The Eastern Bloc by Caleb Slinkard Page 1

The Eastern Bloc

1917-1991

The Origins of Communism

The foundation upon which the Marxist philosophy of communal property can be traced back tothe ancient Greeks, early Christianity and the Medieval manorial system. The Ancient Greeks spoke of a mythic time before personal property, a so called “Golden Age.” The early Christians practiced aform of communal living and ownership, as described in Acts 4:32-35, although their motives andmethods were quite different than those of communism. In the Medieval manorial system the lordwould allot land to his peasants who would in return would give money and services. Other communalsocieties include the ancient Essenes, who are responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Gnostics,who sought to fuse Christianity with Greek philosophy.

Utopia

(by Thomas More) was written in 1516 in response to what he saw as selfishness derivedfrom economic individualism. To combat this selfishness he proposed communal ownership of property. Spurred by similar reactions to the descendant of economic individualism, capitalism, Karl

Definition of Communism

Communism as a socioeconomic ideology can be difficult to describe due to the manydifferent subtle variations among its practicers. It can be fundamentally described as anideology which seeks the formation of a classless state based upon communal ownership of property and the means of production and the absence of private property. Variations of communism among self-identified communists include Maoism, Trotskyism and Stalinistcommunism. Offshoots of the Stalinist and Maoist interpretations of communism have been thedriving force behind many of the world's nation's for much of the 20

century.

The Eastern Bloc by Caleb Slinkard Page 2Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote

The Communist Manifesto

in 1848. The book gave birth to thesocioeconomic doctrine that was known initially as Marxism, later in the century as socialism, and thenas communism.

Rise of Communism in Russia

Russia entered World War I in 1914 as part of the Triple Entente (the other members of the TripleEntente were the United Kingdom and France), a move that was supported by all political parties inRussia. As the war dragged on, resources dwindled

and the casualties rose. The reigning Tsar, Nicholas, was away from the capital at the front, leaving the management of the nation to his wife andministers. Their lack of effective leadership, coupled with a massive food shortage, led to a nationalfeeling of unrest.In 1917, following a harsh winter, workers began to hold strikes in St. Petersburg to protest the war and demand bread. These strikes escalated to the point that on February 25

when Tsar Nicholas senta large battalion of troops to suppress the uprising. At first the troops engaged the protesters, causingcasualties on both sides. That evening many of the troops began to leave their officers and join therebellion. On March 2

the Tsar abdicated the throne and a provisional government took over.In the October Revolution the more extremist division of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, the Bolsheviks, succeeded in an almost bloodless overthrow of the provisional government. This brought on some debate as to the effectiveness of communism in Russia. One of the key elementsneeded in order for a state to establish a Marxist society, as postulated by Marx, was a strong capitalist

1By 1922 the industrial output of Russia was 13% of that in 1914

The Eastern Bloc by Caleb Slinkard Page 3society. Yet Russia was one of the poorest and least educated countries in Europe. The less extreme branch of the RSDLP, the Mehshiviks, wanted to wait to implement a communist society untilcapitalism became more developed in Russia.During the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), the Bolsheviks created a one-party regime under theleadership of Vladimir Lenin. They gained power by nationalizing all productive property and puttingfactories and railroads under government control. Following the Kronstadt Rebellion (1921), Leninimplemented the New Economic Policy. The NEP required farmers to give the government a specifiedamount of raw agricultural goods but allowed them to lease and hire labor. It replaced theProdrazvyorstka system, which forced farmers to hand over surpluses of almost every kind of agricultural product for a fixed price. This move toward limited capitalism ended in 1930 due toJoseph Stalin's rise in power.

The Soviet Union: 1922-1991

Following the end of the Russian Civil War the Bolsheviks created the Union of Soviet SocialistRepublics (USSR) by assimilating countries of the former Russian Empire

. By 1956 the original 4members of the USSR had grown to 15 union republics. These communist “states” were joined in astrongly centralized federal union under the control of the Bolshevik Party. Although the United Statesdid not recognize the USSR until 1933, most European countries began trading with the new country.

2The former Russian Empire was made up of 81 provinces and 20 regions which had split from Russia following the1917 Revolution