Unit 13 - Communism

• 5 Year Plans


  Set massive industrial goals, forced relocation of millions into cities into gov industries
• Communist-International

  USSR supports communist revolutions/parties around the world with founding to help communism gain popularity world-wide
• Stalin VS Trotsky

  Stalin= totalitarian communist dictator, state-owns property

  Trotsky = Lenin vision of temporary communist dictator for socialist society

  Stalin murders/exiles Trotsky, consolidates power and established USSR
• Creation of USSR

  Rapid/forced industrialization of Russia through collectivization (govt confiscates private owned farmland)

  Leads to famine (5 million perish)

  Peasants and aristocrats revolt by destroying crops/animals
• Marshall Plan


  US plan to infuse billions of dollars into Western Europe to promote democracy and prevent a 2nd depression (capitalist governments to prevent spread of communism)
• Buffer Zone


  Stalin creates buffer zone of friendly communist governments to protect USSR from European aggression (saw Marshall Plan as a threat to communism)
• The Cold War

  Ideological struggle between Western democratic ideals (US) vs communist ideals (USSR) which both see each others ways of life as incompatible (one needs to be destroyed)
• Three World System

  First World = capitalist democratic west (US)

  Second World = communist (USSR)

  Third world = decolonized/unaligned states
• Soviet Communism

  Fully totalitarian state under Stalin, fully communist (no private ownership of business/property)

  Fully command economy - production based on orders and desires of the state)
• Soviet Production

  Quotas dictate production of heavy industry (steel, machinery, weapons)

  Consumer goods and food neglected = basic necessities rationed, hoarding/corruption = shortages
• Kolkhoz


  collective state farms in the SU
• Soviet Communism - Social

  Government directed equality (gender, race, class doesnt matter)

  Religion eliminated as distraction from communism (ROC/Christianity is driven underground while others face persecution)

  • Islam - mosques and Quran burned
  • Judaism - pograms (organized massacre of Jews)

  Other aspects of culture are tolerated (Russian nationalism)

  Social equality = opportunities for women in work/education but patriarchy + maternal bondage still affects politics
• Chinese/Maoist Communism

  Under control of Mao

  Supported by USSR (followed soviet model of industrialization, collectivization, command economy)

  Huge increase in industrial output + famine + consumer shortages
• Chinese Communism Function

  Forced urbanization of 10s of millions of peasants created industrial working class with miserable living/working conditions

  State controls all media/education (Confucian style academies and bureaucratic exams eliminated + leaps in literacy + modern scientific education
• Chinese Communism Social

  Industry/education opens up to women but long standing Chinese tradition stifles advancement in politics (filial piety)

  Creates glass ceiling (limits how far women can advance towards equality, see but not reach)
• Mao Attitude to Culture

  Dedicated to eradicating traditional Chinese culture

  • Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism suppressed + publicly disgraced (Buddhist monasteries torn down and burned)
  • Filial piety is ridiculed/eliminated
  • Traditional art/music banned in favor of govt media
• "Speak Bitterness Meetings"

  Prosperous landowners, businessmen, cultural elites, and government bureaucrats were publicly shamed (striped of land, forcibly relocated to rural communes for re-education) in order to tear down idea of filial piety
• Mao and SU Fall Out

  late 1950s - Chinese acquire nuclear weapons + Stalin dies (de-Stalinization) = Mao sees them as not being fully committed to communist cause

  Mao wants to show China is the true communist revolution - acts radial and extreme - The Great Leap Forward
• The Great Leap Forward 1958

  China speed runs industrialization and modernization

  • Attention focused on rural population, millions of doctors and tech experts are rounded up and relocated to rural areas to force rapid technical education (wastes resources, time, and money + leads to food shortages)
  • Massive infrastructure projects in rural areas that aren't needed (ridiculous quotas demanded from rural villages, leads to hundreds of miles of railroads in China)
• Four Pests Campaign

  Mao sees flies, mosquitos, rats/mice, and sparrows as ruining the crops and health of the people

  • 90% of sparrows are killed which makes bug population skyrocket, especially locusts which eat everything and anything - leads to massive ecological damage and 35 million Chinese die of famine and starvation

  Abandoned in 1961
• The Great Cultural Revolution 1966

  Mao tells the younger generation that they are unhappy due to the elders not being fully committed to the revolution - inspires young gen to punish older gen

  • Aimed to destroy any and all remnants of traditional society and eliminate political enemies (too capitalist = doctors, lawyers, etc are re-educated or executed)
• Independent Communist Militias (Red Guards)

  Spread across China since younger gen is dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities

  Violence gets out of control and Mao is forced to use Chinese army to disperse Red Guards
• Causes of the Fall of Communism

  • Inability to replace traditional culture with communist dedicated society
  • Too much money spent on military build up, space race, proxy wars = financial crisis
  • Deaths of Stalin and Mao = new directions of communist ideas
  • Focus on heavy industry = leaves consumer goods lagging + massive shortages of needed goods
• Glasnost

  One of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms

  A policy were there's more openness to the west and capitalist ideas with less military buildup and more peaceful negotiations (freedom of information)
• Perestroika

  Another Gorbachev reform

  A policy where the government is less secretive, people are allowed to speak their mind more freely, private property and business is allowed again
• SU Reforms

  • Glasnost
  • Perestroika
  • State control over media is loosened
  • Religion welcomed back into public life
  • Some democratic institutions permitted
• Gorbachev refuses to crush opposition (revolution in Eastern Europe) which leads to the communist government sin the Warsaw Pact to fall rapidly like dominos (Berlin Wall torn down and Germany reunified)
• Chinese Reforms

  Mao dies 1976 - replaced by Deng Xiaoping

  • Allows privatization of property, private businesses and markets, opened China to foreign investment/business
  • China replaces US as industrial production center of the world
  • Re-establishment of traditional Chinese culture (Confucius, Buddha, filial piety)
  • Traditional ideas of order and harmony promoted to transition from communism to capitalism