Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) of German was one of the founders of Communism and Socialism. Although he was little known for his masterly thoughts of an imaginary classless society, after his death groups of common people took to his ideas and movement for this took momentum. That took in its folds a great nation like Russia and the result was Bolshevik revolution and killing of almost five million innocent people.
Another contemporary of Karl Marx in German, known to all as Freidrich Engels (1820-1895) shared the ideas of Communism and together they authored the “Communist manifesto” in 1848. Engels was also editor of second and third editions of Das Kapital (a critical analysis of capitalism) after the demise of Marx. This was basically a treatise on fundamental theories of Communism, published in 1867.
Marx and Engels were responsible for laying the foundation of Communism. Communism did not evolve thoughts of just two persons but gradually in the years when Russia was built up as a communist empire; successive Russian premiers like Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin contributed their own towards the growth of communism.
Fundamentals of Communist theories
What were the fundamentals of Communism? The visionaries of this political system felt about the plight of the working class in the society. They felt that labor in a democratic set-up was nowhere cared for. Proletariats-meaning the entire working people or labor force needed a set-up, which would nowhere have the divisions of rich and poor.
Every body would be cared by the state. Production would be totally state-owned. There would be one party system of governance and the society would remain without any caste, creed and class. The capitalists were termed as “bourgeois”. The founders of communism felt that in an economy where bourgeois flourished, proletariats were exploited. In a Communist nation the latter would have greater advantage in living life in great comfort and freedom.
Why the ideas and ideals of Communism could not take off?
Overall the precepts of Marx and Engels appeared plausible. But Communism gradually failed to cope up with the changes of time. Let’s take some of the reasons for an analysis;
The gap between proletariat and bourgeois kept narrowing down- Marx and Engels took United States as a model economy or an icon of Capitalist economy. Engels took strong notes of the worsening conditions of proletariat in various industries during his stay in United States. But industries there took great leaps in progress after the economic depression in 1930s. As expected the capitalist states progressed and conditions of the working class of people kept on improving.
Dividing the society as proletariat and bourgeois was mostly imaginary- It was observed in a capitalist economy most of the leaders in industries and politics only came from families of proletariats. So overall dividing the society as proletariat and bourgeois was a vague idea and therefore it was untenable. The capitalist economies changed fast bringing greater prosperity. For instance opening up of American market as free economy brought greater participation of products and commodities from the entire world. The world appreciated the iconic American capitalist economy as the only way of survival in a competitive world. Proletariat in a democratic set-up had bigger opportunities to work in various nations in the world. Skilled labors were outsourced with higher wages. So the basic image of suffering of the working class gradually went on changing with the introduction of free economies and arrival of multi-national culture in the corporate sectors.
Flop of Communist theories in the nations across the world- Although a handful of nations implemented Communist system of functioning on their lands, all of them realized one thing in the long run. The system which came into existence to benefit common people later became a behemoth, stinking with corruption. The same one party ruling which existed to give general masses or proletariats great benefits later began exploiting them. The state machineries of law and order in a Communist nation resorted to cruel repression of people. Russia is the prime example, which liquidated its intellectual think-tank by confining most of its creative people to concentration camps. Gradually the Communist apparatchiks were perceived as dangerous and unscrupulous in their own power struggles.
Mistake that the Communists always committed- The communists always made one common blunder; they remained staunch hardliners without minding the changes taking place all over the world. The democracies throughout the world were very swift in bringing radical changes as reforms in their modes of functioning. Liberal changes were introduced in their system of governance taking into account various interests of common people. India serves as a great democratic set-up in the world with its history of reforms in various fields after independence in 1947. But the nations ruled by Communist regimes remained confined behind an iron curtain of a repressive system.
Is Communism dead? - No, Communism is alive and kicking. But the important thing is the entire world has perceived it as a great threat to freedom of living. Although the nations which are still under its influence are trying to introduce liberal measures in their functioning, gradually the whole concept of Communism is phasing out in to oblivion. It is the end of Communist era.