The Rise and Fall of Communism

Title: The Rise and Fall of Communism

Author: Archie Brown

Publisher: Vintage Books 2010 (First published 2009)

ISBN: 978-1-845-95067-5

Pages: 617

A very good book touching on the demise of a social order which sought to dominate the world on its self-proclaimed merits. There was a time, immediately after the second world war when it seemed that the world, particularly the new countries freshly liberated from the imperial yoke were leaning towards a communist system under the active support of the Soviet Union. Until Mikhail Gorbachev put in motion the first domino which would unleash a wave of frenzied people reclaiming their personal freedom and self respect, nobody even in the U.S., thought that this stumbling block to global progress would be decimated so soon. Ephemeral was its rise, the downfall was also likewise.

Origins of communism can be taken back to writers in the industrial revolution era in Europe. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels envisioned a society where the force of state didn’t prevail. What stung these luminaries into action was the grave situation in which the industrial workers in England, where both the writers had sought asylum. Lenin led the Bolsheviks to power through a bloody war in 1917 in Russia. The country in fact accepted them as one more party ruling a country in the grip of instability for many a decade. The Bolsheviks could secure only 25% of the popular vote in the election immediately after taking over. But once they stabilised their power, harsh repressive measures stymied every voice of dissent. Lenin’s secret police, the Cheka was as terrifying as the Tsar’s Okhrana for the common man. Joseph Stalin assumed office after Lenin’s death and his ‘reign’ was brutal in every aspect of the word. The world has never seen a more devilish mass murderer than him and Mao Zedong. Stalin killed his opponents, his party members, his friends and even those who had the ability to be of resistance to his ambitions in the future. Collectivization of farms caused widespread famine, killing 17 million people. His purges of 1937-38 killed off 70% of the Communist party’s central committee itself! He made secret pacts with Hitler, but turned against him once Hitler attacked Russia.

After the war, the Soviet army was victorious in a number of countries in the eastern Europe. Soviet style communist governments sprouted in those countries. There were three states, however, namely Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Albania where the local communists could gain power through their own means. The belligerent neighbours in eastern Europe made the world gradually slide into a cold war. Mao directed the Chinese communists to power in 1949. This may be said to be the crescendo of communist power, for it only diminished thereafter. Stalin’s death in 1953 made Khrushchev the ruler of USSR. His secret speech at the 20^th party congress in 1956 enumerated the brutalities of stalinist regime and opened the floodgates of dissent to be poured out in party fora. Though his rule coincided with massive Russian strides in space science, Khrushchev’s style of functioning alienated many in the party and the central committee expelled him in 1964.

Popular revolt against dictatorial regimes in eastern Europe began to find voice. Hungary revolted in 1956, which was militarily crushed by Soviet troops and the Hungarian prime minister Imre Nagy was hanged. Mao’s hundred flowers campaign, great leap forward and cultural revolution decimated an approximate 30 million people. Uprisings in Czechoslovakia in 1968 (Prague Spring), in Poland (1980) and China (1989) upset the communist bretheren. Opening up a part of iron curtain after the Helsinki agreement in 1975 resulted in more people from communist states visiting western democracies and getting real ideas about their countries and the depths to which they were sinking into.

Gorbachev assumed power in 1985, unanimously within the Communist party. Glasnost and Perestroika were introduced. Through these measures, the country was practically a European social democracy by 1989. Many books, which were banned previously, found the light of the day. Warsaw pact countries utilised the opportunity by dismissing their oppressionist partymates. Hardline communists in Russia attempted to oust Gorbachev in a coup in August 1991. The coup failed after three days, but that was sufficient to frighten away Soviet republics. The USSR perished in september 1991.

Brown lists out the salient features of a communist state, which is very interesting and insightful. There are six defining features, which are as follows

a)      the monopoly of power of the communist party

b)      democratic centralism – where the decisions taken at higher fora are binding on the lower organs of the party

c)      non-capitalist ownership of the means of production

d)      presence of a command economy

e)      declared aim of building communism as the ultimate goal

f)        existence of, and sense of belonging to, an international communist movement

The book is really entertaining and resourceful and is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star