed confrontation of the Cold War and set the standard for many later conflicts. It created the idea of a limited war, where the two superpowers would fight in another country, forcing the people in that nation to suffer the bulk of the destruction and death involved in a war between such large powers. The war resulted in over 474,000 deaths in combat from both sides and an estimated 2 million civilians were killed, it divide a nation which remains divided to this day. The superpowers avoided descending into an all-out war with one another, as well as the mutual use of nuclear weapons. It also expanded the Cold War, which to that point had mostly been focused within Europe.


 * __Hungarian Uprising (1956)__**

After Stalin’s death in 1953, Khrushchev took over as the leader of Russia and the Cold War had a brief thawing. In a “secret speech” Khrushchev denounced Stalin and his means of governing. He aimed to de-stalinise Russia wanted a “Peaceful coexistence” with the western powers.

Khrushchev’s talk of destalinisation and a peaceful coexistence encouraged some of the satellite states to question the soviet rule thrust upon them and the communist governments that had been put in place. In Hungary this was especially rife because of the suppression of the Catholic Church which had taken place when the soviets took control.

The uprising began as a peaceful student protest in Budapest but escalated into a full scale revolution when they were fired upon by police. The communist leaders and the leaders of the feared secret police were executed and the moderate communist Imre Nagy took control, forcing the soviet troops out of Hungary.

On Nov 1st Nagy announced that Hungary would leave the Warsaw pact and become a neutral communist country. Knowing this may cause a harsh Soviet retaliation Nagy requested support from the UN wester nations but Eisenhower refused saying he would not interfere in the “Soviet Sphere.”

Khrushchev sent 6000 tanks into Hungary to crush the revolution. Hungarins tried to resist but failed. An estimated 20,000 died and 150,000 were forced to lee as refuges.A pro-soviet, Janos Kadar replaced Nagy and the attempted de-stalinisiation of Hungary had achieved nothing.

__**Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin**__ Communism was a major feature and motivator throughout most of Stalins life. He strove to create a communist state and was sucessful in doing so. Stalin created a new branch of communism refered to as '//Stalinism//'.

Stalin was born on December 18 1878 as Ioseb Besarionis Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia. He was the third child of Besarion Dzhugashvili (father) and Ketevan Geladze (mother). The town where Stalin grew up was a violent, lawless place with criminal gangs and organised streetfights.Stalin's native tongue was Georgian and he did not start to learn Russian until he was eight or nine years old. Throughout his life he never lost his strong Georgian accent. When he was ten, Stalin enrolled in the Gori Church School where he earned top marks. His father was incredibly angry with Stalin because he wanted his son to be trained as a cobbler rather than be educated. In his rage he smashed the windows of the local tavern and attacked the local police chief. As a result he was asked to leave the town and so left his family behind and moved to Tiflis (in the east of Georgia) and worked in a shoe factory.

Stalin’s revolutionist activities started when he was awarded a scholarship to the Georgian Orthodox Seminary of Tiflis. He and some of his fellow students were drawn to reading revolutionist material written by people such as Victor Hugo and Carl Marx. In August 1898 Stalin joined the Russian social-Democratic Labour Party. Stalin quit the seminary in 1899 after the fees were abruptly raised. Shortly after this he discovered the writings of Vladimir Lenin and was incited to start a revolution in Russia. He started organising strikes and giving revolutionist speeches, which brought him to the attention of the Okhrana (the Tsars secret police). On the night of April 3, 1901 the Okhrana made surprise arrests of many of the Social-Democrat leaders but Stalin avoided capture and fled underground to Batumi. The authorities finally caught and arrested him on April 18, 1902 but he was acquitted on charges of leading riots due to lack of evidence. In 1903 the authorities exiled Stalin to Siberia for three years. During his brief time in Siberia the Social-Democrat party split into two rival factions, the Bolsheviks lead by Lenin and the Mensheviks under Julius Martov. After escaping back to Tiflis using false papers Stalin sided with Lenin. Stalin then spent time travelling around Georgia conducting political activity for his party.

On January 22, 1905 Stalin was in Baku when the Cossacks attacked a workers demonstration killing 200 and sparking off the Russian revolution of 1905. During this Stalin, along with a squad of armed Bolsheviks, went round collecting protection rackets for party funds. After this revolution Stalin continued to work for the Bolsheviks and in the period between the Russian revolution of 1905 and the revolution of 1917 he was arrested and exiled to various parts of Siberia on three separate occasions.

The revolution of 1917 was caused by the aftermath of World War One. In the chaos of this revolution the Duma (a legislative council) took control of the country forming the Russian Provisional Government. Tsar Nicholas the Second stepped down because he did not have the means to suppress the revolution. In October of 1917 the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the workers' Soviets, overthrew the Provisional Government in Petrograd. A civil war ensued with the Bolsheviks ultimately coming out on top. This revolution marked the start of the spread of communism in the twentieth century. Many countries such as Germany and Hungary had communist revolutions based around the Marxist movement in Russia but these were only short lived.

Stalin rose to power after Lenins death in January 1924. He did this by undermining the other candidates for the leadership of Russia and by showing an undying repore towards Lenin, which gained him favour amongst the masses. he portrayed himself as a 'man of the poor' and his socialist ideas appealed to the Russian public who were tiered of war.

Stalin sealed the leadership of the USSR during the purges of the 1930's. He eliminated any opposition to him and justified it as an attempt to expel 'opportunists' and 'counter-revolutionary infiltrators'.

The new type of communism he brought to the USSR was a brutal and incredibly strict version of Marxist-Leninist communism. 'Stalinism' consisted an extensive use of propaganda to establish a personality cult around an absolute dictator, as well as extensive use of the secret police to maintain order and quash any opposition. Stalins main contribution to the communism theory came from his theory of 'Socialism in one country', which held that, because of the defeat of all other communist revolutions in Europe, Russia must rely on itself to strengthen communism. This theory went against Lenin's beleif that in order to suceed, communism needed to prosper in several countries.