Matt McDonald Prof.

Presnell English 1102 29 March 2014 Communism Falls in the USSR When most Americans think of the word Communism, it generally has a negative connotation. This word makes many think of countries like China, North Korea, and Cuba who operate a Communist form of government and are sort of looked at as the black sheep of todays industrialized countries. I happened to know that Russia was formerly a Communist country known as the USSR, however I didnt know anything about the history of the USSR or why it fell. Russia is a world power with a lot of political and economic influence and it is also a huge landmass with a large population. The idea that a country of this size could have a system of government that could completely fail fascinated me. I became curious as to how exactly Communism works and what were the specific reasons for its failure in the USSR. How Communism Works and Differs from Democracy A basic Google search gave me all the information I needed about these two political systems from two articles both on the Encyclopedia Britannica website. The Communism article detailed the history of Communism, which was formally founded by Karl Marx in the 19th century but was mentioned as early as the 4th century by the philosopher, Plato, and also described in the Bible. Marx argued that the bourgeoisie or owners of factories build wealth while exploiting the proletariat working class who become increasingly poorer. To avoid this problem a basic ideology of Communism is to replace private property and profit-based economies with public ownership and communal control of the means of production and natural

resources of the society. This is a form of socialism where individuals cooperate with one another instead of living or working in isolation. Society owns and controls property for the benefit of all its members. This form of government often follows an authoritarian style dictatorship where one ruler and political party stays in power and political dissent is looked down upon and many times harshly punished. The United States as well as most of the industrialized nations in the world operate some form of democracy as their political system. This government is very different from communism and often times they have conflicting views. This can be seen through the many wars that the United States has been involved in to stop the spread of Communism from one country to another including the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Cold War. The Encyclopedia Britannica article on Democracy helped get me on par with exactly what the beliefs of Democracy are and a brief history on where it came from. Democracy first appeared in some Greek city-states such as Athens in the 5th Century and the word democracy in Greek meant rule by the people. It was briefly used here and a few other places and then largely forgotten about. For many years a lot of countries especially European countries were ruled by kings and queens through monarchies and oligarchies. There are dozens of examples throughout history of those in power becoming selfish and using their political position for their own gains. This is especially true involving monarchies and oligarchies because full political and decision making power rests in the hands of one or just a few. When this corruption started coming to light this is when a lot of countries started to adopt forms of democracy. Democracy was chosen because with rule by the people that means all the people have input in their government not just a chosen few. There are four basic points of democracy. The first is that there is a system for choosing and replacing members of the government through free and fair elections. People are also allowed to choose their own

political beliefs and support the candidates of their choice. This is much different from Communism because you dont get any choices when there is one political party and dissent is not allowed. Democracy also features the population to take an active role in politics as citizens and protects the basic human rights of all its citizens. Laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens. Many countries that operate democracies also use a free market economic system. In this system businesses are privately owned and the competition between them is what determines the prices of goods. From this brief search I found many differences between Communism and Democracy. The main difference that I discovered was that in all natural resources and means of production are owned publicly by society and benefits all members. Free market economies that go along with Democracy is much different in that everyone is on their own and free to own their own private businesses and build up wealth if they have the means to do so. Another huge difference is the way that elections are conducted in both types of government. With a Democracy you are free to vote for whoever you endorse and whatever political party they represent. However with Communism you must support those already in power because there is no other choice and often harsh consequences for not doing so.
How Communism Came to be in the USSR After learning what Communism consisted of I began to wonder why this system was adopted in the USSR at a time when many other countries were moving toward Democracy.

Why this Political System Failed

In Conclusion

Works Cited Dagger, Richard. "Communism (ideology)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

Dahl, Robert A. "Democracy." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. "Dissolution of the USSR and the Establishment of Independent Republics, 1991."Dissolution of the USSR and the Establishment of Independent Republics, 1991. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. "Fall of the Soviet Union." Cold War Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

Watson, William E. The Collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1998. Internet resource.