“The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” Joseph Stalin
Communism at its height of world power (ca. 1980)
In November of 2016, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro died at 90 years of age. For those of us who are part of the Boomer generation, Castro’s death was a stark reminder of the Cold War between the United States (USA) and its allies, versus the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its puppet states. Castro was the last remaining warrior personality of that frightening period of world history (about 1946 – 1990). I call it World War III (the present battle against Islamic Radicalism is World War IV).
Most younger Americans are aware that the Cold War was waged (and it was not always cold), but I don’t think most of them understand the reasons for it. The primary focus of the worldwide conflict was the nascence and spread of the philosophy of Marxism and its aggressive political expression of communism. In this two part series we will first examine the devastating history of communism’s rise and fall in the 20th century. In part two, we will examine the worldview and philosophy of Karl Marx. We will analyze, from a Christian worldview, why his system of politics and economics, when implemented in the real world, was such a disaster for mankind.
In the last century, communist governments, most supported or imposed by the Soviet Union, took control of numerous countries. The first communist regime, led by Vladimir Lenin (1870 – 1924), was established in Russia in 1917. Lenin was succeeded by Joseph Stalin (1879 – 1953). Together Lenin and Stalin turned the USSR into a brutal totalitarian state under their complete control.
Eleven other formerly independent republics were incorporated into the USSR in the 1920s. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were also annexed by Stalin in 1940. Ironically, when Germany invaded those countries in 1941, they were initially greeted as liberators. The countries’ people soon learned, however, that the Nazis were as ruthless as the Soviets, who reoccupied them in 1944.
Thus, the republics of the USSR at the end of World War II included:
1. Armenia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Byelorussia
4. Estonia (Not internationally recognized)
5. Georgia
6. Kazakhstan
7. Kirghizia
8. Latvia (Not internationally recognized)
9. Lithuania (Not internationally recognized)
10. Moldavia
11. Russia
12. Tajikistan
13. Turkmenistan
14. Ukraine
15. Uzbekistan
Later, in the late 1940s, numerous other countries fell under the control of communist governments. After World War II, a number of Eastern European countries were “liberated” by the Soviet Red Army from the Nazi Germans. The Soviets, instead of allowing those countries to re-establish their own governments, further suppressed freedom and installed puppet communist regimes. Those nations included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Germany had been divided after World War II into four zones of occupation by the USA, Great Britain, France, and the USSR. The section under Soviet control had a communist government imposed on it. The other three zones were democratic and eventually united in the 1950s to form West Germany. East Germany was not reunited with the rest until 1990.
Soon after those countries fell to communism, others in the Far East soon followed. Most significantly, the huge country of China became fully Communist in 1949 after a bloody civil war led by Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976). North Korea, headed by Soviet installed leader Kim Il-sung (1912 – 1994), became communist in 1948. Others subjugated in the 1950s were the Southeast Asian countries of North Vietnam (after the Vietnam War, 1965 – 1975, the entire country fell to communism), Laos, and Cambodia.
In 1959, Cuba, led by Fidel Castro, installed a communist government and aligned itself with the USSR. In October of 1962, the USSR placed offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba instigating the Cuban Missile Crisis which led dangerously close to war. In the 1970s and 80s, a few other countries also adopted communist style governments including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Yemen, Mozambique, and Angola.
In the United States, communism was actually embraced by some Americans in the 1920s and 30s. At one point the Communist Party USA ( CPUSA – founded in 1919) had a membership of more than 75,000, with many more sympathizers not officially registered. The CPUSA was essentially an American extension of the USSR, and loyally followed whatever policy line Moscow pronounced. Even a number of prominent American entertainers, screen writers, authors, and educators were duped by the positive accomplishments that the USSR was claiming in its propaganda. Later, after World War II, many of those people renounced their earlier involvement in communist groups when the horrors of Soviet communism were exposed. Needless to say, membership in the CPUSA dropped dramatically. Nevertheless, actors and screen writers in the 1950s who refused to recant their Marxist leanings were blacklisted in Hollywood and found it difficult to find work. Today, the CPUSA only has a few hundred official members.
So, from 1917 until 1990, about 1/3 of the world’s population was under the harsh rule of communist dictatorships. During that period, communist societies tyrannized their people with unimaginable degrees of suffering and death. Though it is difficult to count the numbers of humans who were murdered or needlessly died of hunger under communist rule, historians have made good estimates. One such is The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, a 1997 book edited by Stéphane Courtois, himself a reformed 1960s French Maoist. Here are his estimated numbers of people killed under communist governments in the 20th century due to war, mass killings, famine, and imprisonment.
- 65 million in the People’s Republic of China (war, mass killings and famine under Mao)
- 20 million in the Soviet Union (mass killings, imprisonment, and famine, mostly under Lenin and his ruthless successor Joseph Stalin)
- 2 million in Cambodia (mass killings under Pol Pot)
- 2 million in North Korea (war, imprisonment, famine, and mass killings)
- 1.7 million in Ethiopia (famine)
- 1.5 million in Afghanistan (war)
- 1 million in the Eastern Bloc (mass killings, war, and Soviet intervention)
- 1 million in Vietnam (mass killings, war, and imprisonment under Ho Chi Minh)
- 150,000 in Cuba and Latin America (mass killings and war – more than a million Cubans have escaped to the USA)
- 10,000 deaths “resulting from actions of the international Communist movement and Communist parties not in power.” (war)
The total 20th century death toll of communism as estimated by Courtois was about 94 to 100 million people.
However, in what was an almost miraculous turn of events, the Soviet style of communism essentially disappeared in the last decade of the 20th century, and the Cold War peacefully ended. Beginning about 1986, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) gradually lessened the iron fist that the Soviet Union and communism had held on its own people and those of Eastern Europe. Finally, in 1991, the Communist Party of the USSR formally gave up control of the government and allowed free elections and a free market economy. The 15 Soviet republics quickly declared their independence, and by 1992 the USSR ceased to exist. In short order, the nations of Eastern Europe also deposed their communist rulers and established democracy.
I must say, that as recently as the late 1980s, no one foresaw the monumental changes that would take place in Eastern Europe. Well into that decade, the Soviet Union continued to try and export communism throughout the world. By the close of the 1980s, it was clear that the USSR was doomed, and that communism as a viable economic and political system was totally bankrupt.
In the 21st century, a few countries are still under the domination of communist regimes, most notably China, where more 1.3 billion people live. Ironically, however, after Mao’s death in 1976, and beginning in the late 1970s, the rulers of that country, led by Communist Party “Paramount Leader” Deng Xiaoping (1904 – 1997), gradually allowed more personal freedom and instituted a number of reforms in the economic sector. As a result of the switch from a totally planned economy, as it was under Mao, China now employees a market driven free enterprise system. Nonetheless, the Chinese Communist Party still maintains its iron grip monopoly on political power. That fact was demonstrated in June 1989 when hundreds of students, who were peacefully calling for more democracy, were violently massacred by the Chinese “People’s Liberation Army” in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Other countries where communist regimes are still in place are Vietnam, Cuba, Laos, and, worst of all, North Korea. Near the end of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied the northern half of the Korean peninsula. After the war’s end, just as it did in Eastern Europe, the USSR installed a communist government. The first communist ruler was Kim Il-sung (1912 – 1994), who ruled with an iron hand until his death.
In June of 1950 Kim ordered his army to invade the south which ignited the Korean War. The USA and other free countries of the United Nations quickly allied with the south. By late 1950, the allies had pushed the North Koreans all the way back to the Chinese boundary. However, Mao Zedong ordered more than 200,000 Chinese communist soldiers across the border to aid the North Koreans. After that, the two sides fought to a virtual standstill until an armistice was signed in 1953. It was not a peace treaty, so the two sides are still technically at war with a demilitarized zone separating the heavily armed enemy forces.
North Korea, to this day, remains the world’s most closed society, and maintains harsh totalitarian controls over its people and institutions. When Kim Il-sung died in 1994, he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-il (1941 – 2011). He was then followed by his son, Kim Jong-un (b. 1984). The Kim’s line of succession is the only familial dynasty known in any communist state. In North Korea, the Kim rulers are venerated with almost divinely ordained reverence. Absolutely no dissent to Kim’s policies is tolerated on penalty of death.
As we mentioned at the start of this article, most younger people today really have little or no understanding of Marxism and communism. That is a dangerous state of affairs because most discredited ideologies tend to raise their heads again as time passes. In fact, it is fair to say, that, even in many American colleges, vestiges of Marxist philosophy are still being advocated and taught to students who are simply too young to remember the Cold War. In part two of this series, we will examine the underlying theoretical and philosophical bases of communism, and analyze why it failed so badly in practice.
© 2016 Tal Davis