What is communism?

1. 1848Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto
2. 1917The Russian Revolution brings Lenin’s Bolsheviks to power
3. 1922The Soviet Union (USSR) is founded
4. 1949Mao Zedong’s Communist Party takes control of China
5. 1959The Cuban Revolution
6. 1989–1991Communist governments fall across Eastern Europe; the USSR dissolves in 1991

The theory

Marx argued that history is driven by conflict between social classes. Under capitalism, he said, factory owners (the bourgeoisie) profit from the labor of workers (the proletariat). He predicted workers would take control, pass through a socialist stage, and eventually reach communism: a society with no classes, no private ownership of production and, ultimately, no need for a state.

Communism in practice

In the 20th century, parties calling themselves communist ruled countries home to about a third of the world’s population. These states generally had:

• One-party rule by a communist party
• Central planning, with the state setting production targets
• State ownership of industry and farmland
• Limits on political freedom, the press and religion

Today, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and North Korea are governed by communist parties, though China and Vietnam now have large private sectors and market economies.

Communism vs socialism

The terms overlap, and people use them differently. In Marxist theory, socialism is the stage before communism. In everyday use, socialism usually covers a wider range of ideas, including democratic forms, while communism usually refers to the revolutionary Marxist tradition and the one-party states it produced. See what socialism is.

The debate

Supporters of communist ideas point to goals of equality and an end to exploitation, and to gains in literacy and industrialization in some countries. Critics point to authoritarian rule, economic shortages, and famines and repression that killed millions under Stalin and Mao. Historians continue to debate how much those outcomes came from the ideas themselves or from how they were applied.