This is the symbol of Communism-The Hammer and the Sickle.

Those Blokes’ wrote the ‘Communist Manifesto’ in 1847. It’s a short book – but billions of people have read it…

This is Karl Marx, the ‘Father of Communism’. People who believe in his ideas are called ‘Marxists’

This is his good friend, Frederick Engels.

PrimitiveCommunism

Feudalism

Capitalism

Socialism

CommunismCommunism•Marx and Engels studied the history of the world’s economies.•This means the way that power, industry and finance are controlled.•They saw the way countries developed in stages.

This is how humans first lived together – in small tribes. Primitive means ‘not very advanced’ e.g. hunting and gathering. Communism means that every ting was shared amongst the tribe – food, jobs, belongings. No – one owned land. Eventually a group comes to power – this leads to feudalism..

19911917

1848

The History of Communism was defined by the interests, needs and goals of The History of Communism was defined by the interests, needs and goals of the Soviet Union for most of the 20th Centurythe Soviet Union for most of the 20th Century.

Russian Revolution

Fall of USSR

……but there was more to Communism than just the but there was more to Communism than just the USSRUSSR.

The theory behind Comunism““Workers of the World, Unite ! You have Workers of the World, Unite ! You have nothing to lose but your chains !”nothing to lose but your chains !”

Classical Economist, Philosopher and Journalist

•History is shaped by “Class Struggle”“Class Struggle”

•New productive technologies create new social groups who eventually have a Revolution !

•Ancient--->Feudal --->Capitalist--->Socialist--->

•Capitalists exploit workers by taking “surplus “surplus value”value”

• History has scientific laws just like nature

•Revolution was coming soon !

Friedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels:

Supported Marx’s writings

and political activity $$$

“ “ Ten Days That Shook The World ”Ten Days That Shook The World ”

Tsar Nicholas Tsar Nicholas II “ The II “ The Unlucky”Unlucky”

WWI Exhausts Russia

Democrats, Liberals and Moderate Socialists overthrow Tsar in February, 1917 BolsheviksBolsheviks & Anarchists Anarchists topple Provisional Government in October

Lenin creates the Red Guards & CHEKA CHEKA secret police - launches “ Red “ Red Terror”Terror” against “ Class Enemies”. Tsarist “ Whites”“ Whites” fight back

“Iron Felix” Dzerzhinsky

The first Soviet Secret Police were known as “The CHEKA”All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Coelite unter-revolution & Sabotage

Used Terrorism, Torture, Assassination and Espionage

Had its own special military units and concentration camps

Separate from regular criminal police ( MVD) and military intelligence (GRU)

Spied on everyone

Answered only to the leadership of the Bolshevik Party

Known by many names - GPU, OGPU, NKVD, MGB and KGB

CHEKA -KGB badge

Party Members

Local, Provincial, Regional, Republic Party Officials ( “Nomenklatura” Nomenklatura” )

Central Committee

Secretariat

Politburo

Leader Power was rigidly Power was rigidly centralized in a centralized in a pyramidpyramid

Discipline wasDiscipline was

harshharsh

Lenin set down the brutal rules for the Soviet System.

Stalin built that system into a global power

Lenin was willing to share power & tolerate some debate inside the Party.

Stalin insisted on absolute obedience and all the power.

Lenin took great risks to spread Communist Revolution.

Stalin wanted security and power for the Soviet Union even if it harmed the chances for Communist revolution elsewhere.

Lenin’s death set off a fearsome power struggle between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky with terrible consequences for the Russian people….

class consciousness: Class consciousness refers to the self-awareness of a social class and its capacity to act in its own rational interests. ideology: Without offering a general definition for ideology[4], Marx on several instances has used the term to designate the production of images of social reality. According to Engels, “ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him remain unknown to him; otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process. Hence he imagines false or seeming motive forces”.[5] Because the ruling class controls the society's means of production, the superstructure of society, as well as its ruling ideas, will be determined according to what is in the ruling class's best interests. As Marx said famously in The German Ideology, “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force”.[6] Therefore the ideology of a society is of enormous importance since it confuses the alienated groups and can create false consciousness such as commodity fetishism (perceiving labor as capital ~ a degradation of human life).

exploitation: Marx refers to the exploitation of an entire segment or class of society by another. He sees it as being an inherent feature and key element of capitalism and free markets. The profit gained by the capitalist is the difference between the value of the product made by the worker and the actual wage that the worker receives; in other words, capitalism functions on the basis of paying workers less than the full value of their labour, in order to enable the capitalist class to turn a profit. alienation: Marx refers to the alienation of people from aspects of their "human nature" (Gattungswesen, usually translated as 'species-essence' or 'species-being'). Alienation describes objective features of a person's situation in capitalism - it isn't necessary for them to believe or feel that they are alienated. He believes that alienation is a systematic result of capitalism.

Capitalism may be considered the Fourth Stage. It appears after the bourgeois revolution when the capitalists (or rather their merchant predecessors) overthrow the feudal system. Capitalism is categorized by the following:Free Market economy: in capitalism the entire economy is guided by market forces. Supporters of Laissez-faire economics argue that there should be little or no intervention from the government under capitalism. Private property: the means of production are no longer in the hands of the monarchy and its nobles, but rather they are controlled by the capitalists. The capitalists control the means of production through commercial enterprises (such as corporations) which aim to maximize profit. Capitalism may be considered the Fourth Stage. It appears after the bourgeois revolution when the capitalists (or rather their merchant predecessors) overthrow the feudal system. Capitalism is categorized by the following:Free Market economy: in capitalism the entire economy is guided by market forces. Supporters of Laissez-faire economics argue that there should be little or no intervention from the government under capitalism. Private property: the means of production are no longer in the hands of the monarchy and its nobles, but rather they are controlled by the capitalists. The capitalists control the means of production through commercial enterprises (such as corporations) which aim to maximize profit.

Parliamentary democracy: the capitalists govern through an elected centralized parliament or congress, rather than under an autocracy. Capitalist (bourgeois) democracy, although it may be extended to the whole population, does not necessarily lead to universal suffrage. Historically it has excluded (by force, segregation, legislation or other means) sections of the population such as women, slaves, ex-slaves, people of color or those on low income. The government acts on behalf of, and is controlled by, the capitalists through various methods. Wages: in capitalism, workers are rewarded according to their contract with their employer. However their hours or rate of work are often subject to increase outside their immediate control, and their wage is, in any case, but a fraction of the true value of their labor.