To understand the reasons for its ‘failure’, a quick look at its evolution is necessary.
- Communism as a theory was a result of the brutal working conditions in the English factories during the Industrial Revolution. Men, women and children were being massacred through 18 hour workdays seven days a week, in hazardous conditions. Society and families in the newly evolved ‘urban areas’ had broken down (except, of course, for the factory owners).
This prompted Karl Marx to postulate a wonderful response in his seminal work Das Kapital - the Proletariat Revolution - which was a revolution of the industrial working classes against the newly-rich bourgeoisie. But for all its wonders, communism was still a theory.
Founding Fathers - It was turned into a ruling ideology with Vladimir Lenin’s communist takeover of royal Russia in 1917. The Romanov dynasty was murdered (removed), and communists took over through a series of brutal machinations, internal and external. That grew into the Soviet regime. Then came the Chinese communism with Mao Tse-tung unfurling the PRC red flag in Beijing on 01–10–1949. Both the Soviets and Chinese tried to spread their influence worldwide, the Soviets succeeding to a greater extent. And today, communism is in retreat worldwide.
Reasons why communism as an economic ideology did not succeed -
