How Did Communism Spread?

How Did Communism Spread?

Communism, as a political and economic ideology advocating for a classless society and collective ownership, spread globally through a combination of revolution, war, political movements, and international influence, particularly during the 20th century. Its expansion fundamentally shaped world history, geopolitics, and societies across continents. The roots of communism trace back to the publication of “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, which called for workers worldwide to unite against capitalist systems. However, it was not until the Russian Revolution of 1917 that communism was first implemented as a state ideology. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and established the world’s first communist state, later known as the Soviet Union. After consolidating power in Russia, the Soviet leadership sought to export the revolution. In 1919, the Communist International (Comintern) was established to coordinate and support communist movements worldwide, often under Moscow’s direction. Following World War II, the Soviet Union extended its influence across Eastern Europe, installing communist governments in countries such as Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. These states, while nominally independent, were effectively Soviet satellites, with Moscow intervening militarily when their loyalty wavered, as seen in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). In Asia, communism gained a major foothold with the victory of Mao Zedong’s Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War. In 1949, the People’s Republic of China was established, marking the second major communist state. The ideology continued to spread to North Korea (1948), Vietnam (1945 in the North, unified in 1976), Laos, and Cambodia, often through revolutionary wars or the collapse of existing regimes. By the late 20th century, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of communist regimes in Eastern Europe marked a dramatic retreat of communism as a governing system. Today, only a handful of countries, such as China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos, retain communist governments.