The Mortifying Truths of Communism

Abstract
Communism has always been an intriguing topic to me, as it only seems that it could be a utopia if it was not for the imperfect human. Alas, these imperfect humans cause it to follow down a dark path that just captivates me. It amazes me all that could go wrong when certain ideals are put into place under the wrong people.

The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the Communist Revolution in China led to a prolonged period of misfortune in both regions. This misfortune can be exemplified by famine, mass killings, and censorship, which isolated the common people and restricted their knowledge of the world around them, leading them to blindly follow communistic ideals.
The Bolshevik Revolution was based on the ideals of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as was written in their co-written book Communist Manifesto, The peasantry of Russia was unhappy with Czar Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, because they wanted land reforms, to industrialize, and to end Russian involvement in World War II. The Czar lost a portion of his power, which was then given to the duma, the Russian equivalent of a parliament. This was made more difficult by Alexandra’s support of Rasputin, who constantly disputed the duma. As is stated in the Document “Russia and World War I”(Trueman), whenever the duma complained about Rasputin Alexandra would further limit their power, and the Czar did not refute her, however much he wanted this governmental addition to work, for the sake of his own power. He still, however, refused to withdraw from the war, due to his desire to prove the world wrong by winning the war. He also refused to industrialize. This led to great uneasiness throughout the country, ultimately resulting in an assassinated czar. A grand power struggle arose as the nation flew into turmoil. Reigning victorious was the communistic Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir I. Lenin, promising “Peace, land, and bread,” the slogan of the revolution. Lenin had tried earlier to overthrow the Czar after he killed his brother, as is mentioned in (Trueman) He was never successful, however, until this time. The Communist Manifesto states, “It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself.” Lenin was one of the first to actually apply this idea, forming the first Communist country.
After gaining support of the nation, Lenin slowly initiated government control of businesses, which allowed the state to regulate prices. This halted the natural economic process of inflation due to supply and demand. This caused a severe loss of profit in most businesses, and so people had no money to spend, thus ensuring a bleak spiral of economic losses, ultimately ending in a terrible economic crisis. He also began attacking his political opponents, such as the White Anti-Bolsheviks, justifying these murders by claiming these actions to be for the good of the state. This was only the beginning of the misfortune in Russia.
At the time of Lenin’s demise a new leader bearing the name Josef Stalin came to power. His reign ended with the loss of millions of lives of his own people. His plans for agriculture included collective farming in his Five Year Plan, to build industry and increase farm output. He forced peasants from their own small farms and bade them work on large farms owned and worked by large groups of peasants, under which they were supposed to share everything they grew. He stated that “it is necessary to implant in the village large socialist farms.” (MacKenzie 211) Famine caused the deaths of millions, beyond all the other atrocities Stalin committed. “In that period, at least 1.5 million Kazaks and 80 percent of the republics livestock died.” (Kazakhstan- A Country study) Though heavy emphasis was placed