The Nature of Communism

75 years have passed since the signing of the Molotov – Ribbentrop pact. The pact that triggered the World War II and caused the occupation of Poland and the Baltic States. For decades historians only described this event from the Nazi Germany point of view, overlooking the role of Soviet Union and its leader Joseph Stalin. Now more and more historians acknowledge that Soviet Union just as Nazi Germany was responsible for causing the World War II. And Soviet Union had its own reasons for starting the world war and that was its ideology – communism. An ideology that wanted achieve social and national equality by using war and violence was the driving force for dragging world into war. 75 years later we are witnessing the resurgence of this ideology. Russia is trying to restore former soviet “glory” in grotesque ways by including the elements of Nazism and Russian Czarist imperialism. This new hybrid ideology is potentially even more dangerous than teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. But, the root of this conflict is the communist ideology proposed by these two men. Even 21^st century people still believe in these teachings and want to restore former soviet order. These beliefs are based on ignorance and deception. Today, August 23, is the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of both Communism and Nazism. This article will reveal the deceitful nature of communism and explain why this is a  utopian ideology and philosophy can never be realized and always will turn to dystopia.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels formulated their ideas in their “Communist Party Manifesto”. They made thesis about that social conscience is dependent on the social being, named the laws of the social development and claimed that the means of production defines structure of the society. Social development is dictated by the forces of production. They formulated the idea of the proletarian dictatorship and the leading role of the communist party in struggle for full power. Manifesto clearly stated that the communist goals can be achieved only by force, overthrowing the present political power, taking away all capital from bourgeoisie and centralizing the recourses of production. Thus this manifesto was written by people who could be hardly classified as proletarians and enjoyed bourgeoisie lifestyles.

These ideas were the clear promotion of totalitarianism. The monopoly of one ideology, one party and one class dictatorship and centralized economy. The monopoly of the public sector. Later day totalitarian ideologies as fascism and Nazism that were opposed to communism in fact used similar ways- one party, one national group dictatorship and controlled private sector. For the totalitarian regimes have the same mechanism only the ways of operation differs. The communist ideology had controversial nature- while preaching humanitarian ideals it boasted the use of violence and oppression. That shows that these ideals were nothing more than ideological weapon for the communists to gain and secure power for their desired worldwide socialist revolution. In 19^th century Europe communism was ideology made by middle class people who felt shorthanded by the ruling elite and wanted to overthrow it using masses of workers and poor peasants.

The first communist regime came into being in Russia not in Germany or  United Kingdom. Russian Empire was one of the last absolutist monarchies, unable to modernize and reform the Western way. Without fully established middle class as in Europe, Russia was full of people waiting for rapid change to end their injustice. The communists used the Russian defeat in the World War I, gained control over army and large masses of society and gained the power.

Basing on the theoretical generalizations by the Marx and Engels that bourgeoisie exploits the workers caused by the existence of the private property and its owners that causes contradiction between the forces of production and production relations – this most active part of the society was called as the enemies of the people and meant for destruction. Proletariat should now take the leading the role of the society. Their enemies were considered urban and rural businessmen, wealthy farmers, the intellectuals, state employees and the army leadership. In the event of revolution one social group destroys other by using murder and repression that is how the communists wanted to achieve things. And this social warfare continues after full victory of the revolution.

For seventy years this grandiose social experiment was carried out in Soviet Union causing the death of millions. And in the end it proved that communist regime is nothing but utopia, in fact it was dystopia. Communists believed that work productivity must be achieved by communistic job attitude, public property, planed state economy, socialistic competition, scientific work and moral stimulus. However, the soviet praxis proved to be flawed and with small efficiency. In EU and US the main food product production on one hectare was at least 2-4 times higher, and on one person employed in agriculture 8-10 higher than in Soviet Union. That’s clearly visible by comparing the full store shelves in capitalist countries comparing to nearly empty stores in the Soviet Union.

Communists underestimated the importance of individualism and the personal interests. Lenin declared that after the liberation from the exploiters worker can finally work for himself. It is a big difference if one work for himself or for others. However, the communism made this phrase an abstraction as people worked for the society for the proletarian cause. Meanwhile capitalist truly works for himself. However, the employed people in the private sector is limited by his recourses and recourses of the employer. In communism the state employed person is limited by the recourses of the state. So in communism the person is exploited by the state and the ruling elite. If the person has no personal interest in his work and no possibility to gain personal salary the work productivity drops. If people must work only for the state and society with limited salary and controlled life possibilities the interest in work is strained. And therefore the state economy is obstructed and failed.

In Soviet Union the human factor was the main problem of the productivity. As people were not interested in their work the resources were used irrationally, looted and lost. Corruption was eminent part of everyday soviet lives. During the Stalin’s rule this was fought with repressions and executions and constant threats. His successors tried to fight this by civil means. However, neither stimulated socialistic competition, salary according to accomplishments, material stimulation and state awards, could not ensure the needed productivity and amount of consumption. Instead state was forced to regularly write of the debts by the agricultural collective farms. Collective farming – in fact a modern form of serfdom was disastrous and ineffective. On 1959 Soviet minister of agriculture Nikonov reported that 259 weak Latvian collective farms of kolkhozes were unified with the soviet farms or sovhozes. While 59 soviet farms made 52 million ruble worth losses to the state. On 1963 the head of the Latvian Communist party Pelše admitted of having 203 weak kolkhozes and 343 sovhozes. The kolkhoz economy was disastrous for Latvian agricultural society as it was based on Russian village economy, while in Latvia the farmstead economy was the leading one. By deporting the private farm owners and forcing people to live in villages, communists destroyed a centuries of the Latvian cultural tradition.

Despite owning large territories of fertile agricultural land in Ukraine, Baltic States, Belarus, Moldova, and Russia, Soviet Union suffered from chronic food product deficit. Grain was regularly imported from the capitalist countries, while grain taken away from soviet farmers were exported in return. Same goes for industrial sector, despite owning large amounts of gas, oil and iron the same deficit was present. The soviet command economy was no different from feudal czarist economy. The economical plans were issued as laws and directives. The subordinates fulfilled it as orders with no regard to their personal interests. They were just executors in the large soviet machinery who do as their superiors told to. As they were liberated from working for others, they also were liberated from thinking. “Do as I am told” attitude not only lead to completely useless actions like trying to grow cornflakes in Latvia to disasters like Chernobyl and the Aral Sea.

While private property was declared as the main evil of the society it proved that the absence of the private property was the evil of the soviet society. Besides it was never really removed as it existed in various limited forms. During the first years after the Russian Civil War, Lenins New Economic Policy allowed limited state regulated private sector. Stalin to gather absolute power imposed concentration camp economy with almost total absence of private sector. However, his economy was ensured by the repressions. During the rule of Khrushchev and Brezhnev soviets again were forced to allow limited private enterprise. For instance collective farm workers could own small plot of land to grow their own food and even sell it in rural markets. That allowed people to survive, while EU was experiencing severe agricultural overproduction and had to limit it by imposing quotas.  The society is driven by social competition and contradictions in production. The private economy has been proven as best way to manage this. Democracy and non-violence is another effective way to handle such way of things. However, democracy was another thing that communists wanted to eradicate.

Communists believed that contradictions in society are antagonic and not correlative. Therefore violence and dictatorship was the only way of ruling the society according to them. Social classes and political groups seen as hostile to the revolution were to be destroyed. By attempting to destroy the employers the communists attempted to eradicate the very foundation of the social structure. The violent flawed belief that society can prosper without certain social groups lead to great human disasters. On 1919 Latvian Soviet government in short time killed hundreds of thousands people because of their social class and nationality. On 1932 -1933 to impose collectivization in Ukraine, Stalin stimulated famine to get rid of farmers unwilling to join kolkhozes. In result 2-7 million people died in horrible famine across Ukraine. This genocide known as Holodomor had also ethnic character because it killed native Ukrainians in Eastern Ukraine. After that Ukrainian Soviet Republic was filled with immigrants from Russia, while Western Ukraine ruled by Poland preserved its Ukrainian population. The Holodomor is the true reason for the “ethnic divide” of Ukraine. During the 1937-1938 great purge Stalin to monopolize his power made certain social and ethnic groups as enemies and destroyed them. Latvian communists and socially active Latvian soviet citizens were accused of state betrayal and destroyed in thousands. Same happened to Poles, Germans. Later even Jews were accused of state betrayal and were considered for deportations.

In international scene the same antagonism was used. Soviet Union was considered as single state fortress against the fascist-capitalist world. However, the political and trade cooperation was allowed. As Lenin said: “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them”. The cooperation was useful as it was according to soviet imperial interests. Ultimately the capitalist world had to be destroyed resulting worldwide socialist revolution. As Stalin lost his faith in European proletariat unwilling to support the communist revolution, he gave is chance in war. Another teaching by Lenin was that next global war between imperialists will cause socialist revolution.  Stalin’s foreign policy towards Germany actually helped Hitler to gain power. While being officially anti-fascist Stalin did not nothing to obstruct Hitlers gambles in Austria and Czechoslovakia.  When the September 1939 came, Stalin had unique chance to ally with UK and France against Germany to avert the invasion in Poland. Instead Stalin did what the communist ideology required him to do – by signing treaty with Germany initiate the war in Europe. Naturally this alliance with Nazis was only temporarily as Stalin was looking to hang Hitler with his own rope. The Nazi invasion in 1941 was failure for Stalin’s quest for worldwide revolution and despite capturing Berlin and gaining control over Eastern Europe Stalin did not considered himself truly victorious.

In the end the communism proved to be bloody fiction and deception. Soviet Union was not a proletarian dictatorship it was single party dictatorship lead by one man enjoying monarch lifestyle. The new ruling elite or nomenklatura enjoyed bourgeoisie lifestyles while rest of the people were standing in the lines of the empty shops. The so called Soviet Republics had only limited self governing rights as they were dependent on orders from Moscow.  The country boasted about their military might while in reality being technically inferior to its rivals and vulnerable. Despite relative quality of the standard of living, the state limited the trips to capitalist countries to prevent the people see the real life in the West.

This is not only the case of the Soviet Union. Communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe, Kuba, Africa and Asia failed the same way. Chinese communists acknowledged the importance of the private property and diverted from the Marxist teachings and kept their power. Laos and Vietnam did the same. Meanwhile Cuba and North Korea still suffers from poverty and isolation because of tyrannical communist rule. To see difference between communism and capitalism you need to see the satellite view of Korean peninsula at night. You will see the South Korea full of light while Northern Korea as one big black hole. And yes the North Korean elite including their leader enjoys the capitalist Samsung smartphones and other gadgets.

Now Russia is heading for this same trap. Not only is that she is looking to draw her neighbors along. Communism is still seen favorable by old generation people and young people affected by propaganda. They may like to wave red flags while enjoying the fruits of capitalism the internet and shops full of their favorite western goods. They communism goes no further as slogan “our country is great and victorious and world fears us”. If they would be thrown back into Stalinist or even Brezhnev realities they would look for way to escape. The Putin and his henchmen are of course are no communists. They enjoy the private profit and luxury; they enjoy vacations in US and Europe and have their investments and bank funds there. Their main concern is keeping the power over their people and people in the neighboring countries. For that they can use neo-communist, nationalist or even Nazi influenced propaganda. They profit on masses of foolish people who thinks Putin will restore the communist Soviet Union. He may actually restore one thing- international isolation and deficit of food products. He can limit the freedom of expression. But, can such neo-soviet state exist for long? Under the reign of Putin Russia will only be a fascist state under the hammer and sickle. As communism is alien to human nature and is anti-human in its character. That is the danger of the nature of communism.