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Home » Topics » Organizations » Communist Party

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Communist Party

By Sara Videtto
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Karl Marx was a German socialist leader whose basic ideas referred to as Marxism led to the creation of the communist party.

Overview

Communist parties are political organizations that seek to influence the governing entities of a set group of individuals. Communist parties uphold the social principles of communism, hence are committed to achieving a classless society structured by common ownership and equal access to the basic necessities of life. The need for private property and labour wages are eliminated.

Today communist parties exist in most countries throughout the world. In 2010 several countries including China, Vietnam, Cuba were ruled by a communist party and considered communist states. Communist parties can also rule in democratic nations. For example, in 2008 communist party member Dimitris Christofias was sworn in to rule over Cyprus's democratic nation.

Origins

While formal organization of the communist party technically began with the ideas of Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1896), the concepts leading to its development are found in writings and philosophies throughout history. Even biblical Old Testament figures such as Jesus, Jeremiah, Amos and Isaiah examined the possible benefits of communal societies.

Plato's The Republic (380–360 BCE) is an early example of the examination of communistic governance. Within The Republic Plato raises three key principals including discussions comparing individual ownership versus community control, understanding subsistence and surplus production levels needed for a healthy society, as well as the need to eliminate societies where mixed systems intertwine. Aristotle further examined these ideas in his work, The Politics (335–322 BCE).

Throughout history, the idea of utopias based on the principals of common ownership has allowed readers to explore implications of communal societies. The Roman Poet Virgil (70–19 BCE) presented the idea of utopia in one of his most famous works the Eclogues. Much later, Sir Thomas More continued the idea of utopia with his 1516 publication Utopia.

Moving into the nineteenth century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels put into motion the development of communism as a formal political system with the publication of the Manifesto of the Communist Party. Propagation continued as key leaders such as Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union embraced the ideas of communist societies. Soon after World War II, other countries such as East Germany, China, and Poland began to explore communism.

Key Players and Events

Karl Marx was a German socialist leader whose basic ideas referred to as Marxism led to the creation of the communist party. Along with Engels, Marx published the Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1848. The Manifesto, as it is often referred in short, set forth the path a society must take to achieve a higher socialist state eventually leading to a communist state. To Marx, socialism was a prerequisite state whereby a society of equal members is govern by a central committee before achieving the true order of communism.

Together Marx and Engels devoted their lives to spreading interest in communist governments across Europe including the formation of the International Workingmen's Association. The International Workingmen's Association developed into the First International. First International organized communists and socialist for the first time.

The ideas set forth in the Manifesto resonated with Russian underground communist leader, Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924). As leader of the Bolshevik party, Lenin instituted a totalitarian system of rule and created a means of production and system of distribution at the sole discretion of the government. Lenin also established The Comintern, known as the Communist International in 1919. The Comintern continued to shape the development of communist parties around the world until it was disbanded in 1943.

The existence and development of communist parties continued with the rulings of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. By the end of World War II in 1945, Stalin established communist political regimes in Poland, East Germany, Romania, and other bordering countries.

Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976), leader of the Chinese Communist Party, won a long guerrilla war bringing the party to rule China in 1949. As a result of China's strong international position, communist parties in other Asian countries such as North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia also rose to power over the next several decades.

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Subtopics for Communist Party

Communist Party of Germany

Prior to World War I, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was the largest political party in Germany. In 1914, the SPD voted in favor of the war while left-wing members of the party, such as Rosa Luxemburg, vehemently opposed the war. This caused a split in the party. One...

Read more »

Communist Party: Cold War

The Cold War held on with an icy grip for 40 years. In the U.S., the fear of nuclear war had adults and children alike running for cover during air-raid drills. It also led to witch hunts for suspected Communists and cost billions of dollars as the U.S. raced the Soviets for space dominance and...

Read more »

Communist Party: Latin America

Latin America in the 1890s was a society ready for the spread of socialist concepts. Socialism, simply put, it is a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies. Historically, Latin America was...

Read more »

Communist Party: Post-Stalin Years

During Stalin's reign, the Communist Party grew to more than six million people. In January 1924 the party consisted of 350,000 members. Stalin controlled the party through the Secretariat of the Central Committee, controlling law enforcement, party administration and the military. After Stalin's...

Read more »

Communist Party: The Stalin Years

Born Josef Dzhugashvili on Dec. 21, 1879, in Gori, Georgia, Stalin was a leader of the Bolshevik Revolution. After Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin assumed control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, maintaining his power through war and manipulation until his death in 1953....

Read more »

Communist Party: United States

The Communist Party in the United States originated in the early 1900's. While the party has never had a large following in the U.S., it has had an impact on the working poor, the unemployed and African Americans. Its involvement with labor unions and the fight for racial equality has had a...

Read more »

Communist Party: McCarthyism

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the United States ended up being overcome with worries regarding the chance of communism, which was developing around Eastern Europe as well as China, taking root in the country. Taking advantage of those worries, a young Senator known as Joseph McCarthy crafted a...

Read more »

Communist Party: North Korea

The Communist Party of North Korea dominates North Korea's political system and in turn has been dominated first by Kim Il Sung and later by his son Kim Jong Il since the 1940s. The nation has a superficial separation of powers familiar in Western democratic countries, including a Cabinet,...

Read more »

Communist Party: Russia

Officially formed in 1898, the Russian Social-Democratic Party (RSDP) preceded the Russian Communist Party (RCP). RSDP's formation represented the true beginning of the organized communist revolution. However, arrests of key revolutionary figures prevented the group from becoming a full-fledged...

Read more »

Subtopics

  • Communist Party of Germany
  • Communist Party: Cold War
  • Communist Party: Latin America
  • Communist Party: Post-Stalin Years
  • Communist Party: The Stalin Years
  • See all »

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