Rise Of Communism

“The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains”. Karl Marx put his faith in the belief that the working class of Germany was bound to revolt against the bourgeoisie. Communism is theory is a political system where there is collective ownership of means of production. Although his theory was not executed in Germany, it was in Russia and later Cambodia. Communism in Russia began after the collapse of the Provisional Government. Before Communism, Russia was under the rule of a Tsar, an absolute leader. Russian protesters pushed for representation and a higher standard of living until the Tsar abdicated his throne in February 1917. After the abdication, the dual government was made to stand as a temporary system. The the dual government

Collectivization eliminated private property land reorganized land into farming collectives. Stalin seized the land from peasants, and primarily kulaks. Kulaks were wealthy peasant, who owned land and more means of production. In order to collect the land, Stalin deported, imprisoned, and killed kulaks. Stalin’s last economic policy was the command economy, which put the central government in command of industry. The application of these policies were disastrous. Cambodia also became a communist country under the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge, a Cambodian communist party. When Pol Pot came into power after the Khmer Rouge won the Cambodian Civil war, he began to model Cambodia after rural villages. Pol Pot moved Cambodia from the cities into the countryside. In the countryside, everyone was required to work on farming communes. Communism in Soviet Union and Cambodia has similar negative effects. Communist turned both the Soviet Union and Cambodia into totalitarian states that abused its citizens to reap benefits for a smaller

As a part of Stalin’s communism, he focused heavily on industrializing and modernizing Russian cities. Under Stalin’s collectivization, land was forcefully taken away from landowners and put under state control. The state required all peasants to work on these farming communes and they collected what was produced to give to the cities. During the age of communism, more peasants were moving to the cities. With that being said, the cities became overpopulated. Overpopulated cities lead to unsanitary living conditions and a lack of food. Another consequence of this movement is that the countryside lost will power. The increasing amount of people leaving the countryside, left less people available to farm. As a result, both the cities and rural areas suffered starvation. In 1921, Russia underwent The Great Famine that ultimately killed 8.5 million people. Shortages of consumer goods was another cause of the decreased standard of living. Stalin’s 5- year plans made factories focus on producing heavy industries, like steel and iron. This caused shortages in clothes, food, and other manufactured goods. Communism had a similar effect in Cambodia. Pol Pot evacuated all citizens from Cambodian cities to rural areas where they lived in squalid farming communes. On these farming communes people were often underfed and doing laborious work for 10 or more hours a day. The number of deaths from