Marxism History and Ideology. An Term Paper

During his first few months in Paris, Marx became a communist and put forth his views in a plethora of writings known as the Economic and philosophical Manuscripts, that remained unpublished until the 1930s. It was also in Paris that Marx developed his life long association with Friedrich Engels. (Karl Marx, 1818-1883)

At the end of 1844 Marx was debarred from Paris and with Engels migrated to Brussels. In the initiation of 1848, Marx moved back to Paris when a revolution first emerged and onto Germany where he instituted again in Cologne, the Neue Rheinishce Zeitung. In later periods Marx settled in London, and was optimistic about the imminence of a new revolutionary emergence in Europe. He re-entered the Communist League and wrote two prolonged pamphlets on the 1848 revolution in France and its repercussions, the Class Struggles in France and the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. He had a large manuscript containing about 800 pages on capital, landed property, wage labor, the state, foreign trade and the world market. During the last periods of his life, the health condition of Marx degenerated and he was not able to extend the enduring efforts that had so characterized his previous work. Marx breathed his last on March 14, 1883 and was buried at Highgate Cemetery in North London. (Karl Marx, 1818-1883)

2- Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin took his birth on April 10, 1870 in the family of a Russian nobleman. He entailed splendid influence on the characteristics of the Russians and of course the world. In school he demonstrated himself to be very smart irrespective of his alienation as a result of this. As Lenin gave up religion and the political system and being the brother of dead revolutionary he was not allowed in any University. At last he was accepted in a Kazan University where he studied law. This was to be temporal as he was debarred for attending a peaceful resistance after three months. He studied law on his own and got through the exam. He went to St. Petersburg in 1893 and practiced law. An underground movement in line with Marxism was initiated by him while he was there. The St. Petersburg Massacre incited Lenin to advocate violent action in 1905. This event led to several revolts in Russia. Ultimately the revolution in Russia broke out in 1917. After almost a bloodless coup Lenin captured power in October. Vladimir Ilich Lenin became the president of the Society of People's Commissars or Communist Party at the age of forty-seven. (Vladimir Lenin biography)

After his rise to power several initiatives were made by him. The land was reallocated as collective farms. Factories, mines, banks and utilities were all nationalized by the State. His rule led to the disestablishment of the Russian Orthodox Church. There was staunch resistance to these and the consequence became a civil war in 1918 between the Mencheviks and the Bolsheviks. In between 1919 to 1921 famine and the typhus affected Russia and resulted in the death of 27 million people. In order to counterbalance such disasters Lenin infused the New Economic Plan. This plan involved some capital ideologies like confined private industry in order to regenerate the deteriorating economy. But he was never to visualize the full influence of his measures. In May 1922, Lenin underwent the first of a series of strokes and within less than a year subsequently he suffered a second one. During his last two years he attempted to reformulate some extremes of the era. He degenerated further in 1923 and had another stroke that made him paralyzed and speechless. He could never be fully recovered and died of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 21, 1924. (Vladimir Lenin biography)

3- Mao Zedong

The myths of Mao Tse-Tung points out his birth in a poor peasant family, but actually, he was born on the 26th of December, 1893, in the home of a fairly well-to-do peasant in Hunan. During the year 1911, the revolution under Dr. Sun Yat-Sen ousted the imperial government and Mao was captured in the political volatility and dropped his studies at the school. In 1920 Mao became the principal of a primary school in Changsha, where in his leisure time he assisted in instituting Changsha branch of the Communist Party. Mao was a dynamic member of the Kuomintang - KMT and was even opposed by CCP members who took him to be too zealous.(Mao Zedong: A Biography) With the death of Sun Yat Sen in 1925, the man who overrode the Kuomintang, Chinag Kai Sheck, harshly got rid of the Party's left. Mao, who had already, had difficulties with the mainstream Kuomintang leadership fled to his base in the Ching-Kang Mountains. With the assistance and shelter extended by their peasant base, Mao and his comrades could hold out against Chiang's forces. In November of 1934 the Chinese Soviet Republic was announced to be within the Kiangsi province taking Mao as its chairman. (Biography: Mao Zedong)

Mao was not clear that the Russian Political model was suitable for China and in order to accommodate the large peasantry that had promoted his revolution he went aboard on what is very likely the most hazardous experiment in social engineering in human history. To this project presently he accorded the now ironical name, 'The Great Leap Forward'. Targets both agricultural and industrial were set absurdly high at the time of the three years of the Great Leap and resulted in famines during which some thirty million people died. When the full consequence of what Mao had performed initiated to be realized, it gave rise to a demonstration at the highest level set him in opposition against Liu Shaoqui, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, a battle that Mao lost. Being curtailed with most of his authority Mad washed out into the background of party life, however, continued to be a powerful symbol, a benefit he would exploit a little later when he was back with more strength than before, to infuse the extremities of Cultural Revolution on an enhanced terrified nation. (Biography: Mao Zedong)

C- Comparing Lenin-Marxism and Mao-Marxism. (2.5 pages)

The theories of Masses by Karl Marx uprising to sweep away the bourgeoisie never practiced while he was alive, but did set the phase for the subsequent development and exploitation of his ideas by a number of leaders like Vladmir Lenin and Mao Tse-Tung, who further improved and exploited these early concepts of revolution. These subsequent ideas and interpretations included political and military ideas that have inconsistency with those of Marx and Engels. (Lesson 12: Modern theorists (III): Revolutionary War) Vladmir Illyich Lenin and Mao Zedong were the significant founders of the revolution in their relevant countries, and hence the revolutions in China and Russia were basically steered by the ideology of these leaders. Karl Marx regarded as the father of communism, participated in an influential role in the dogma of both Mao and Lenin, yet practical difficulties in their respective nations compelled the two to reformulate their ideology to cater to the circumstances of their own nations. (the Revolutionary Potential of the Peasants According to Lenin and Mao Zedong)

When Leninism-Maoism spread throughout the world, the capitalist and imperialist factors were forced to support Marxism, though not honestly and were disloyal to the proletariat class and oppressed people. In this circumstance, the statement of Lenin that the dialectics of history is such that the ideological victory of Marxism forces the enemies to put on a mask of Marxism is debatable. Lenin had shown with sufficient proof that revisionism along with the development of imperialism splits the national circle and turns international. Presently, the imperialism has arrested the leadership of socialist system build by the sacrifice of millions of workers and distorted it and they have once again announced that Marxism has twisted ineffective and are celebrating. (Marxism-Leninism-Maoism or Revisionism?)

But their celebration is similar to a self-contentment of a man on death bed and it is being established by the facts of history and worldwide struggle that can shake the world and worldwide economic crises. The very essentials on what depends upon the imperialist declaration that Marxism has been old have proved it irrefutable. The history has once again placed the liability on the shoulder of proletarian strugglers to slice into pieces the webs of puzzlement of modern revisionists and been motivating them to advance on the worldwide victory campaign. Due to this it has been a task of primary importance for the revolutionary Marxist as a subjective preparation to interpret revisionism and imperialism and demonstrate its real face, to the subjugated people and make them realize the reality. (Marxism-Leninism-Maoism or Revisionism?)

However, Mao was not as inflexible as were Marx and Lenin but his cruelty was.....