Table of Contents
- What Is Communism?
- Key Takeaways on Communism
- How Communism Developed As a Political Doctrine
- The Impact and Ideas of The Communist Manifesto
- Communism in Practice: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union
- The Evolution of Communism in China
- Communism and the Cold War: A Global Power Struggle
- Analyzing the Factors Behind Communism's Collapse
- Examples and Current Status of Communism
- The Bottom Line
What Is Communism?
Let me tell you directly: Communism is an economic and political ideology that stands against liberal democracy and capitalism. It pushes for a classless society where everything is owned communally, not privately. Thinkers like Karl Marx laid this out, and it really took off during the French Revolution. It shaped countries like the Soviet Union and China, changing how power works globally.
Key Takeaways on Communism
You need to grasp that communism seeks a classless society with shared property and wealth. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels sets the stage, directly challenging capitalism. Look at the Soviet Union and China as real-world cases where this played out, often with massive political shifts and social chaos. Centralized planning without profit motives doomed many large communist systems. Today, some nations call themselves communist but mix in capitalism and run autocratic governments.
How Communism Developed As a Political Doctrine
Communism covers various ideologies, and its modern form started with Victor d'Hupay in the 18th century. He talked about communes where property is shared so everyone benefits from the work. This wasn't new; even the Bible's Book of Acts shows early Christian groups holding property in common, called koinonia. That inspired later groups like the 17th-century English Diggers to ditch private ownership.
The Impact and Ideas of The Communist Manifesto
Modern communism kicked off during the French Revolution, with the key text being Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' Communist Manifesto from 1848. It dropped the religious angle of earlier ideas and gave a materialist, scientific view of society's history and future. They said the history of society is all about class struggles. The Manifesto saw the French Revolution as a big shift where the bourgeoisie took over from feudal lords, starting the capitalist era. That swapped the old nobility-serf fight for the new one between capital owners and the proletariat workers. Marx, Engels, and their followers predicted a global worker revolution leading first to socialism, then communism. In theory, this final stage ends class struggles, history itself, with no classes, families, religion, or property – even the state fades away. Their slogan? From each according to ability, to each according to needs.
Communism in Practice: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union
Marx and Engels' ideas weren't tested until after they died. In 1917, during World War I, Russia overthrew the czar, leading to a civil war where Lenin's Bolsheviks took power in 1922. They founded the Soviet Union and tried applying communist theory. Lenin pushed vanguardism, saying a small elite group had to lead to socialism and then communism. After Lenin, Stalin ran a harsh dictatorship, with purges, forced collectivization, and millions dying from that and the war with Nazi Germany. Instead of fading, the state became a one-party powerhouse, controlling the economy through Five-Year Plans with quotas and price controls. This sped up industrialization, and Soviet GDP grew fast from 1950 to 1965, but overall it lagged behind capitalist economies. Consumer goods were always short, with long lines at stores. The Soviet Union fell in 1991 after reforms like perestroika and glasnost tried to fix things but weakened control and sped up the collapse.
The Evolution of Communism in China
In 1949, Mao Zedong's Communist Party seized China after wars with Nationalists and Japan, creating the second big Marxist-Leninist state. Mao allied with the Soviets but split over de-Stalinization and peaceful coexistence with the West around 1958. His rule was violent like Stalin's, with the Great Leap Forward from 1958-1962 forcing rural steel production, leading to a famine that killed 16 to 45 million. The Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 purged ideologically and killed about 1.6 million more. After Mao, Deng Xiaoping brought market reforms, and the U.S. normalized relations in 1972. Today, the Chinese Communist Party stays in power over a mostly capitalist economy with state-owned chunks, but it curbs free speech and blocks opposition. Ousting them would be near impossible.
Communism and the Cold War: A Global Power Struggle
After World War II, the U.S. came out as the top power, feeling destined as a liberal democracy that beat fascism. The Soviet Union, its wartime ally, also rose as the only Marxist state. They split Europe behind the Iron Curtain. Both had nukes by 1949, leading to the Cold War standoff. The closest to war was the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The U.S. fought in Vietnam against North Vietnamese communists backed by China and the Soviets, withdrawing in 1975 as Vietnam unified under communism. The Cold War ended with the Soviet collapse in 1991.
Analyzing the Factors Behind Communism's Collapse
Studies show communism failed due to no profit incentives for citizens, who were supposed to selflessly work for society but didn't. Centralized planning was messy, needing huge data, and often fudged numbers to look good. Power in few hands led to corruption, laziness, and surveillance like in East Germany and the Soviets, which killed motivation and hurt the economy.
Examples and Current Status of Communism
An example is a small commune where people share work and stuff – these can work but stay tiny. Countries still officially communist include China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam, but they mix in capitalism and are autocratic, not pure Marx. Communism differs from socialism by being more extreme; socialism allows some capitalism and prefers gradual change over revolution.
The Bottom Line
Communism advocates classless society and communal ownership, boosted by Marx and Engels. Small groups have done it okay, but big implementations in the Soviet Union and China turned authoritarian, straying from ideals for control. They hit snags like no incentives and bad planning, leading to falls. Some say this proves it's impractical; others argue the regimes weren't true communism. You should understand this history to judge its place today.
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