Variants of communism have been developed throughout history, including anarchist communism, Marxist schools of thought, and religious communism, among others. Communism encompasses a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, Leninism, and libertarian communism, as well as the political ideologies grouped around those. All of these different ideologies generally share the analysis that the current order of society stems from capitalism, its economic system, and mode of production, that in this system there are two major social classes, that the relationship between these two classes is exploitative, and that this situation can only ultimately be resolved through a social revolution. The two classes are the proletariat, who make up the majority of the population within society and must sell their labor power to survive, and the bourgeoisie, a small minority that derives profit from employing the working class through private ownership of the means of production. According to this analysis, a communist revolution would put the working class in power, and in turn establish common ownership of property, the primary element in the transformation of society towards a communist mode of production.
Communism in its modern form grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe that argued capitalism caused the misery of urban factory workers. In the 20th century, several ostensibly Communist governments espousing Marxism–Leninism and its variants came into power, first in the Soviet Union with the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then in portions of Eastern Europe, Asia, and a few other regions after World War II. As one of the many types of socialism, communism became the dominant political tendency, along with social democracy, within the international socialist movement by the early 1920s. (Full article...)
Marx defined history on a strictly economic basis, stating that history had 6 steps (Tribe, Slavery, Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism and Communism), where economic inequility caused each step to be replaced over time. He as a communist believed that a violent revolution would be the catalyst in the transformation from capitalism to socialism. Since its inception and up to the present day, Marxism has been situated largely outside the political mainstream, although it has played a major role in history. Today, Marxist political parties of widely different sizes survive in most countries around the world.
Zhu was born on 18 December 1886 to a poor tenant farmer's family in Hung, a town in Yilong County, a hilly and isolated part of northern Sichuan province. His family relocated to Sichuan during the migration from Hunan province and Guangdong province. Despite their poverty, Zhu was sent to a classic private school in 1892. At age nine, Zhu was adopted by his prosperous uncle, whose political influence allowed him to gain access to Yunnan Military Academy later on. Before the repeal of imperial examinations in 1906, he attained the rank of Xiucai, which allowed him to qualify as a civil servant. Enrolling in Sichuan high school around 1907, upon graduating in 1908 he returned to Yilong high primary school as a gym instructor. An advocate of modern science and political teaching, rather than the strict classical education afforded by schools, he was dismissed from his post and entered the Yunnan Military Academy in Kunming. There, he joined the Beiyang Army and the Tongmenghui secret political society (the forerunner of Kuomintang).
...that Moscow City Hall, built in the 1890s to the tastes of the Russian bourgeoisie, was converted by Communists into the Central Lenin Museum after its rich interior decoration had been plastered over.
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The Industrial Unions work in conjunction with the Communist Party and the Soviets. The activities of these three institutions are closely linked. To make clear the mutual relations of these bodies, it must be remembered that the Soviets actually include larger masses than the Industrial Unions themselves; also that the Soviets have taken over part of the functions of the Industrial Unions.
The Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party has given the following definition of the Party and of the Soviets: –
“The Soviets are the State organisations of the workers and poor peasants which effectuate the Dictatorship of the Proletariat during the period when the State in all its forms is gradually being extinguished. The Soviets unite within their ranks ten million workers, and, little by little, must strive to include the entire class of workers and poor peasants.
“The Communist Party, on the other hand is an organisation which takes in only the advance guard of the workers and poor peasants; only that part of these two classes which fights consciously for the practical application of the Communist programme. The aim of the Communist Party is to obtain a preponderating influence and complete control of all the workers’ organisations, the Industrial Unions, the Co-operatives, the rural Communes, and so on. The Communist Party strives specially to introduce its programme into the actual organisations of State – the Soviets – and to obtain complete control there. No doubt can exist that in the future the various existing organisations of the workers will be finally united in one form. It is useless to speculate to-day as to which form will prove the most durable. Our present duty is to determine precisely the mutual relations which should exist between the Communist Party, the Industrial Unions, and the Soviets.”
