Communism in the Soviet Union and why it Failed
Communism is defined as "a system of political and economic organization in which
property is owned by the community and all citizens share in the enjoyment of the common
wealth, more or less according to their need." In 1917 the rise of power in the
Marxist-inspired Bolsheviks in Russia along with the consolidation of power by Vladimir
Lenin and Joseph Stalin, the word communism came to mean a totalitarian system controlled
by a single political party. This came to justify that the means of production is
controlled and the wealth is distributed with the goal of producing a classless or
possibly a stateless society. The ideological meaning of communism arose in 1848 with
the publication of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They
believed that communism is inevitable and is an outcome of the historical process. They
believed that the "struggle between an exploiting class, the capatalists at present age,
and an exploited class, the workers, would enter a crucial stage in the period of
capitalism where industrialization occurs and that the effects of industrialization is to
heighten and intensify the internal contradictions in capitalism." To put it bluntly
they believed that the ownership of industry would be in fewer and fewer hands where the
workers would plunge into a state of ever-increasing misery. These impoverished workers
grow in numbers and organize themselves into a political party which would lead a
revolution in which they dispose of the capitalists. The proletariat would establish a
society governed by a " dictatorship of the proletariat" based on communal ownership of
the wealth. According to Marx this phase of human society is referred to as socialism.
Communism is the final transcendence of this revolution in which there is a break up and
elimination of the state and no class division. That is the primary reason that it was
called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed.
What was the problem with this system of government, if this is a workers paradise what
happened ? What did the Soviet Union do wrong to cause a breakdown of their ideal system
? In this paper I will explore the rise of the Soviet power and causes of the 1991
breakup.
The person who started the whole transition into a communist empire was Vladimir Lenin.
He felt that the working class was not capable of starting this revolution on their own
and needed a professional group of revolutionaries to guide it. This led to Lenin and
Bolsheviks coming into power in 1917. The Bolsheviks renamed themselves the Communist
party and under the leadership of Lenin took control of government and outlawed all of
the other political parties. In 1918 they became the ruling party of Russia and formed a
dictatorship so they could ensure the Soviet transition from capitalism to socialism.
The communist party arose in opposition to both capitalism and socialists of the Second
International who had supported their capitalist governments during World War I. The
name communists was specifically taken to distinguish Lenin's followers in Russia and
abroad from such Socialists. Following their victory in the Russian Civil War in 1918,
the Soviet Communists followed a cautious policy of limited capatalism during the New
Economic Program until Lenin's death in 1924. Lenin's successor, Joseph Stalin, forcibly
accomplished the transition from capitalism to socialism. During his years in power the
party grew from about 470,000 to millions. He nationalized the Soviet industries and
agriculture. A rapid industrialization program was pushed on the people even though they
lacked materials. Police terror was also used to suppress dissent and opposition. This
became known as Stalinism.
Communist rule was confined to the Soviet Union until the end of World War II. The
Soviet Red Army liberated several countries in eastern Europe from the Nazi Germany
control. The soviets sponsored and helped form the communist governments in Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, East Germany, and North Korea. Stalinism
became the basic model for most of these new governments. After Stalin's death in 1953,
Nikita Khrushchev began a rapid rise and in 1956 repudiated Stalin's "tyrannical
excesses" in his famous "Secret Speech" at the 20th party congress. The next year he
became the parties leader. Krushchev ended the practice of "bloody purges" of the party
membership, but his rule aroused dissatisfaction among the other party leaders. He was
kicked out in 1964. Leonid Brezhnev succeeded him and was general secretary until his
death in 1982, when he was succeeded by Yuri Andropov. Andropov died in 1984 and the
position was passed to Konstantin Chernenko. After Chernenko's death in 1985 the
leadership was passed on to Mikhail Gorbachev.
Both as an ideology and a practical system for the organization of a state, communism
entered a period of crisis in the late 20th century. By the 1980's it had become quite
clear that state-owned systems of economic production were unable to provide the same
standards of living obtained in many countries with free market economies. The unequal
concentrations of wealth in capitalist countries were matched by glaring concentrations
of power in communist ones. It had become clear that the maintenance of a one party
communist rule tended to limit personal freedoms in a way unknown in parliamentary
democracies. The rise to power in the Soviet Union of leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the
mid-1980's set in motion a farther reaching reassessment of the efficiency of the
communist ideals and practices. In 1989-90 the communist parties of eastern Europe
abandoned their monopoly of power and the communist governments in these nations either
fell or submitted themselves to free multiparty elections. In the Soviet Union
Gorbachev's attempts to liberalize the Soviet politico-economic system provoked that
system's collapse altogether in 1991, after which communism rapidly withered as a viable
ideology in Russia and the other former Soviet Republics.
In the winter of 1990-91 many asked how the Soviet Union would end . While Mikhail
Gorbachev was arrested the real target escaped, Boris Yeltsin. The failure was not only
contributed to the myth surrounding the new Russian state but it also pushed the Soviet
Union beyond any parameters envisioned by the process of reform they were attempting to
stem. When Gorbechev came into power he knew that his country was stagnating but they
termed it a "pre-crisis situation". They did not realize the depth of this problem and
believed that their nation only needed reform. Six and a half years later the Soviet
Union and Soviet Communism were dead.
The Soviet Economic crisis was clearly visible in the declining growth rates, increasing
scarcity of exploitable resources, and the worsening imbalance between military
production and that for the general economy, especially consumer goods. The Soviet
economy seemed ready and mobilized for war. In the consumer sector a very large portion
of the capital stock was not only under productive but was also at the limit of its
physical capacity. According to the Russian Prime minister Ivan Silayev, "only 15
percent of investment in the Russian republic went to consumer industries. Military
industry, on the other hand, was constantly being supplied with new technology." Several
Generals, especially ones involved in technical services, tried to break the hold of
traditional strategy that emphasized numerical superiority, only to be shot down by high
command.
The Soviet bureaucracies shifted from the Stalinist era into a more corporatist system.
They neglected their goal of service to the state and society in favor of self interest.
Political and economic corruption, which has existed throughout Soviet History, increased
systematically in the years prior to Gorbachev. The size of the "second" or illegal
"shadow" economy eventually accounted for 25-30 percent of the market and became
essential for the economy to function as a whole. By the end of the Brezhnev era many
politicians where accepting bribes openly. This corruption of the bureaucracies only
separated them further from the people they where put in place to serve.
Not only was corruption a problem but the quality of leadership deteriorated as well.
This was not only true in intelligence and organizational talent but also in a physical
sense. Most of the members of the central committee were aged and lacked spark. The
respect and fear they once generated was rapidly declining in an increasingly young and
educated country. This weakness of political dissent within the Soviet Union was also
important to the crisis. It planted seeds of antitotalitarianism and anticommunism in
the native soil. Also the potential for political action sunk to an all time low in the
community.
The final problem that they encountered was in their relationships with other nations and
ethnic groups. This may have been the most potent flaw in their system. Non-Russian
ethnic regions contained under developed, peasant cultures. These groups were able to
resist with surprising force subordination to Russian culture or submersion into the
Soviet state. This lack of development led to cultivation of old ethnic identities and
the process of modernization only created new strains.
The Soviet Union lost all of its internal vitality, the powers of the regime were still
intense. Decay was probably unavoidable but the disintegration did not seem immediate.
The counter actions to the already failing government are what caused the final demise of
the nation, the actions only accelerated the demise of communism.
|