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| This article is part of the Communism series of entries. Communist ideologies Leninism Trotskyism Stalinism Maoism Left communism Anarcho-Communism Past and present states (main article) Soviet Union China Cuba Vietnam Yugoslavia Some Communist parties CP of China CP of Italy CP of France CP of the USA CP of Vietnam CP of Cuba CP of Nepal(M) Other Articles Communist PartyComintern Cominform Warsaw Pact Comecon List of Communist Parties October Revolution Socialism Planned Economics Anti-Communism |
A Communist party is a party which advocates Communism. Many such parties formally use the term "Communist" in their official name. Communist Parties first began to be established in various countries across the world after the creation of the Communist International by the Russian Bolsheviks.
Throughout the 20th century, Communist Parties held power in several nations of the world. The total number of countries that have been ruled by a Communist Party at one point or another in their history is 21.
Many Communist Parties, especially in Europe, were created in the 1920s as a result of a split between two dominant tendencies within most of the Socialist Parties that existed at the time. The split was over the issue of whether revolution was necessary to achieve socialism. Those who supported revolutionary methods called themselves communists. Those who wanted a gradual transition from capitalism to socialism (evolution rather than revolution) kept the name socialists or social democrats. Shortly after the split, more differences between the two sides began to emerge. During the 1920s, the rift was characterized by the fact that the communists supported Marxism-Leninism, while the socialists supported only Marxism and rejected Leninism. Over time, however, this rift grew even wider, with both sides starting to develop separate branches of their own (for example, most mainstream social democrats had abandoned Marxism by the 1950s, and many communist parties were arguably drifting far away from the original Marxist-Leninist position during the same period, since they were under the influence of Stalin).
Most communist parties organized themselves according to the principle of democratic centralism. This, however, did not last very long. In theory, a party congress would elect a central committee, which elected a Politburo. In practice, the Politburo soon became self perpetuating and started to control the central committee, which also started to control the party congresses.
During the period of StalinistStalinism is a term for a brand of political theory and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. Leon Trotsky described the system as totalitarian and this description has become widely used by critics of Stalini domination of world communism ( 1929Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 See also 1929 in aviation 1929 in film 1929 in literature 1929 in mu- 19531953 is a common year starting on Thursday (click on link for the calendar). Events January events January 7 President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. January 13 Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugosl), communist parties across the globe fell more and more under the influence of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionFor other usage of the initials CPSU see CPSU (disambiguation). The Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( Russian: was the name used by the successors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party from 1952 to 1991, but the wordin and its leader, Joseph Stalin. Stalin's opponents were purgeIn history and political science, to purge is to remove 'undesirable' people from a government, political party, profession, or from community/society as a whole, usually by violent means. Purges are often associated with the Stalinist and Maoist regimes.d first from the CPSU, then from the Communist International, and finally from most local communist parties, giving him absolute control over the communist movement. Anti-stalinist communists did attempt to regroup, largely under the leadership of Leon TrotskyLeon Davidovich Trotsky ( Russian: ; also transliterated Trotskii Trotski Trotzky ( October 26 ( O. November 7 ( N. 1879 August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist intellectual. He was an influential politi and members of the Left OppositionThe Left Opposition was a faction within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1923- 1927. It was formed in response (and in opposition to) the rise of Stalinism. Leon Trotsky was the de-facto leader of the Left Opposition. After Stalin consolida, but the onset of World War II nullified most of their efforts.
Following Stalin's orders, the Communist International was dissolved in 1943. In the period between 1945 and 1949, following the end of World War II, Moscow-controlled communist parties were put in power throughout much of Central and Eastern Europe (7 countries in total). In Yugoslavia, communist guerrilas liberated the country from Nazi occupation and established a government without Soviet assistance. As a result, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was not controlled from Moscow (and, indeed, it opposed the Soviet Union vigorously). Albania was liberated by communist partisans in a similar fashion, but it developed in a very different way from Yugoslavia. The Albanian government sided with the Soviet Union early on, then took the side of the Communist Party of China in the Sino-Soviet split.
Members of communist parties were persecuted in many countries in the early Cold War period, when anti-communist sentiment was fueled by Western governments as part of their Cold War strategy. Nevertheless, in countries such as Italy and France, large Communist Parties gathered a lot of popular support and played a prominent part in politics through the post-war decades. They developed a variant of communist ideology known as Eurocommunism. This called for a socialist planned economy under the administration of a democratic government, and a multi-party system of free elections. This was a clear break with the Soviet line, but many of these parties continued to maintain good, or at least diplomatic, relations with the Soviet Union.
In the third world, communist parties became popular in some areas because they promised the overthrow of a governmental structure that many people considered oppressive. Often, communists played the dominant role in struggles for independence against colonial powers. However, the resulting wars usually became emeshed into the Cold War, with the Soviet Union supporting communist forces and the United States supporting anti-communist ones.
In 1949, Chinese communists ended a civil war that had raged for decades, and established the People's Republic of China. A communist party also came to power in North Korea.
There were major differences of vision within the communist movement, however. Besides the original split between stalinists and non-stalinists (mentioned a few paragraphs above), there were also a series of secondary ones. Within the "stalinist camp", the Sino-Soviet split between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China in the early 1960's was by far the most important, with global consequences.
During the last two decades of the Cold War, a number of countries have had short-lived communist governments. Besides these, however, there were also two long-term gains by communist parties: Vietnam and Laos.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, communist parties lost power in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. In many places, communist parties re-organized themselves as new socialist or social democratic parties, while in other places they remained communist. At this point in time, communist parties are in power in Cuba, the Peoples Republic of China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea. However, in the People's Republic of China, and to a lesser extent Vietnam and Laos, the ruling communist parties have significantly altered their ideology, towards adopting market-oriented economics.
In the case of the Communist Party of China, the adoption of a so-called " socialist market economy" has led many observers (communists and anti-communists alike) to argue that the party has partially or completely abandoned communism. However, the CCP itself vigurously denies this charge.
Meanwhile, in the former Soviet republic of Moldova, the Communist Party was elected back into power. However, as of 2004, this nominally communist government has not distinguished itself in any significant way from the capitalist government which preceded it.
Communist parties currently (October 2004) participate in coalition governments in Cyprus, Venezuela, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Senegal, Syria and Iraq (interim government appointed by occupation forces). Over the past 15 years, communist parties have also participated in coalition governments in France, Italy, Greece and India.
There over a hundred of communist parties in existence today, and their fortunes vary widely. Some are growing, others are in decline. See the List of Communist Parties and World Communist Movement for more details.
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