Communism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Theory == Communist political thought and theory are diverse but share several core elements.{{efn|March (2009), p. 127: "The 'communists' are a broad group. Without Moscow's pressure, 'orthodox' communism does not exist beyond a commitment to Marxism and the communist name and symbols. 'Conservative' communists define themselves as Marxist–Leninist, maintain a relatively uncritical stance towards the Soviet heritage, organize their parties through Leninist democratic centralism and still see the world through the Cold-War prism of 'imperialism,' although even these parties often appeal to nationalism and populism. 'Reform' communists, on the other hand, are more divergent and eclectic. They have discarded aspects of the Soviet model (for example, Leninism and democratic centralism), and have at least paid lip service to elements of the post-1968 'new left' agenda (a (feminism, environmentalism, grass-roots democracy, and so on)."<ref>{{cite journal |last=March |first=Luke |title=Contemporary Far Left Parties in Europe: From Marxism to the Mainstream? |url=https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/ipg/ipg-2009-1/10_a_march_us.pdf |journal=IPG |volume=1 |date=2009 |page=127 |via=[[Friedrich Ebert Foundation]]}}</ref>|group=quote}} The dominant forms of communism are based on [[Marxism]] or [[Leninism]] but non-Marxist versions of communism also exist, such as [[anarcho-communism]] and [[Christian communism]], which remain partly influenced by Marxist theories, such as [[libertarian Marxism]] and [[humanist Marxism]] in particular. Common elements include being theoretical rather than ideological, identifying political parties not by ideology but by class and economic interest, and identifying with the proletariat. According to communists, the proletariat can avoid mass unemployment only if capitalism is overthrown; in the short run, state-oriented communists favor [[state ownership]] of the [[commanding heights of the economy]] as a means to defend the proletariat from capitalist pressure. Some communists are distinguished by other Marxists in seeing peasants and smallholders of property as possible allies in their goal of shortening the abolition of capitalism.{{sfn|Morgan|2001|p=2332}} For Leninist communism, such goals, including short-term proletarian interests to improve their political and material conditions, can only be achieved through [[vanguardism]], an elitist form of [[socialism from above]] that relies on theoretical analysis to identify proletarian interests rather than consulting the proletarians themselves,{{sfn|Morgan|2001|p=2332}} as is advocated by [[libertarian]] communists.{{r|Kinna 2012}} When they engage in elections, Leninist communists' main task is that of educating voters in what are deemed their true interests rather than in response to the expression of interest by voters themselves. When they have gained control of the state, Leninist communists' main task was preventing other political parties from deceiving the proletariat, such as by running their own independent candidates. This vanguardist approach comes from their commitments to [[democratic centralism]] in which communists can only be cadres, i.e. members of the party who are full-time professional revolutionaries, as was conceived by [[Vladimir Lenin]].{{sfn|Morgan|2001|p=2332}} === Marxist communism === {{main|Marxism}} {{see also|List of communist ideologies|Marxist schools of thought}} [[File:Marx et Engels à Shanghai.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|A monument dedicated to [[Karl Marx]] (left) and [[Friedrich Engels]] (right) in Shanghai]] Marxism is a method of [[socioeconomic]] analysis that uses a [[materialist]] interpretation of historical development, better known as [[historical materialism]], to understand [[social class]] relations and [[social conflict]] and a [[dialectic]]al perspective to view [[social transformation]]. It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]. As Marxism has developed over time into various branches and [[schools of thought]], no single, definitive [[Marxist theory]] exists.<ref name="Wolff and Resnick, 1987">{{cite book |last1=Wolff |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard D. Wolff |last2=Resnick |first2=Stephen |author2-link=Stephen Resnick |url=https://archive.org/details/economicsmarxian00wolf_0 |title=Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical |year=1987 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=978-0801834806 |page=[https://archive.org/details/economicsmarxian00wolf_0/page/130 130] |quote=The German Marxists extended the theory to groups and issues Marx had barely touched. Marxian analyses of the legal system, of the social role of women, of foreign trade, of international rivalries among capitalist nations, and the role of parliamentary democracy in the transition to socialism drew animated debates ... Marxian theory (singular) gave way to Marxian theories (plural). |url-access=registration}}</ref> Marxism considers itself to be the embodiment of [[scientific socialism]] but does not model an ideal society based on the design of [[intellectual]]s, whereby communism is seen as a [[State of affairs (sociology)|state of affairs]] to be established based on any intelligent design; rather, it is a non-[[idealist]] attempt at the understanding of material history and society, whereby communism is the expression of a real movement, with parameters that are derived from actual life.<ref>{{cite book |author1-link=Karl Marx |last1=Marx |first1=Karl |author2-link=Friedrich Engels |last2=Engels |first2=Friedrich |date=1845 |chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm |chapter=Idealism and Materialism |title=[[The German Ideology]] |postscript=. Transcribed by T. Delaney, B. Schwartz, and B. Baggins. |page=[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm#p48 48] |quote=Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence. |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref> According to Marxist theory, class conflict arises in capitalist societies due to contradictions between the material interests of the oppressed and exploited [[proletariat]]—a class of wage laborers employed to produce goods and services—and the [[bourgeoisie]]—the [[ruling class]] that owns the [[means of production]] and extracts its wealth through appropriation of the [[surplus product]] produced by the proletariat in the form of [[Profit (economics)|profit]]. This class struggle that is commonly expressed as the revolt of a society's [[productive forces]] against its [[relations of production]], results in a period of short-term crises as the bourgeoisie struggle to manage the intensifying [[alienation of labor]] experienced by the proletariat, albeit with varying degrees of [[class consciousness]]. In periods of deep crisis, the resistance of the oppressed can culminate in a [[proletarian revolution]] which, if victorious, leads to the establishment of the [[socialist mode of production]] based on [[social ownership]] of the means of production, "[[To each according to his contribution]]", and [[production for use]]. As the productive forces continued to advance, the [[communist society]], i.e. a classless, stateless, humane society based on [[common ownership]], follows the maxim "[[From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs]]."{{r|Hudis et al. 2018}} While it originates from the works of Marx and Engels, Marxism has developed into many different branches and schools of thought, with the result that there is now no single definitive Marxist theory.{{r|Wolff and Resnick, 1987}} Different Marxian schools place a greater emphasis on certain aspects of [[classical Marxism]] while rejecting or modifying other aspects. Many schools of thought have sought to combine Marxian concepts and non-Marxian concepts, which has then led to contradictory conclusions.<ref>{{cite book |last=O'Hara |first=Phillip |title=Encyclopedia of Political Economy |volume=2 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-415-24187-8 |page=107 |quote=Marxist political economists differ over their definitions of capitalism, socialism and communism. These differences are so fundamental, the arguments among differently persuaded Marxist political economists have sometimes been as intense as their oppositions to political economies that celebrate capitalism.}}</ref> There is a movement toward the recognition that historical materialism and [[dialectical materialism]] remain the fundamental aspects of all [[Marxist schools of thought]].{{r|Ermak 2019}} [[Marxism–Leninism]] and its offshoots are the most well-known of these and have been a driving force in [[international relations]] during most of the 20th century.<ref name="Columbia">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Communism |url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/co/communism.html |encyclopedia=[[The Columbia Encyclopedia]] |edition=6th |year=2007}}</ref> Classical Marxism is the economic, philosophical, and sociological theories expounded by Marx and Engels as contrasted with later developments in Marxism, especially [[Leninism]] and Marxism–Leninism.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://isj.org.uk/classical-marxism-and-the-question-of-reformism/ |title=Classical Marxism and the question of reformism |last=Gluckstein |first=Donny |date=26 June 2014 |journal=[[International Socialism (magazine)|International Socialism]] |access-date=19 December 2019}}</ref> [[Orthodox Marxism]] is the body of Marxist thought that emerged after the death of Marx and which became the official philosophy of the socialist movement as represented in the [[Second International]] until World War I in 1914. Orthodox Marxism aims to simplify, codify, and systematize Marxist method and theory by clarifying the perceived ambiguities and contradictions of classical Marxism. The philosophy of orthodox Marxism includes the understanding that material development (advances in technology in the [[productive forces]]) is the primary agent of change in the structure of society and of human social relations and that social systems and their relations (e.g. [[feudalism]], [[capitalism]], and so on) become contradictory and inefficient as the productive forces develop, which results in some form of social revolution arising in response to the mounting contradictions. This revolutionary change is the vehicle for fundamental society-wide changes and ultimately leads to the emergence of new [[economic system]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rees |first=John |author-link=John Rees (activist) |title=The Algebra of Revolution: The Dialectic and the Classical Marxist Tradition |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-415-19877-6}}</ref> As a term, ''orthodox Marxism'' represents the methods of historical materialism and of dialectical materialism, and not the normative aspects inherent to classical Marxism, without implying dogmatic adherence to the results of Marx's investigations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lukács |first=György |author-link=György Lukács |date=1967 |orig-date=1919 |chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/orthodox.htm |chapter=What is Orthodox Marxism? |title=[[History and Class Consciousness|History and Class Consciousness']] |translator-last=Livingstone |translator-first=Rodney |publisher=[[Merlin Press]] |access-date=22 September 2021 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |quote=Orthodox Marxism, therefore, does not imply the uncritical acceptance of the results of Marx's investigations. It is not the 'belief' in this or that thesis, nor the exegesis of a 'sacred' book. On the contrary, orthodoxy refers exclusively to method.}}</ref> ==== Marxist concepts ==== ===== Class conflict and historical materialism ===== {{main|Class conflict|Historical materialism}} At the root of Marxism is historical materialism, the [[materialist]] conception of history which holds that the key characteristic of economic systems through history has been the [[mode of production]] and that the change between modes of production has been triggered by class struggle. According to this analysis, the [[Industrial Revolution]] ushered the world into the new [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalist mode of production]]. Before capitalism, certain [[working class]]es had ownership of instruments used in production; however, because machinery was much more efficient, this property became worthless and the mass majority of workers could only survive by selling their labor to make use of someone else's machinery, and making someone else profit. Accordingly, capitalism divided the world between two major classes, namely that of the [[proletariat]] and the [[bourgeoisie]]. These classes are directly antagonistic as the latter possesses [[private ownership]] of the [[means of production]], earning profit via the [[surplus value]] generated by the proletariat, who have no ownership of the means of production and therefore no option but to sell its labor to the bourgeoisie.<ref>{{cite book |last=Engels |first=Friedrich |author-link=Friedrich Engels |date=1969 |chapter="Principles of Communism". No. 4 – "How did the proletariat originate?" |title=Marx & Engels Selected Works |volume=I |location=Moscow |publisher=[[Progress Publishers]] |pages=81–97}}</ref> According to the materialist conception of history, it is through the furtherance of its own material interests that the rising bourgeoisie within [[feudalism]] captured power and abolished, of all relations of private property, only the feudal privilege, thereby taking the feudal [[ruling class]] out of existence. This was another key element behind the consolidation of capitalism as the new mode of production, the final expression of class and property relations that has led to a massive expansion of production. It is only in capitalism that private property in itself can be abolished.<ref>[[Friedrich Engels|Engels, Friedrich]]. [1847] (1969). "[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm#015 "Was not the abolition of private property possible at an earlier time?]" ''[[Principles of Communism]]''. ''[[Marx/Engels Collected Works]]''. '''I'''. Moscow: Progress Publishers. pp. 81–97.</ref> Similarly, the proletariat would capture political power, abolish bourgeois property through the [[common ownership]] of the means of production, therefore abolishing the bourgeoisie, ultimately abolishing the proletariat itself and ushering the world into [[Communist society|communism as a new mode of production]]. In between capitalism and communism, there is the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]; it is the defeat of the [[bourgeois state]] but not yet of the capitalist mode of production, and at the same time the only element which places into the realm of possibility moving on from this mode of production. This ''dictatorship'', based on the [[Paris Commune]]'s model,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Priestland |first=David |date=January 2002 |url=https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/13937520.pdf |title=Soviet Democracy, 1917–91 |journal=[[European History Quarterly]] |location=Thousand Oaks, California |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=111–130 |doi=10.1177/0269142002032001564 |s2cid=144067197 |access-date=19 August 2021 |via=Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung |quote=Lenin defended all four elements of Soviet democracy in his seminal theoretical work of 1917, ''State and Revolution''. The time had come, Lenin argued, for the destruction of the foundations of the bourgeois state, and its replacement with an ultra-democratic 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' based on the model of democracy followed by the communards of Paris in 1871. Much of the work was theoretical, designed, by means of quotations from Marx and Engels, to win battles within the international Social Democratic movement against Lenin's arch-enemy Kautsky. However, Lenin was not operating only in the realm of theory. He took encouragement from the rise of a whole range of institutions that seemed to embody class-based, direct democracy, and in particular the soviets and the factory committees, which demanded the right to 'supervise' ('kontrolirovat') (although not to take the place of) factory management.}}</ref> is to be the most democratic state where the whole of the public authority is elected and recallable under the basis of [[universal suffrage]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Twiss |first=Thomas M. |title=Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |pages=28–29 |date=2014 |isbn=978-90-04-26953-8}}</ref> ===== Critique of political economy ===== {{main|Critique of political economy}} Critique of [[political economy]] is a form of [[social critique]] that rejects the various social categories and structures that constitute the mainstream discourse concerning the forms and modalities of resource allocation and income distribution in the economy. Communists, such as Marx and Engels, are described as prominent critics of political economy.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=Patrick |date=March 2020 |title=The Illusion of the Economic: Social Theory without Social Forms |journal=[[Critical Historical Studies]] |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=19–27 |doi=10.1086/708005 |issn=2326-4462 |quote='There are no counterparts to Marx's economic concepts in either classical or utility theory.' I take this to mean that Marx breaks with economics, where economics is understood to be a generally applicable social science. |s2cid=219746578}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Liedman |first=Sven-Eric |date=December 2020 |title=Engelsismen |url=https://fronesis.nu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FR02808.pdf |journal=[[Fronesis (magazine)|Fronesis]] |language=sv |page=134 |quote=Engels var också först med att kritiskt bearbeta den nya nationalekonomin; hans 'Utkast till en kritik av nationalekonomin' kom ut 1844 och blev en utgångspunkt för Marx egen kritik av den politiska ekonomin |number=28 |trans-quote=Engels was the first to critically engage the new political economy his 'Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy' came out in 1844 and became a starting point for Marx's own critique of political economy.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=István |last=Mészáros |date=2010 |others=transcribed by Conttren, V. (2022) |chapter=The Critique of Political Economy |title=Social Structure and Forms of Consciousness |volume=1 |location=New York |publisher=[[Monthly Review Press]] |pages=317–331 |chapter-url=https://osf.io/65mxd/ |doi=10.17605/OSF.IO/65MXD}}</ref> The critique rejects economists' use of what its advocates believe are unrealistic [[axiom]]s, faulty historical assumptions, and the normative use of various descriptive narratives.<ref>{{cite book |last=Henderson |first=Willie |title=John Ruskin's political economy |date=2000 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-203-15946-2 |location=London |oclc=48139638 |quote=... Ruskin attempted a methodological/scientific critique of political economy. He fixed on ideas of 'natural laws', 'economic man' and the prevailing notion of 'value' to point out gaps and inconsistencies in the system of classical economics.}}</ref> They reject what they describe as mainstream economists' tendency to posit the economy as an ''[[a priori]]'' societal category.<ref name="Reading Capital">{{cite book |last1=Louis |first1=Althusser |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1968/reading-capital/ch02.htm |title=Reading Capital |last2=Balibar |first2=Etienne |publisher=[[Verso Editions]] |year=1979 |pages=158 |oclc=216233458 |quote='To criticize Political Economy' means to confront it with a new problematic and a new object: i.e., to question the very object of Political Economy}}</ref> Those who engage in critique of economy tend to reject the view that the economy and its categories is to be understood as something [[transhistorical]].<ref>{{Citation |last1=Fareld |first1=Victoria |title=From Marx to Hegel and Back |date=2020 |page=142,182 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |doi=10.5040/9781350082700.ch-001 |isbn=978-1-3500-8267-0 |last2=Kuch |first2=Hannes |s2cid=213805975}}</ref>{{sfn|Postone|1995|pages=44,192–216}} It is seen as merely one of many types of historically specific ways to distribute resources. They argue that it is a relatively new mode of resource distribution, which emerged along with modernity.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mortensen |title=Ekonomi |journal=Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap |language=sv |volume=3 |number=4 |pages=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Moishe |last=Postone |title=Time, labor, and social domination: a reinterpretation of Marx's critical theory |year=1995 |isbn=0-521-56540-5 |pages=130, 5 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |oclc=910250140}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Jönsson |first=Dan |title=John Ruskin: En brittisk 1800-talsaristokrat för vår tid? - OBS |date=7 February 2019 |url=https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1244376 |url-status=live |access-date=24 September 2021 |publisher=[[Sveriges Radio]] |language=sv |quote=Den klassiska nationalekonomin, som den utarbetats av John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith och David Ricardo, betraktade han som en sorts kollektivt hjärnsläpp ... |trans-quote=The classical political economy as it was developed by John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, and David Ricardo, as a kind of 'collective mental lapse' ... |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200305082621/https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1244376 |archive-date=5 March 2020}}</ref> Critics of economy critique the given status of the economy itself, and do not aim to create theories regarding how to administer economies.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ramsay |first=Anders |date=21 December 2009 |title=Marx? Which Marx? Marx's work and its history of reception |url=https://www.eurozine.com/marx-which-marx/ |url-status=live |access-date=16 September 2021 |website=[[Eurozine]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212144158/http://www.eurozine.com/marx-which-marx/ |archive-date=12 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Ruccio |first=David |date=10 December 2020 |title=Toward a critique of political economy |website=MR Online |url=https://mronline.org/2020/12/10/toward-a-critique-of-political-economy/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215173028/https://mronline.org/2020/12/10/toward-a-critique-of-political-economy/ |archive-date=15 December 2020 |access-date=20 September 2021 |quote=Marx arrives at conclusions and formulates new terms that run directly counter to those of Smith, Ricardo, and the other classical political economists.}}</ref> Critics of economy commonly view what is most commonly referred to as the economy as being bundles of [[metaphysical]] concepts, as well as societal and normative practices, rather than being the result of any self-evident or proclaimed economic laws.<ref name="Reading Capital"/> They also tend to consider the views which are commonplace within the field of economics as faulty, or simply as [[pseudoscience]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=Patrick |date=March 2020 |title=The Illusion of the Economic: Social Theory without Social Forms |journal=[[Critical Historical Studies]] |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=19–27 |doi=10.1086/708005 |issn=2326-4462 |s2cid=219746578}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Patterson |first1=Orlando |last2=Fosse |first2=Ethan |title=Overreliance on the Pseudo-Science of Economics |url=https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/02/09/are-economists-overrated/overreliance-on-the-pseudo-science-of-economics |url-status=live |work=[[The New York Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209225723/http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/02/09/are-economists-overrated/overreliance-on-the-pseudo-science-of-economics |archive-date=9 February 2015 |access-date=13 January 2023}}</ref> Into the 21st century, there are multiple critiques of political economy; what they have in common is the critique of what critics of political economy tend to view as [[dogma]], i.e. claims of the economy as a necessary and transhistorical societal category.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ruda |first1=Frank |last2=Hamza |first2=Agon |date=2016 |title=Introduction: Critique of Political Economy |url=http://crisiscritique.org/political11/Introduction-2.pdf |journal=[[Crisis and Critique]] |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=5–7 |access-date=13 January 2023 |archive-date=16 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211116135722/http://crisiscritique.org/political11/Introduction-2.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> ===== Marxian economics ===== {{main|Marxian economics}} Marxian economics and its proponents view capitalism as economically unsustainable and incapable of improving the living standards of the population due to its need to compensate for [[falling rates of profit]] by cutting employee's wages, social benefits, and pursuing military aggression. The [[communist mode of production]] would succeed capitalism as humanity's new mode of production through workers' [[revolution]]. According to Marxian [[crisis theory]], communism is not an inevitability but an economic necessity.<ref>Free will, non-predestination and non-determinism are emphasized in Marx's famous quote "Men make their own history". ''The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte'' (1852).</ref> ===== Socialization versus nationalization ===== {{main|Socialization (economics)|Socialization (Marxism)}} An important concept in Marxism is socialization, i.e. [[social ownership]], versus [[nationalization]]. Nationalization is [[state ownership]] of property whereas socialization is control and management of property by society. Marxism considers the latter as its goal and considers nationalization a tactical issue, as state ownership is still in the realm of the [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalist mode of production]]. In the words of [[Friedrich Engels]], "the transformation ... into State-ownership does not do away with the capitalistic nature of the productive forces. ... State-ownership of the productive forces is not the solution of the conflict, but concealed within it are the technical conditions that form the elements of that solution."<ref name=":0" group="lower-alpha">{{harvp|Engels|1970|pp=95–151}}: "But, the transformation—either into joint-stock companies and trusts, or into State-ownership—does not do away with the capitalistic nature of the productive forces. In the joint-stock companies and trusts, this is obvious. And the modern State, again, is only the organization that bourgeois society takes on in order to support the external conditions of the capitalist mode of production against the encroachments as well of the workers as of individual capitalists. The modern state, no matter what its form, is essentially a capitalist machine—the state of the capitalists, the ideal personification of the total national capital. The more it proceeds to the taking over of productive forces, the more does it actually become the national capitalist, the more citizens does it exploit. The workers remain wage-workers—proletarians. The capitalist relation is not done away with. It is, rather, brought to a head. But, brought to a head, it topples over. State-ownership of the productive forces is not the solution of the conflict, but concealed within it are the technical conditions that form the elements of that solution."</ref> This has led Marxist groups and tendencies critical of the [[Soviet model]] to label states based on nationalization, such as the Soviet Union, as [[state capitalist]], a view that is also shared by several scholars.{{r|Chomsky, Howard, Fitzgibbons}}{{r|The Soviet Union Has an Administered, Not a Planned, Economy, 1985}}{{r|Ellman 2007}} =====Democracy in Marxism===== {{Excerpt|Democracy in Marxism}} === Leninist communism === {{Main|Leninism}} {{Quote box | quote = We want to achieve a new and better order of society: in this new and better society there must be neither rich nor poor; all will have to work. Not a handful of rich people, but all the working people must enjoy the fruits of their common labour. Machines and other improvements must serve to ease the work of all and not to enable a few to grow rich at the expense of millions and tens of millions of people. This new and better society is called socialist society. The teachings about this society are called "socialism". | source = Vladimir Lenin, ''To the Rural Poor'' (1903)<ref>{{cite book |last=Lenin |first=Vladimir |author-link=Vladimir Lenin |orig-date=1903 |chapter=To the Rural Poor |chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1903/rp/1.htm |title=Collected Works |volume=6 |page=366 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref> | align = right | width = 35em }} Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian [[Marxist]] revolutionary [[Vladimir Lenin]] that proposes the establishment of the [[Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin|dictatorship of the proletariat]], led by a revolutionary [[vanguard party]], as the political prelude to the establishment of communism. The function of the Leninist vanguard party is to provide the working classes with the [[political consciousness]] (education and organisation) and revolutionary leadership necessary to depose [[capitalism]] in the [[Russian Empire]] (1721–1917).<ref name="Modern Thought Third Edition 1999 pp. 476">{{cite book |title=The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought |edition=Third |date=1999 |pages=476–477}}</ref> Leninist revolutionary leadership is based upon ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'' (1848), identifying the [[Communist party]] as "the most advanced and resolute section of the working class parties of every country; that section which pushes forward all others." As the vanguard party, the [[Bolsheviks]] viewed history through the theoretical framework of [[dialectical materialism]], which sanctioned political commitment to the successful overthrow of capitalism, and then to instituting [[socialism]]; and as the revolutionary national government, to realize the socio-economic transition by all means.<ref name="Leninism, p. 265">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Leninism |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |edition=15th |volume=7 |pages=265}}</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=July 2023}}<!-- What year? There various versions of the 15th Ed., with different volume counts: [[Encyclopædia_Britannica#Edition_summary]]. --> ==== Marxism–Leninism ==== {{main|Marxism–Leninism}} [[File:Lenin-statue-in-Kolkata.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Vladimir Lenin]] statue in Kolkata, West Bengal]] Marxism–Leninism is a political ideology developed by [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref name="made_by_stalin">{{cite magazine|last=Lisichkin |first=G. |date=1989 |title=Мифы и реальность |language=ru |trans-title=Myths and reality |magazine=[[Novy Mir]] |volume=3 |pages=59}}</ref> According to its proponents, it is based on [[Marxism]] and [[Leninism]]. It describes the specific political ideology which Stalin implemented in the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] and in a global scale in the [[Comintern]]. There is no definite agreement between historians about whether Stalin actually followed the principles of Marx and Lenin.<ref name="stalin_follow_marx_lenin">{{cite magazine |first=Aleksandr |last=Butenko |author-link=Aleksandr Butenko |script-title=ru:Социализм сегодня: опыт и новая теория |title=Sotsializm segodnya: opyt i novaya teoriya |trans-title=Socialism Today: Experience and New Theory |language=ru |magazine=Журнал Альтернативы |number=1 |date=1996 |pages=2–22}}</ref> It also contains aspects which according to some are deviations from Marxism such as [[socialism in one country]].<ref name="sioc1">{{cite journal |title=Comment on Wallerstein |first=Richard |last=Platkin |journal=[[Social Justice (journal)|Contemporary Marxism]] |volume=4–5 |publisher=[[Synthesis Publications]] |date=1981 |issue=4 |jstor=23008565 |page=151 |quote=[S]ocialism in one country, a pragmatic deviation from classical Marxism.}}</ref><ref name="sioc2">{{cite book |last=Erik |first=Cornell |title=North Korea Under Communism: Report of an Envoy to Paradise |date=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0700716975 |page=169 |quote=Socialism in one country, a slogan that aroused protests as not only it implied a major deviation from Marxist internationalism, but was also strictly speaking incompatible with the basic tenets of Marxism.}}</ref> Marxism–Leninism was the official ideology of 20th-century [[Communist parties]] (including [[Trotskyist]]), and was developed after the death of Lenin; its three principles were [[dialectical materialism]], the [[leading role of the Communist party]] through [[democratic centralism]], and a [[planned economy]] with [[industrialization]] and [[agricultural collectivization]]. ''Marxism–Leninism'' is misleading because Marx and Lenin never sanctioned or supported the creation of an ''-ism'' after them, and is revealing because, being popularized after Lenin's death by Stalin, it contained those three doctrinal and institutionalized principles that became a model for later Soviet-type regimes; its global influence, having at its height covered at least one-third of the world's population, has made ''Marxist–Leninist'' a convenient label for the [[Communist bloc]] as a dynamic ideological order.{{sfnm|1a1=Morgan|1y=2001|1pp=2332, 3355|2a1=Morgan|2a2=2015}}<ref group="lower-alpha">{{harvp|Morgan|2015|ps=: {{"'}}Marxism–Leninism' was the formal name of the official state ideology adopted by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), its satellite states in Eastern Europe, the Asian communist regimes, and various 'scientific socialist' regimes in the Third World during the Cold War. As such, the term is simultaneously misleading and revealing. It is misleading, since neither Marx nor Lenin ever sanctioned the creation of an eponymous 'ism'; indeed, the term Marxism–Leninism was formulated only in the period of Stalin's rise to power after Lenin's death. It is revealing, because the Stalinist institutionalization of Marxism–Leninism in the 1930s did contain three identifiable, dogmatic principles that became the explicit model for all later Soviet-type regimes: dialectical materialism as the only true proletarian basis for philosophy, the leading role of the communist party as the central principle of Marxist politics, and state-led planned industrialization and agricultural collectivization as the foundation of socialist economics. The global influence of these three doctrinal and institutional innovations makes the term Marxist–Leninist a convenient label for a distinct sort of ideological order—one which, at the height of its power and influence, dominated one-third of the world's population."}}</ref> During the Cold War, Marxism–Leninism was the ideology of the most clearly visible communist movement and is the most prominent ideology associated with communism.{{r|Columbia}}{{refn|According to their proponents, Marxist–Leninist ideologies have been adapted to the material conditions of their respective countries and include [[Castroism]] (Cuba), [[National communism in Romania|Ceaușism]] (Romania), [[Gonzalo Thought]] (Peru), [[Guevarism]] (Cuba), [[Ho Chi Minh Thought]] (Vietnam), [[Hoxhaism]] (anti-revisionist Albania), [[Husakism]] (Czechoslovakia), [[Juche]] (North Korea), [[Kadarism]] (Hungary), [[Khmer Rouge]] (Cambodia), [[Khrushchevism]] (Soviet Union), [[Prachanda Path]] (Nepal), [[Shining Path]] (Peru), and [[Titoism]] (anti-Stalinist Yugoslavia).{{sfn|Morgan|2015}}<ref group="lower-alpha">{{harvp|Morgan|2001|ps=: "As communist Parties emerged around the world, encouraged both by the success of the Soviet Party in establishing Russia's independence from foreign domination and by clandestine monetary subsidies from the Soviet comrades, they became identifiable by their adherence to a common political ideology known as Marxism–Leninism. Of course from the very beginning Marxism–Leninism existed in many variants. The conditions were themselves an effort to enforce a minimal degree of uniformity on diverse conceptions of communist identity. Adherence to the ideas of 'Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky' characterized the Trotskyists who soon broke off in a 'Fourth International'."}}</ref>|group=note}} [[Social fascism]] was a theory supported by the Comintern and affiliated [[Communist parties]] during the early 1930s, which held that [[social democracy]] was a variant of [[fascism]] because it stood in the way of a [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], in addition to a shared [[corporatist]] economic model.<ref name="Haro 2011">{{cite journal |last=Haro |first=Lea |year=2011 |title=Entering a Theoretical Void: The Theory of Social Fascism and Stalinism in the German Communist Party |journal=[[Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory]] |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=563–582 |doi=10.1080/03017605.2011.621248 |s2cid=146848013}}</ref> At the time, leaders of the Comintern, such as Stalin and [[Rajani Palme Dutt]], stated that [[capitalist]] society had entered the [[Third Period]] in which a [[proletariat revolution]] was imminent but could be prevented by social democrats and other ''fascist'' forces.{{r|Haro 2011}}<ref name="Hoppe 2011">{{cite book |last=Hoppe |first=Bert |year=2011 |title=In Stalins Gefolgschaft: Moskau und die KPD 1928–1933 |trans-title=In Stalin's Followers: Moscow and the KPD 1928–1933 |publisher=[[Oldenbourg Verlag]] |language=de |isbn=978-3-486-71173-8}}</ref> The term ''social fascist'' was used pejoratively to describe social-democratic parties, anti-Comintern and progressive socialist parties and dissenters within Comintern affiliates throughout the [[interwar period]]. The social fascism theory was advocated vociferously by the [[Communist Party of Germany]], which was largely controlled and funded by the Soviet leadership from 1928.{{r|Hoppe 2011}} Within Marxism–Leninism, [[anti-revisionism]] is a position which emerged in the 1950s in opposition to the reforms and [[Khrushchev Thaw]] of Soviet leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]]. Where Khrushchev pursued an interpretation that differed from Stalin, the anti-revisionists within the international communist movement remained dedicated to Stalin's ideological legacy and criticized the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and his successors as [[state capitalist]] and [[social imperialist]] due to its hopes of achieving peace with the United States. The term ''Stalinism'' is also used to describe these positions but is often not used by its supporters who opine that Stalin practiced [[orthodox Marxism]] and Leninism. Because different political trends trace the historical roots of revisionism to different eras and leaders, there is significant disagreement today as to what constitutes anti-revisionism. Modern groups which describe themselves as anti-revisionist fall into several categories. Some uphold the works of Stalin and Mao Zedong and some the works of Stalin while rejecting Mao and universally tend to oppose [[Trotskyism]]. Others reject both Stalin and Mao, tracing their ideological roots back to Marx and Lenin. In addition, other groups uphold various less-well-known historical leaders such as [[Enver Hoxha]], who also broke with Mao during the [[Sino-Albanian split]].{{r|Bland 1995}}{{r|Bland 1997}} ''Social imperialism'' was a term used by Mao to criticize the Soviet Union post-Stalin. Mao stated that the Soviet Union had itself become an [[imperialist]] power while maintaining a socialist ''façade''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mao |first=Zedong |author-link=Mao Zedong |year=1964 |url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/1964/phnycom.htm |title=On Khrushchev's Phoney Communism and Its Historical Lessons for the World |location=Beijing |publisher=[[Foreign Languages Press]] |access-date=1 August 2021 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref> Hoxha agreed with Mao in this analysis, before later using the expression to also condemn Mao's [[Three Worlds Theory]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-link=Enver Hoxha |year=1978 |chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/imp_rev/imp_ch4.htm |chapter=The Theory of 'Three Worlds': A Counterrevolutionary Chauvinist Theory |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/imp_rev/toc.htm |title=Imperialism and the Revolution |location=Tirana |publisher=Foreign Language Press |access-date=1 August 2021 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref> ===== Stalinism ===== {{main|Stalinism}} [[File:JStalin Secretary general CCCP 1942 flipped.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|1942 portrait of [[Joseph Stalin]], the longest-serving [[leader of the Soviet Union]]]] Stalinism represents Stalin's style of governance as opposed to Marxism–Leninism, the [[socioeconomic system]] and [[political ideology]] implemented by Stalin in the Soviet Union, and later adapted by other states based on the [[ideological Soviet model]], such as [[central planning]], [[nationalization]], and one-party state, along with [[public ownership]] of the [[means of production]], accelerated [[industrialization]], pro-active development of society's [[productive forces]] (research and development), and nationalized [[natural resources]]. Marxism–Leninism remained after [[de-Stalinization]] whereas Stalinism did not. In the last letters before his death, Lenin warned against the danger of Stalin's personality and urged the Soviet government to replace him.{{r|Ermak 2019}} Until the [[death of Joseph Stalin]] in 1953, the Soviet Communist party referred to its own ideology as ''Marxism–Leninism–Stalinism''.{{sfn|Morgan|2001|p=2332}} Marxism–Leninism has been criticized by other communist and Marxist tendencies, which state that Marxist–Leninist states did not establish socialism but rather [[state capitalism]].{{r|Chomsky, Howard, Fitzgibbons}}{{r|The Soviet Union Has an Administered, Not a Planned, Economy, 1985}}{{r|Ellman 2007}} According to Marxism, the dictatorship of the proletariat represents the rule of the majority (democracy) rather than of one party, to the extent that the co-founder of Marxism, [[Friedrich Engels]], described its "specific form" as the [[Republicanism|democratic republic]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Friedrich |last=Engels |author-link=Friedrich Engels |chapter=A Critique of the Draft Social-Democratic Program of 1891 |title=[[Marx/Engels Collected Works]] |volume=27 |page=217 |quote=If one thing is certain it is that our party and the working class can only come to power under the form of a democratic republic. This is even the specific form for the dictatorship of the proletariat.}}</ref> According to Engels, state property by itself is private property of capitalist nature,<ref name=":0" group="lower-alpha"/> unless the proletariat has control of political power, in which case it forms public property.<ref group="lower-alpha">{{harvp|Engels|1970}}: "The proletariat seizes the public power, and by means of this transforms the socialized means of production, slipping from the hands of the bourgeoisie, into public property. By this act, the proletariat frees the means of production from the character of capital they have thus far borne, and gives their socialized character complete freedom to work itself out."</ref> Whether the proletariat was actually in control of the Marxist–Leninist states is a matter of debate between Marxism–Leninism and other communist tendencies. To these tendencies, Marxism–Leninism is neither Marxism nor Leninism nor the union of both but rather an artificial term created to justify Stalin's ideological distortion,<ref name="stalin_distortion">{{cite book |title=History for the IB Diploma: Communism in Crisis 1976–89 |first=Allan |last=Todd |page=16 |quote=The term Marxism–Leninism, invented by Stalin, was not used until after Lenin's death in 1924. It soon came to be used in Stalin's Soviet Union to refer to what he described as 'orthodox Marxism'. This increasingly came to mean what Stalin himself had to say about political and economic issues. ... However, many Marxists (even members of the Communist Party itself) believed that Stalin's ideas and practices (such as socialism in one country and the purges) were almost total distortions of what Marx and Lenin had said.}}</ref> forced into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Comintern. In the Soviet Union, this struggle against Marxism–Leninism was represented by [[Trotskyism]], which describes itself as a Marxist and Leninist tendency.{{sfn|Morgan|2001}} ===== Trotskyism ===== {{main|Trotskyism}} [[File:Mexico - Bellas Artes - Fresque Riviera « Man at the Crossroads ».JPG|thumb|Detail of ''Man, Controller of the Universe'', fresco at [[Palacio de Bellas Artes]] in Mexico City showing [[Leon Trotsky]], [[Friedrich Engels]], and [[Karl Marx]]]] Trotskyism, developed by [[Leon Trotsky]] in opposition to [[Stalinism]],{{sfn|Patenaude|2017|p=199}} is a Marxist and Leninist tendency that supports the theory of [[permanent revolution]] and [[world revolution]] rather than the [[two-stage theory]] and Stalin's [[socialism in one country]]. It supported another communist revolution in the [[Soviet Union]] and [[proletarian internationalism]].{{sfn|Patenaude|2017|p=193}} Rather than representing the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], Trotsky claimed that the Soviet Union had become a [[degenerated workers' state]] under the leadership of Stalin in which class relations had re-emerged in a new form. Trotsky's politics differed sharply from those of Stalin and Mao, most importantly in declaring the need for an international proletarian revolution—rather than socialism in one country—and support for a true dictatorship of the proletariat based on democratic principles. Struggling against Stalin for power in the Soviet Union, Trotsky and his supporters organized into the [[Left Opposition]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |author1-link=Robert Vincent Daniels |title=A Documentary History of Communism in Russia |date=1993 |publisher=[[University of Vermont Press]] |location=Burlington, Vermont |isbn=978-0-87451-616-6 |pages=125–129, 158–159 |edition=3rd}}</ref> the platform of which became known as Trotskyism.{{sfn|Patenaude|2017|p=199}} In particular, Trotsky advocated for a [[decentralization|decentralised]] form of [[economic planning]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Twiss |first1=Thomas M. |title=Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy |date=8 May 2014 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-26953-8 |pages=105–106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o2fAwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+decentralized+planning&pg=PA106 |language=en}}</ref> mass soviet [[democratization]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Van Ree |first1=Erik |title=Socialism in One Country: A Reassessment |journal=Studies in East European Thought |date=1998 |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=77–117 |doi=10.1023/A:1008651325136 |jstor=20099669 |s2cid=146375012 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20099669 |issn=0925-9392}}</ref> elected representation of Soviet [[List of political parties in the Soviet Union|socialist parties]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=293 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGznDwAAQBAJ&q=isaac+deutscher+trotsky+the+prophet |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and where is it Going? |date=1991 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-0-929087-48-1 |page=218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hiCYS9Z3lDoC |language=en}}</ref> the tactic of a [[united front]] against far-right parties,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ticktin |first1=Hillel |title=Trotsky's political economy of capitalism. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=227}}</ref> [[cultural]] autonomy for artistic movements, <ref>{{cite book |last1=Eagleton |first1=Terry |title=Marxism and Literary Criticism |date=7 March 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-94783-6 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h7k8t09BbIQC&q=trotsky+literature+and+revolution+socialist+realism |language=en}}</ref> voluntary [[collectivisation]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beilharz |first1=Peter |title=Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism |date=19 November 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-70651-2 |pages=1–206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lfe-DwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+widely+acknowledged+collectivisation&pg=PT196 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Joshua |title=Leon Trotsky : a revolutionary's life |date=2011 |publisher=New Haven : Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13724-8 |page=161 |url=https://archive.org/details/leontrotskyrevol0000rube/page/160/mode/2up?q=forced+collectivization}}</ref> a [[The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International|transitional program]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Löwy |first1=Michael |title=The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx |date=2005 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-931859-19-6 |page=191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSrvmQeZyhoC&dq=trotsky+transitional+program&pg=PA191 |language=en}}</ref> and socialist [[proletarian internationalism|internationalism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cox |first1=Michael |title=Trotsky and His Interpreters; or, Will the Real Leon Trotsky Please Stand up? |journal=The Russian Review |date=1992 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=84–102 |doi=10.2307/131248 |jstor=131248 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/131248}}</ref> Trotsky had the support of many party [[intellectuals]] but this was overshadowed by the huge apparatus which included the GPU and the party cadres who were at the disposal of Stalin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Volkogonov |first1=Dmitri |title=Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary |date=June 2008 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers Limited |isbn=978-0-00-729166-3 |page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BNwaOW1VgEC |language=en}}</ref> Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining control of the Soviet regime and Trotskyist attempts to remove Stalin from power resulted in Trotsky's exile from the Soviet Union in 1929. While in exile, Trotsky continued his campaign against Stalin, founding in 1938 the [[Fourth International]], a Trotskyist rival to the Comintern.<ref name="transitional">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm |title=The Transitional Program |first=Leon |last=Trotsky |author-link=Leon Trotsky |date=May–June 1938 |magazine=Bulletin of the Opposition |access-date=5 November 2008}}</ref>{{sfn|Patenaude|2017|pp=189, 194}}{{sfn|Johnson|Walker|Gray|2014|loc=Fourth International (FI)|p=155}} In August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in [[Mexico City]] on Stalin's orders. Trotskyist currents include [[orthodox Trotskyism]], [[third camp]], [[Posadism]], and [[Pabloism]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.bolshevik.org/history/pabloism/Trpab-4.htm |title=A Letter to Trotskyists Throughout the World |date=16 November 1953 |magazine=[[The Militant]] |author-link=Socialist Workers Party (UK) |author=National Committee of the SWP}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.peacelandbread.com/post/on-the-problem-of-trotskyism |title=On the Problem of Trotskyism |first=Jeff |last=Korolev |date=27 September 2021 |journal=Peace, Land, and Bread |access-date=11 February 2022 |archive-date=11 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211163239/https://www.peacelandbread.com/post/on-the-problem-of-trotskyism |url-status=dead }}</ref> The economic platform of a [[planned economy]] combined with an authentic [[socialist democracy|worker's democracy]] as originally advocated by Trotsky has constituted the programme of the Fourth International and the modern Trotskyist movement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weber |first1=Wolfgang |title=Solidarity in Poland, 1980-1981 and the Perspective of Political Revolution |date=1989 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-0-929087-30-6 |page=ix |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FCyCDv9QswC&dq=trotskyists+planned+economy+workers+democracy+programme&pg=PR9 |language=en}}</ref> ===== Maoism ===== {{main|Maoism|Marxism–Leninism–Maoism}} [[File:Mao Statue at Zhong Shan Guang Chang.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Long Live the Victory of Mao Zedong Thought]] monument in Shenyang]]Maoism is the theory derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader [[Mao Zedong]]. Developed from the 1950s until the [[Deng Xiaoping]] [[Chinese economic reform]] in the 1970s, it was widely applied as the guiding political and military ideology of the Communist Party of China and as the theory guiding [[revolutionary movement]]s around the world. A key difference between Maoism and other forms of Marxism–Leninism is that [[peasant]]s should be the bulwark of the revolutionary energy which is led by the working class.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Meisner |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Meisner |date=January–March 1971 |title=Leninism and Maoism: Some Populist Perspectives on Marxism-Leninism in China |journal=[[The China Quarterly]] |volume=45 |issue=45 |pages=2–36 |doi=10.1017/S0305741000010407 |jstor=651881 |s2cid=154407265}}</ref> Three common Maoist values are revolutionary [[populism]], being practical, and [[dialectic]]s.{{sfn|Wormack|2001}} The synthesis of Marxism–Leninism–Maoism,<ref group="lower-alpha">{{harvp|Morgan|2001|p=2332|ps=: {{"'}}Marxism–Leninism–Maoism' became the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and of the splinter parties that broke off from national communist parties after the Chinese definitively split with the Soviets in 1963. Italian communists continued to be influenced by the ideas of Antonio Gramsci, whose independent conception of the reasons why the working class in industrial countries remained politically quiescent bore far more democratic implications than Lenin's own explanation of worker passivity. Until Stalin's death, the Soviet Party referred to its own ideology as 'Marxism–Leninism–Stalinism'."}}</ref> which builds upon the two individual theories as the Chinese adaption of Marxism–Leninism, did not occur during the life of Mao. After [[de-Stalinization]], Marxism–Leninism was kept in the [[Soviet Union]], while certain [[anti-revisionist]] tendencies like [[Hoxhaism]] and Maoism stated that such had deviated from its original concept. Different policies were applied in Albania and China, which became more distanced from the Soviet Union. From the 1960s, groups who called themselves ''Maoists'', or those who upheld Maoism, were not unified around a common understanding of Maoism, instead having their own particular interpretations of the political, philosophical, economical, and military works of Mao. Its adherents claim that as a unified, coherent higher stage of Marxism, it was not consolidated until the 1980s, first being formalized by the [[Shining Path]] in 1982.<ref name="On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism">{{cite web |date=1982 |title=On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism |url=http://library.redspark.nu/1982_-_Maoism._On_Marxism-Leninism-Maoism |access-date=20 January 2020 |website=MLM Library |publisher=[[Communist Party of Peru]] |archive-date=28 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728184142/http://library.redspark.nu/1982_-_Maoism._On_Marxism-Leninism-Maoism}}</ref> Through the experience of the [[people's war]] waged by the party, the Shining Path were able to posit Maoism as the newest development of Marxism.{{r|On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism}} ==== Eurocommunism ==== {{main|Eurocommunism}} [[File:Enrico Berlinguer.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Enrico Berlinguer]], the secretary of the [[Italian Communist Party]] and main proponent of Eurocommunism]]Eurocommunism was a [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist]] trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties, claiming to develop a theory and practice of [[social transformation]] more relevant to their region. Especially prominent within the [[French Communist Party]], [[Italian Communist Party]], and [[Communist Party of Spain]], Communists of this nature sought to undermine the influence of the [[Soviet Union]] and its [[All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]] during the [[Cold War]].{{r|Kindersley}} Eurocommunists tended to have a larger attachment to liberty and democracy than their Marxist–Leninist counterparts.<ref>{{cite news |last=Escalona |first=Fabien |date=29 December 2020 |title=Le PCF et l'eurocommunisme: l'ultime rendez-vous manqué? |trans-title=The French Communist Party and Eurocommunism: The greatest missed opportunity? |url=https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-idees/291220/le-pcf-et-l-eurocommunisme-l-ultime-rendez-vous-manque |language=fr |work=Mediapart |access-date=9 February 2023}}</ref> [[Enrico Berlinguer]], general secretary of Italy's major Communist party, was widely considered the father of Eurocommunism.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/eurocomunismo_%28Dizionario-di-Storia%29/ |title=Eurocomunismo |date=2010 |encyclopedia=Enciclopedia Treccani |language=it |access-date=22 September 2021}}</ref> === Libertarian Marxist communism === {{main|Libertarian Marxism}} Libertarian Marxism is a broad range of economic and political philosophies that emphasize the [[anti-authoritarian]] aspects of [[Marxism]]. Early currents of libertarian Marxism, known as [[left communism]],<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Pierce |first=Wayne |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/wayne-price-libertarian-marxism-s-relation-to-anarchism |title=Libertarian Marxism's Relation to Anarchism |pages=73–80 |magazine=The Utopian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525073948/http://www.utopianmag.com/files/in/1000000034/12___WayneLibMarx.pdf |archive-date=25 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> emerged in opposition to [[Marxism–Leninism]]<ref name="Gorter et al. 2007">{{cite book |title=Non-Leninist Marxism: Writings on the Workers Councils |date=2007 |publisher=Red and Black Publishers |isbn=978-0-9791813-6-8 |location=St. Petersburg, Florida |first1=Hermann |last1=Gorter |author1-link=Herman Gorter |first2=Antonie |last2=Pannekoek |author2-link=Antonie Pannekoek |first3=Sylvia |last3=Pankhurst |author3-link=Sylvia Pankhurst |first4=Otto |last4=Rühle |author4-link=Otto Rühle}}</ref> and its derivatives such as [[Stalinism]] and [[Maoism]], as well as [[Trotskyism]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Marot |first=Eric |date=2006 |url=http://libcom.org/library/trotsky-left-opposition-rise-stalinism-theory-practice-john-eric-marot |title=Trotsky, the Left Opposition and the Rise of Stalinism: Theory and Practice |access-date=31 August 2021}}</ref> Libertarian Marxism is also critical of [[reformist]] positions such as those held by [[social democrats]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://libcom.org/library/social-democracy-1-aufheben-8 |title=The Retreat of Social Democracy ... Re-imposition of Work in Britain and the 'Social Europe' |magazine=[[Aufheben]] |volume=8 |date=Autumn 1999 |access-date=31 August 2021}}</ref> Libertarian Marxist currents often draw from Marx and Engels' later works, specifically the ''[[Grundrisse]]'' and ''[[The Civil War in France]]'',<ref>{{cite book |first=Ernesto |last=Screpanti |author-link=Ernesto Screpanti |title=Libertarian communism: Marx Engels and the Political Economy of Freedom |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |location=London |date=2007 |isbn=978-0230018969}}</ref> emphasizing the Marxist belief in the ability of the [[working class]] to forge its own destiny without the need for a revolutionary party or [[State (polity)|state]] to mediate or aid its liberation.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Hal |last=Draper |author-link=Hal Draper |title=The Principle of Self-Emancipation in Marx and Engels |journal=[[Socialist Register]] |volume=8 |issue=8 |url=http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5333 |date=1971 |access-date=25 April 2015}}</ref> Along with [[anarchism]], libertarian Marxism is one of the main derivatives of [[libertarian socialism]].<ref>{{citation |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |author-link=Noam Chomsky |url=http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo/19700216.mp3 |title=Government In The Future |publisher=Poetry Center of the New York YM-YWHA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116194522/http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo/19700216.mp3 |archive-date=16 January 2013 |type=Lecture}}</ref> Aside from left communism, libertarian Marxism includes such currents as [[autonomism]], [[communization]], [[council communism]], [[De Leonism]], the [[Johnson–Forest Tendency]], [[Lettrism]], [[Luxemburgism]] [[Situationism]], [[Socialisme ou Barbarie]], [[Solidarity (UK)|Solidarity]], the [[World Socialist Movement]], and [[workerism]], as well as parts of [[Freudo-Marxism]], and the [[New Left]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://libcom.org/library/libertarian-marxist-tendency-map |title=A libertarian Marxist tendency map |publisher=libcom.org |access-date=1 October 2011}}</ref> Moreover, libertarian Marxism has often had a strong influence on both [[Post-left anarchy|post-left]] and [[Social anarchism|social anarchists]]. Notable theorists of libertarian Marxism have included [[Antonie Pannekoek]], [[Raya Dunayevskaya]], [[Cornelius Castoriadis]], [[Maurice Brinton]], [[Daniel Guérin]], and [[Yanis Varoufakis]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ted.com/speakers/yanis_varoufakis |title=Yanis Varoufakis thinks we need a radically new way of thinking about the economy, finance and capitalism |last=Varoufakis |first=Yanis |author-link=Yanis Varoufakis |publisher=[[TED (conference)|TED]] |access-date=14 April 2019 |quote=Yanis Varoufakis describes himself as a "libertarian Marxist}}</ref> the latter of whom claims that Marx himself was a libertarian Marxist.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/yanis-varoufakis-we-leftists-are-not-necessarily-pro-public-sector-marx-was-anti-state-1-7861928 |title=Yanis Varoufakis: We leftists are not necessarily pro public sector – Marx was anti state |last=Lowry |first=Ben |work=The News Letter |date=11 March 2017 |access-date=14 April 2019}}</ref> ==== Council communism ==== {{main|Council communism}} [[File:Rosa Luxemburg.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|[[Rosa Luxemburg]]]] Council communism is a movement that originated from Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s,{{sfn|Johnson|Walker|Gray|2014|loc=Pannekoek, Antonie (1873–1960)|pp=313–314}} whose primary organization was the [[Communist Workers Party of Germany]]. It continues today as a theoretical and activist position within both [[libertarian Marxism]] and [[libertarian socialism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=van der Linden |first=Marcel |author-link=Marcel van der Linden |year=2004 |title=On Council Communism |journal=Historical Materialism |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=27–50 |doi=10.1163/1569206043505275 |s2cid=143169141}}</ref> The core principle of council communism is that the government and the economy should be managed by [[workers' council]]s, which are composed of [[Delegate model of representation|delegates]] elected at workplaces and [[Recall election|recallable]] at any moment. Council communists oppose the perceived authoritarian and undemocratic nature of [[central planning]] and of [[state socialism]], labelled [[state capitalism]], and the idea of a revolutionary party,<ref name="The New Blanquism">{{cite magazine |title=The New Blanquism |first=Antonie |last=Pannekoek |author-link=Antonie Pannekoek |magazine=Der Kommunist |location=Bremen |number=27 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/1920/blanquism.htm |date=1920 |access-date=31 July 2020 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Anarchism and Council Communism on the Russian Revolution |first=Christos |last=Memos |journal=[[Anarchist Studies]] |volume=20 |issue=2 |url=https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/anarchist-studies/20-2/anarchism-and-council-communism-russian-revolution |pages=22–47 |date=Autumn–Winter 2012 |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart Ltd. |access-date=27 May 2022 |archive-date=29 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129181048/https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/anarchist-studies/20-2/anarchism-and-council-communism-russian-revolution}}</ref> since council communists believe that a revolution led by a party would necessarily produce a [[party dictatorship]]. Council communists support a workers' democracy, produced through a federation of workers' councils. In contrast to those of [[social democracy]] and [[Leninist]] communism, the central argument of council communism is that democratic workers' councils arising in the factories and municipalities are the natural forms of working-class organizations and governmental power.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gerber |first=John |author-link=John Paul Gerber |title=Anton Pannekoek and the Socialism of Workers' Self-Emancipation, 1873-1960 |year=1989 |publisher=Kluwer |location=Dordrecht |isbn=978-0792302742}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Shipway |first=Mark |chapter=Council Communism |pages=104–126 |editor-first1=Maximilien |editor-last1=Rubel |editor-link1=Maximilien Rubel |editor-first2=John |editor-last2=Crump |title=Non-Market Socialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |year=1987 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York}}</ref> This view is opposed to both the [[reformist]]<ref name="Socialism and Labor Unionism">{{cite magazine|title=Socialism and Labor Unionism |first=Anton |last=Pannekoek |author-link=Anton Pannekoek |magazine=The New Review |volume=1 |number=18 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/1913/07/socialism-labor-unionism.htm |date=July 1913 |access-date=31 July 2020 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref> and the Leninist communist ideologies,{{r|The New Blanquism}} which respectively stress parliamentary and [[New institutionalism|institutional]] government by applying [[Reform movement|social reforms]] on the one hand, and [[vanguard parties]] and [[Participatory democracy|participative]] [[democratic centralism]] on the other.{{r|Socialism and Labor Unionism}}{{r|The New Blanquism}} ==== Left communism ==== {{main|Left communism}} Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the communist left, which criticizes the political ideas and practices espoused, particularly following the series of revolutions that brought [[World War I]] to an end by [[Bolsheviks]] and [[social democrats]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Communist Left in the Third International |first=Amadeo |last=Bordiga |author-link=Amadeo Bordiga |date=1926 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1926/comintern.htm |access-date=23 September 2021 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> Left communists assert positions which they regard as more authentically [[Marxist]] and [[proletarian]] than the views of [[Marxism–Leninism]] espoused by the [[Communist International]] after its [[1st Congress of the Comintern|first congress]] (March 1919) and during its [[2nd World Congress of the Comintern|second congress]] (July–August 1920).{{r|Gorter et al. 2007}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bordiga |first1=Amadeo |author-link=Amadeo Bordiga |title=Dialogue with Stalin |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1952/stalin.htm |publisher=Marxists Internet Archive |access-date=15 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Ronald I. |last=Kowalski |title=The Bolshevik Party in Conflict: The Left Communist Opposition of 1918 |publisher=[[Palgrave MacMillan]] |location=Basingstoke, England |date=1991 |isbn=978-1-349-10369-0 |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-10367-6 |page=2}}</ref> Left communists represent a range of political movements distinct from [[Marxist–Leninists]], whom they largely view as merely the left-wing of [[Capital (economics)|capital]], from [[anarcho-communists]], some of whom they consider to be [[internationalist socialists]], and from various other revolutionary socialist tendencies, such as [[De Leonists]], whom they tend to see as being internationalist socialists only in limited instances.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://en.internationalism.org/book/export/html/761 |title=The Legacy of De Leonism, part III: De Leon's misconceptions on class struggle |date=2000–2001 |website=Internationalism}}</ref> [[Bordigism]] is a Leninist left-communist current named after [[Amadeo Bordiga]], who has been described as being "more Leninist than Lenin", and considered himself to be a Leninist.<ref>{{cite book |last=Piccone |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Piccone |date=1983 |title=Italian Marxism |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=134 |isbn=978-0-520-04798-3}}</ref> === Other types of communism === ==== Anarcho-communism ==== {{main|Anarcho-communism}} [[File:Kropotkin2.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|[[Peter Kropotkin]], main theorist of [[anarcho-communism]]]] Anarcho-communism is a [[libertarian]] theory of [[anarchism]] and communism which advocates the abolition of the [[State (polity)|state]], [[private property]], and [[capitalism]] in favor of [[common ownership]] of the [[means of production]];<ref name="Mayne">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MkTz6Rq7wUC&pg=PA131 |title=From Politics Past to Politics Future: An Integrated Analysis of Current and Emergent Paradigms |first=Alan James |last=Mayne |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |page=316 |isbn=978-0-275-96151-0 |year=1999 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Anarchism for Know-It-Alls |publisher=Filiquarian Publishing |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59986-218-7}}</ref> [[direct democracy]]; and a [[Horizontal integration|horizontal network]] of [[voluntary association]]s and [[workers' council]]s with production and consumption based on the guiding principle, "[[From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs|From each according to his ability, to each according to his need]]".<ref>{{cite web |last=Fabbri |first=Luigi |author-link=Luigi Fabbri |title=Anarchism and Communism. Northeastern Anarchist No. 4. 1922 |date=13 October 2002 |url=http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/worldwidemovements/fabbrianarandcom.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629024338/http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/worldwidemovements/fabbrianarandcom.html |archive-date=29 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |website=The Nestor Makhno Archive |title=Constructive Section |url=http://www.nestormakhno.info/english/platform/constructive.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721225357/http://www.nestormakhno.info/english/platform/constructive.htm |archive-date=21 July 2011}}</ref> Anarcho-communism differs from Marxism in that it rejects its view about the need for a [[state socialism]] phase prior to establishing communism. [[Peter Kropotkin]], the main theorist of anarcho-communism, stated that a revolutionary society should "transform itself immediately into a communist society", that it should go immediately into what Marx had regarded as the "more advanced, completed, phase of communism".<ref name="theanarchistlibrary.org">{{cite book |url=http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Wayne_Price__What_is_Anarchist_Communism_.html |title=What is Anarchist Communism? |first=Wayne |last=Price |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221140615/http://theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Wayne_Price__What_is_Anarchist_Communism_.html |archive-date=21 December 2010 |access-date=19 January 2011}}</ref> In this way, it tries to avoid the reappearance of class divisions and the need for a state to be in control.{{r|theanarchistlibrary.org}} Some forms of anarcho-communism, such as [[insurrectionary anarchism]], are [[Egoist anarchism|egoist]] and strongly influenced by radical [[individualism]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gray |first1=Christopher |title=Leaving the 20th century: the incomplete work of the Situationist International |date=1998 |location=London |isbn=9780946061150 |pages=88 |publisher=Rebel Press }}</ref><ref name="creativenothing">{{cite book |url=http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Renzo_Novatore__Toward_the_Creative_Nothing.html |title=Towards the creative Nothing |first=Renzo |last=Novatore |author-link=Renzo Novatore |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728093004/http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Renzo_Novatore__Toward_the_Creative_Nothing.html |archive-date=28 July 2011}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |url=http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Bob_Black__Nightmares_of_Reason.html#toc22 |title=Bob Black. ''Nightmares of Reason'' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027102331/http://theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Bob_Black__Nightmares_of_Reason.html#toc22 |archive-date=27 October 2010 |access-date=1 November 2010}}</ref> believing that anarchist communism does not require a [[communitarian]] nature at all. Most anarcho-communists view anarchist communism as a way of reconciling the opposition between the individual and society.<ref group="lower-alpha">{{cite web |last=Kropotkin |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Kropotkin |date=1901 |title=Communism and Anarchy |url=http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Petr_Kropotkin__Communism_and_Anarchy.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728092851/http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Petr_Kropotkin__Communism_and_Anarchy.html |archive-date=28 July 2011 |quote=Communism is the one which guarantees the greatest amount of individual liberty—provided that the idea that begets the community be Liberty, Anarchy ... Communism guarantees economic freedom better than any other form of association, because it can guarantee wellbeing, even luxury, in return for a few hours of work instead of a day's work.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Dielo Truda (Workers' Cause) |author-link=Delo Truda |url=http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Dielo_Truda__Workers__Cause___Organisational_Platform_of_the_Libertarian_Communists.html |title=Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists |date=1926 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728092719/http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Dielo_Truda__Workers__Cause___Organisational_Platform_of_the_Libertarian_Communists.html |archive-date=28 July 2011 |quote=This other society will be libertarian communism, in which social solidarity and free individuality find their full expression, and in which these two ideas develop in perfect harmony.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=MY PERSPECTIVES – Willful Disobedience Vol. 2, No. 12 |url=http://www.reocities.com/kk_abacus/vb/wd12persp.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716084332/http://www.reocities.com/kk_abacus/vb/wd12persp.html |archive-date=16 July 2011 |quote=I see the dichotomies made between individualism and communism, individual revolt and class struggle, the struggle against human exploitation and the exploitation of nature as false dichotomies and feel that those who accept them are impoverishing their own critique and struggle.}}</ref> ==== Christian communism ==== {{main|Christian communism}} Christian communism is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus Christ]] compel [[Christians]] to support [[religious communism]] as the ideal [[social system]].{{sfn|Lansford|2007|pp=24–25}} Although there is no universal agreement on the exact dates when communistic ideas and practices in Christianity began, many Christian communists state that evidence from the [[Bible]] suggests that the first Christians, including the [[Apostles in the New Testament]], established their own small communist society in the years following Jesus' death and resurrection.<ref>{{cite web |last=Montero |first=Roman |date=30 July 2019 |title=The Sources of Early Christian Communism |url=https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-sources-of-early-christian-communism/ |access-date=26 March 2021 |website=Church Life Journal}}</ref> Many advocates of Christian communism state that it was taught by Jesus and practiced by the apostles themselves,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kautsky |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Kautsky |title=Foundations of Christianity |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1908/christ/index.htm |date=1953 |orig-date=1908 |publisher=[[Atheneum Books|Russell & Russell]] |chapter=IV.II. The Christian Idea of the Messiah. Jesus as a Rebel. |chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1908/christ/ch10.htm#s3 |quotation=Christianity was the expression of [[class conflict]] in Antiquity. |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref> an argument that historians and others, including anthropologist Roman A. Montero,<ref>{{cite book |last=Montero |first=Roman A. |title=All Things in Common The Economic Practices of the Early Christians |date=2017 |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock Publishers]] |isbn=9781532607912 |location=Eugene |page=5|oclc=994706026}}</ref> scholars like [[Ernest Renan]],<ref>{{cite book |first=Ernest |last=Renan |page=122 |title=Origins of Christianity |publisher=Carleton |location=New York |year=1869 |chapter=VIII. First Persecution. Death of Stephen. Destruction of the First Church of Jerusalem |volume=II. The Apostles |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knYRAAAAYAAJ&q=christian+communism&pg=PA152 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Roland |last=Boer |page=120 |title=Political Grace. The Revolutionary Theology of John Calvin |chapter=Conclusion: What If? Calvin and the Spirit of Revolution. Bible |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-664-23393-8 |location=Louisville, Kentucky |publisher=[[Westminster John Knox Press]] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIeLYNEq6zsC&q=christian+communism&pg=PA120 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> and theologians like [[Charles Ellicott]] and [[Donald Guthrie (theologian)|Donald Guthrie]],<ref>{{cite book |first1=Charles John |last1=Ellicott |author1-link=Charles Ellicott |first2=Edward Hayes |last2=Plumptre |author2-link=Edward Plumptre |chapter=III. The Church in Jerusalem. I. Christian Communism |title=The Acts of the Apostles |year=1910 |location=London |publisher=[[Cassell (publisher)|Cassell]] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Htk8AAAAIAAJ&q=christian+communism&pg=PA11 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Donald |last=Guthrie |author-link=Donald Guthrie (theologian) |orig-date=1975 |year=1992 |publisher=[[Zondervan]] |isbn=978-0-310-25421-8 |title=The Apostles |page=[https://archive.org/details/apostles0010guth/page/46 46] |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |chapter=3. Early Problems. 15. Early Christian Communism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uts4VTUm1iEC&q=christian+communism&pg=PA46 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> generally agree with.{{sfn|Lansford|2007|pp=24–25}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Frank K. |last=Flinn |title=Encyclopedia of Catholicism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxEONS0FFlsC&pg=PA173 |year=2007 |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-8160-7565-2 |pages=173–174}}</ref> Christian communism enjoys some support in Russia. Russian musician [[Yegor Letov]] was an outspoken Christian communist, and in a 1995 interview he was quoted as saying: "Communism is the [[Kingdom of God]] on Earth."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Agranovsky |first=Dmitry |date=12 July 1995 |url=http://grob-hroniki.org/article/1995/art_1995-12-07a.html |title=Yegor Letov: Russkiy Proryv |script-title=ru:Егор Летов: Русский Прорыв |trans-title=Egor Letov: Russian Breakthrough |magazine=Sovetskaya Rossiya |language=ru |issue=145 |access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page