1. Rise and Fall of Communism
Cathleen Calderon
Emanuel Zavala
Walter Guadron

2. Marxism (socialist)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels met in 1844; published the Communist Manifesto in 1848.
Beliefs derived from Hegelian dialectic:
challenged by
Thesis (existing order)
Antithesis
results in
becomes
Synthesis (new social order)

3. Proletariat dictatorship
Dialectic applied to society, creating class struggle, which leads to social change:
challenged by
aristocracy
bourgeoisie
results in
becomes
bourgeoisie
challenged by
proletariat
bourgeoisie
results in
becomes
Proletariat dictatorship

4. Communism According to Marx
Reorganize economy to work for society rather than individual gain.
Since there was only the proletariat, a classless society would form and harmony would prevail.
“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

5. Lenin
November 1917: Bolsheviks are led by Vladimir Lenin and overthrow the unpopular Provisional Government of Russia.
Lenin serves as the chairman of the new regime, the Council of People’s Commissars.
Russian Civil War
Red Army under Leon Trotsky suppresses internal military opposition (the White Army).
Lenin asserts the supremacy of the Bolshevik party and imposes the dictatorship of the proletariat.
War Communism allows Bolsheviks to control banks, transport facilities, and heavy industry.

6. Lenin (cont’d)
1919: Soviet communists establish Third International, or Comintern, to make the Bolshevik model of socialism the rule for all socialist parties outside of the Soviet Union.
Impose the Twenty-One Conditions on any party that wishes to join the Comintern. Conditions include repudiating previous socialist leaders and adopting the Communist Party name.
: Russian economy revives under the New Economic Policy, which placed all large industries under control of the state and allowed smaller business private ownership.

7. Soviet System
1924: Lenin dies of stroke; USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) is formed including Russia, Siberia, Central Asia, Ukraine, Belorussia, and Transcaucasia.
USSR are under the Council of People’s Commissars.
Supreme Soviet parliament is ruled by the Communist Party; the Politburo contains the Party’s highest members.
The cheka, secret police, serve the Soviet Union.

8. Stalin v.s. Trotsky Stalin Trotsky Economic Political
slow industrialization
continuation of NEP
rapid industrialization
voluntary collectivization by peasants
Political
“socialism in one country”
Socialism in Russia did not depend on other international revolutions
Global proletarian revolutions were necessary for the economic success of Russia because it would gain its wealth from other nations

9. Stalin’s Soviet Union
1928: initiates Five Year Plans to end NEP, eliminate capitalism, create a socialist economy, collectivize agriculture, and promote heavy industry.
Economy placed under Gosplan, State Planning Commission, which rewarded workers that exceeded their quotas with the Stakhanovite award.
Kulaks, prosperous peasants, fight collectivization by burning crops and killing livestock.
Stalin sent millions to labor camps in order to carry out collectivization.
In his second Five Year Plan, Stalin allowed peasants to have their own houses and stock, and allowed them to sell surplus produce from their garden plots.

10. The Great Purge ( )
Sergei Kirov, chief of the Leningrad Communist Party is assassinated in December 1934 for challenging Stalin’s policies.
The NKVD begins mass arrests and executions of party members including generals and officers to install terror in the public.
By 1939, when the Purge ends, there are 10 million prisoners in labor camps.
The executions of hierarchy party members served to eliminate any possible rivals to Stalin.

11. Stalin Changes Foreign Policy
1934: Stalin permits Comintern to cooperate with noncommunist parties against Nazism and fascism.
Goes against the Twenty-One Conditions of Lenin’s Third International.

12. WWII Events August 23, 1939: Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact.
Germany invades USSR in 1941
Stalin fears the Soviet citizens in occupied zones will view Germans as liberators, so he oppresses them.

13. The Cold War Begins
February 1946: Stalin states that he sees the western democracies as enemies
March 1946: Winston Churchill declares that an “iron curtain” has fallen over Europe, dividing a democratic west from a totalitarian east.
United states pursue containment policy to stop Soviet global dominance and communist expansion.
1947: Truman Doctrine enacted with aim of supporting free people being oppressed.
Soviet Union forbids Finland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary from joining Marshall Plan.

14. Soviets Dominate Eastern Europe
1947: Stalin calls meeting of all international communist parties.
Organize Cominform, Communist Information Bureau, to spread revolutionary communism.
1948: Stalin directs assassination of Jan Masaryk, foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, and forces President Edvard Benes to resign. Imposes Soviet rule.
Uses Red army to establish dictatorships in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

15. Berlin Blockade
February 1948: Stalin closes all railroads leading from Berlin to West Germany to drive U.S out of Germany.
Western allies airlift supplies to Berlin for eleven months.
May 1949: Soviets reopen Berlin access.
West Germany becomes German Federal Republic, East Germany becomes German Democratic Republic.

16. Stalin Establishes Eastern Bloc
1949: Eastern European states form COMECON, Council of Mutual Assistance, to integrate their economies.
1955: Warsaw Pact gives recognition to Eastern bloc controlled by USSR.

17. Chinese Communism
After war against Japan in 1945, China enters civil war between nationalists (Chiang Kai-Shek) and communists (Mao Zedong).
U.S provided assistance to nationalists but corruption and inflation weakened their cause.
October 1949: Zedong establishes People’s Republic of China; forms alliance with USSR.
Kai-Shek withdrawals forces to Taiwan.
U.S refuses to recognize PRC and maintains diplomatic relations with Kai-Shek.

18. Korean War
1945: U.S and USSR drive Japanese colonialists out of Korea; divide it at the 38th parallel.
By 1948:
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is established in the north, supported by the Soviet Union.
Republic of Korea established in the south, supported by the United States.
1950: North Korea invades South Korea.
U.S supports South, USSR supports North.
June 16, 1953: armistice ends war, restores border.

19. Khrushchev Era
Stalin dies in 1953; Nikita Khrushchev becomes party secretary.
1956: Khrushchev becomes premier, gains collective leadership of USSR.
Reformed Soviet system, but maintained authoritarianism.
Gave intellectuals more freedom of expression and increased agricultural production.

20. 1956 Crises
Soviet Union protests Anglo-French invasion of the Suez Canal after Gamal Abdul Nassar nationalizes it for fear of capitalist expansion.
Poland: prime minister dies
Poles choose Wladyslaw Gomulka as communist leader
Ended collectivization
Improved relations with Polish Catholic Church
Hungary:
Communists establish new ministry and make former premier, Imre Nagy, as leader.
Appealed for noncommunist support
Sought to remove Soviet troops
Hoped to neutralize Hungary
Called for withdrawal from Warsaw pact
Soviets replace Nagy with Janos Kadar.

21. Later Cold War Events
1961: thousands of Eastern German refugees move to West Berlin, demonstrating USSR’s inability to control Eastern Europe; Berlin Wall is built to stop the migration.
1957: Fidel Castro overthrows Fugencio Batista and establishes communism in Cuba.
1962: Soviet Union places nuclear missiles in Cuba; United States (JFK) blockades Cuba.
Nuclear war seems possible through Bay of Pigs operation, but USSR backs down.

22. Brezhnev Era 1964: Khrushchev forced to resign
Leonid Brezhnev becomes secretary of state but soon emerges as dominant political figure.
1968: Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia
Alexander Dubcek liberalizes communism by expanding intellectual rights.
Summer: USSR replaces Dubcek with more strict communist leaders.
Enacts Brezhnev Doctrine, which allows Soviet Union to interfere with the domestic policies of other communist countries.

23. Brezhnev Era (cont’d) Poland: Afghanistan:
1978: Polish archbishop Karol Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II; resists Soviet communism.
1980: the raising of meat prices creates strikes, led by Lech Walesa, across the nation.
Workers occupy Lenin shipyard at Gdansk and other shipyards.
Strikes end when government allows workers to form Solidarity union.
Union ends abruptly in 1981, when general Wojciech Jaruzelski comes to power.
Afghanistan:
: Soviet Union seeks to create Afghan puppet; U.S supports Afghanistan.
Afghanistan guerrilla defeats USSR, killing over 2,000 Soviet troops each year.

24. Communism in Vietnam
Indochina does not want France to reestablish its territory in Indochina.
Viet Minh (coalition of nationalists) under Ho Chi Minh (nationalist, communist leader) force French to withdrawal from Indochina.
At Geneva conference (1954) Indochina is divided into Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Vietnam is temporarily divided at the seventeenth parallel until elections; Viet Minh controls North; France controls South.
Ho Chi Minh finds opportunity to control Vietnam at elections of 1956.

25. Communism in Vietnam
1955: French troops withdrawal from South Vietnam, local political groups begin to fight for power.
U.S intervenes with the assumption that North Vietnam is a Soviet puppet and plans to control the country.
Supports Ngo Dinh Diem, a noncommunist nationalist.
October 1955: Diem establishes Republic of Vietnam in the south. He announces that the 1956 elections will not be held.
1960: National Liberation Front founded. Sought to overthrow Diem, unify Vietnam, and oust U.S.
Military arm: Viet Cong (anti-colonial, nationalist, communist).

26. Gorbachev Elected as president of USSR in 1985.
Sought to reform the communist system.
Introduced glasnot (openness) to ease communist censorship.
Allowed criticism of the USSR.
Sought to build relationships with Western powers.
Introduced perestroika (restructuring) to adjust the government and economy.
Sought to reduce direct government involvement with day to day life.
Advocated private ownership of property and liberalization of the economy towards free market mechanisms.

27. Eastern European Revolutions
Poland
Germany
Hungary
Czechoslo-vakia
Romania
1988: anti-communist strikes breakout. Solidarity is once again legalized and led by Welsea.
1989: communists lose elections to Solidarity. President Jaruzelski appoints first non-communist prime minister.
November 1989: East Germany orders fall of Berlin Wall.
Free travel begins between East and West Germany.
1989: EEC, European Economic Community, accepts reunification of Germany led by West German chancellor Hemult Kohl.
1989:Hungary opens border with Austria, allowing East Germans to travel through Hungary and Austria to West Germany.
May: Soviet installed President Kadar loses title.
Hungarian Communist Party changes its name to the Socialist Party
1989: Anti-communist Vaclav Havel leads the Civic Forum in forcing President Gustav Hasak to resign.
December: Alexander Dubcek becomes chairman of parliament and Havel becomes president.
December 1989: forces of President Nicolae Ceausescu fired on protestors who disliked political conditions.
Dec. 22: Bucharest is in full revolt.
Dec. 25: Ceausescu and wife are shot after attempting escape.

28. Gorbachev
By 1989, most of the prominent communists were removed from administration.
Gorbachev renounces Brezhnev Doctrine.
August coup of 1991
Coup lead by conservative Gorbachev supporters.
Gorbachev turns to Boris Yeltsin, a strong critic of the coup and advocate for democracy, for aid.
Gorbachev resigned in December 1991; Soviet Union and its communism ceased to exist.