Introduction
Communism is a government system and ideology that does not allow private ownership and promotes a stateless society based on the common ownership of all property where work is distributed and proceeds gotten shared. In theory, communism can sound as a fantastic idea for a given society. As defined by the Collin’s dictionary, communism is the existence of a society without class or private ownership hence every production produced within the country belongs to the whole community. The most common states associated with communism include the Soviet Union and China, though do not hold the philosophical ideal of a communist society (Dikotter, 2010, p.3). True communists’ countries or society do not even have governments. Practically, communism is likely to fail due to human error, which mostly include greed and pride. Greed is the individual who takes in what is not necessary and uses it to survive. Greed makes humans want more power and makes thinking clearly difficult. Pride is when an individual sees him/herself superior as compared to his peers. Governments’ of Soviet Union, present day China, Korea, Cuba and Romania are known to use some form of communism. These countries are headed by powerful governmental bodies headed by a single person. Socialism is the huge band of the political spectrum.
While socialism/communism promised equality, prosperity and even security, it ended up delivering the opposite results which included tyranny, poverty and misery. Equality was only achieved in the sense that every individual had his or her own misery. This paper is aimed at handling the reasons why socialism/communism in USSR and China fail and give reasons why they were not successful in those states.
Historical definition of Socialism and Communism
Communism
Communism traces back to “The Communist Manifesto” drafted by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848. The manifesto contained the history of the struggle between economic classes and paving way for the economic production class. Marx argued that due to the communist revolution, workers would be forced to take charge of the production process. (Vladimir " Chretien, 2015, p.39-40). The government would fade away as the workers would build a classless community and an economy established on mutual ownership (Nove, 1986, p.18-20). Marx explained further that production would thus reach an equilibrium. Carl Marx ideology was able to start of revolutionary movements that fought and some won government control (Vladimir " Chretien, 2015, p. 41). This includes the Bolshevik revolution which led to the Russian czar being overthrown and after a war established a Soviet Union. The Soviet Union did not last as a communist community since it was not able to exist as a classless or stateless society.
Socialism
Socialism predates the manifesto on communism drafted by Marx by a few decades. Henri de Saint Simon led the earlier versions of socialism (Vladimir " Chretien, 2015, p.5). His followers developed utopian socialism; Pierre-Joseph, Robert Owen, Pierre Leroux and Charles Fourier. These intellectuals put on ideas, solidarity for suitable working conditions and universal ownership of resources such as land and other manufacturing tools. At first, socialism was a diffuse a pack of rival ideologies the strains of a communist manifesto (Trotsky, 1937, p.2). Socialism has advocated varied and radical society overhaul which helped in the redistribution of power and wealth among the individuals in a given society.
How Socialism/communism failed in USSR and PRC.
The communist group in USSR and that in China had one major similarity; immoral and effective leaders. This was a way of keeping their boundaries in line. One of the major setbacks of communism in USSR was the failure to get used to times. The Soviet Union and the states led by the Soviet Union were not well linked up. The Soviet Union also miscalculated on national identity. In 1937, China marked an important year since that was when it started the communist regime and also a start for the people living in China (Fenby, 2009, p.12). As years went by, the Sino-Japanese war broke which led to puppet governments. These governments were set up by existing communist party in the rural villages (Mitter, 2004, p.30-34). Peasants supported the communists’ viewpoint and happened to be highly populated in the village areas. The peasants supported communism not because they did not have a say but because the communism parties provided self-defense, agricultural support, education, support during the guerillas and other important needs that the village had. Despite the peasants belonging to a communist party, the longing to belong to a government grew (Nove, 1986, p.20-23).
Peasants in China brought about the existing revolution state which aided in overthrowing bullies and bad leadership. Peasants aided in ensuring a peaceful revolution; rejecting the peasants was resisting revolution, attacking the peasants was attacking the revolution (Nove, 1986, p.26). . In the Soviet Union, communism came into being without the masses but in China, the communism idea was widespread among the citizens hence was the most viable form of government then. Communism party came into being without the masses consent. First of all the citizens were against Tsarist Empire. As compared to China, there were no major procedures to bring a communist party into power. Vladimir Lenin led the Bolshevik revolution turned into a communist party (Nove, 1986, p.32-33). As compared to the communist party in China, instead of the masses building a communist party, one person created a Communist Party in the Soviet Union. In China, the communist party was formed by an entire set of people.
It is argued that the other cause for the failure of communism in the Soviet Union was the Soviet’s inability to establish a national identity (Trotsky, 1937, p.48). There was no definite way in which the national identity was get up. Chinese used an inclusive mindset and confucius viewpoint in creating a national identity that included majority of its citizen’s. The Chinese worked towards bringing the different ethnicities under one viewpoint. Soviet Union lacked this skill despite having many small ethnicities in the state. The Soviet Union established a national identity through the wrong channels. It developed a classless national identity which ended up limiting everyone to one class (Trotsky, 1937, p.3-5). The Soviet Union rejected the ethnic groups instead of bringing them together.
The Soviet Union lacked unity between its ethnic groups and Soviet blocs. Instead it opted to categorize its citizens under the Proletariat class. Further attempts to start an international proletariat revolution was not successful. The Soviet Union did not use the fundamental requirements. Failing to establish a clear and precise national identity led to the Soviet Union having a Communist Party which did not have majority consent (Vladimir " Chretien, 2015, p.38). Communism ended when Gorbachev ended the cold war at the wrong season. He led pursuit of political reforms instead of economic reforms leading to inadvertent Soviet empire dissolution (Nove, 1986, p.11-14).
Additionally, the Soviet Union were not strict on doctrinal issues. The CPP allowed a number of elements on free market economy to trade in China (Vladimir " Chretien, 2015, p.25). The Soviet Union set their limits higher hence did not enact free market reforms. Upon reaching Gorbachev’s time, Soviet Union lacked resources and time to enact the reforms. The Soviet were at war in Afghanistan. It was expensive and not accepted which depleted the country of its resources, both social and monetary and at the same time decreased the respect in which its people had on their leadership.
Soviet Union lacked supportive leaders. During Krushchev era, there were lots of experimentation and innovation (Weber, 1965, p.3). The country grew tremendously and their economy was also growing. However, when Gorbachev came to power, the country economic status starting deteriorating. The technological gap between USSR and USA grew after Khrushchev left power. Gorbachev was not a forward thinking leader hence did not know how to manage the fortunes made by USSR.
Though aspects of communism are still in China, efforts of the communist party to stay in power has changed China to a different state. Ironically, it is not too far from what Jiang Jieshi and Guomindang had envisioned for the country. Communism can also be said to have failed in China, but unlike USSR it has evolved the country to something else. Communism in China did not lead to the collapse of institutions which led to the implementation of communism in the first place. These institutions emphasize their communist origin as a means of stressing continuity, a fact in which the Chinese population seem to be appreciating. China, however, managed to have a long term socialism through their culture. One of the major reasons of why socialism did not collapse in China was because of the strengths of its leaders.
Deng Xiao Ping was more focused on modernization as compared to the communist ideology. When he went to power, China was in a bad state that he first decided to start with economic growth which would enhance legitimacy of the Communist Party in China. Deng was a true leader since he was ready to trade limited control of the state for economic reforms (Fenby, 2009, p.30). Gorbachev did the opposite which led to the failure of communism in USSR. Deng’s leadership holds agility.
Miikhail Gorbachev came to power when there was economic stagnation and felt the need to have shock therapy for the economy in quest to restore it. This was rather a hasty decision as he failed to anticipate nationalism and political clarity (Nove, 1986, p.42-43). Deng on the other hand was a more forceful leader who enforced and implemented the right economic policies while checking not to destroy rule of communism. He always kept the citizens first, that is why his efforts succeeded. If Gorbachev and other previous Soviet leaders had implemented an economic reform first, then Russia would have ended up on a different fate.
Conclusion
Thirty years later, Russia has shown a stable economic growth even though the country no longer holds a socialist or a communist status. China, on the other hand had shown a greater economic growth under China Communist Party. It has been able to accept proposals and invites from private capitalists which have strengthened the party's legitimacy. In 1991, the biggest advocates of socialism and communism saw its end in Soviet Union. China, which has grown to be the second largest economy in the world managed to survive the crisis. From the discussion above we have seen several reasons as to why socialism/communism collapsed in USSR and not in China. The three main reasons that have stood out are the Soviet Union lacked supportive leaders, the Soviet Union miscalculated their national identity and lacked strong connections between the Soviet led bloc states. Socialism/communism will remain a constant temptation, thus we must be vigilant when handling any issues concerning it.
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