Welcome to the Communism page ring!

Communism's main goal is to create a society where the means of production are communally owned by the people. The two most important political thinkers that have contributed to forming communism are Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Karl Marx (and Friedrich Engels) wrote in The Communist Manifesto that they believe that human history is all about the 'oppressed' and the 'oppressors'. In a modern lens, that would be the bourgeoisie (basically bosses of for example factories) and the proletariat (paid workers).

The Bourgeoisie versus the Proletariat

According to the communist manifesto, the bourgeoisie overthrew the feudal system and created inequality between them and the working class, where bourgeoisie hold all the power. The working class, in their eyes, is only used to be profited off of and create a dramatic rift of inequality where the workers are paid less than the value that they produce.

Because of this, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels believed that revolution would only be inevitable and only a matter of time until the worker realizes this inequality (class consciousness) and will unite to overthrow the capitalist system. What will replace capitalism will be first a 'worker's state', (socialism) and then gradually transition into the stateless and classless society (which I mentioned all the way above) where workers would equally do their part to keep society functioning instead of being chained to work to a boss.

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was the "flagship" country of communism, being the first to adopt it on large scale. It died before it could see a proletariat revolution in the Western capitalist societies and its economy, at least long-term arguably failed to compete with its Western counterparts. It was famously a dictatorship for a large portion of its existence, strictest under Joseph Stalin.

Dictatorship..?

It might seem contradictory for a state advocating for the abolishment of classes in society to be a one-man dictatorship holding all executive power, and that's because it is. Marx himself wrote that after the revolution there needs to be a kind of transition phase where the working class holds power to defend the revolution, or the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union claimed to do this, but it devolved into a miniscule amount of people holding total power. Why? Because the idea of a temporary dictatorship by the proletariat devolved into permanent totalitarian rule, and once you have a dictatorship it's extremely hard to undo it..