Introduction
Communism is one of the best known and most misunderstood political ideologies of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. In many parts of the world, the word has been adopted by members of the political right as a slogan to levy against their counterparts on the left, often without much consideration given to the full meaning and history of the ideology.
There are several reasons why Communism as a political creed has been demonized and its proponents abhorred. One of these is that states purporting to follow the tenets of the doctrine have formed the primary resistance to Western neoliberal Capitalism and democracy since the Soviet Union was established in 1917. The rise of a formidable opposition to democracy, and even fascism, over the following years shook the Western world to its core. It helped to engender events such as the Red Scare in the United States, Operation Barbarossa in Europe, and the temporary emergence of the domino theory within...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Boer, R. (2017). Stalin: From theology to the philosophy of socialism in power. Singapore: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6367-1_2.
Carr, E. H. (1959). Socialism in one country. In Socialism in one country 1924–1926. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Courtois, S., Werth, N., Panné, J., Paczkowski, A., Bartošek, K., & Margolin, J. (1999). The black book of communism: Crimes, terror, repression. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Edwards, L. (2010). The legacy of Mao Zedong is mass murder. Retrieved from https://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/the-legacy-mao-zedong-mass-murder
Grice, F. (2017). The improbability of popular rebellion in Kim Jong-un’s North Korea and policy alternatives for the USA. Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, 4(3), 263–293.
Joesph, W. A. (2014). Politics in China: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Kim Il-Sung. (1975). For the independent peaceful reunification of Korea. New York: International Publishers.
Lenin, V. (1918). Speech at a rally and concert. Speech presented at The All-Russia Extraordinary Commission Staff in Russia, Moscow. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/nov/07b.htm
Liu, J. (2007). What is Socialism with Chinese Characteristics? Hunan University of science and technology. A congress Marx international V – Contribution: Paris-Sorbonne et Nanterre (3/6 October 2007), Paris.
Mitter, R. (2016). Modern China: A very short introduction (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Ryan, J. (2007). Lenin’s the state and revolution and soviet state violence: A textual analysis. Revolutionary Russia, 20(2), 151–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546540701633452.
Shachtman, M. (1932). The reactionary theory of socialism in one country. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/shachtma/1932/05/9yrslo5.htm
Shatz, M. (1984). Stalin, the great purge, and Russian history: A new look at the new class. The Carl Beck Papers, 305, 1–45.
Snyder, T. (2010). Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books.
Further Reading
Brown, A. (2009). The rise and fall of communism. New York: HarperCollins.
Holmes, L. (2009). Communism: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Priestland, D. (2009). The red flag: A history of communism. New York: Grove Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Simpson, N., Grice, F. (2020). Communism. In: Romaniuk, S., Thapa, M., Marton, P. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_176-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_176-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74336-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74336-3
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Political Science and International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences