Communism in the 20th Century

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Socialism and Communism in the 20th Century

The main communist countries in the 20th century were the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Cuba.

Famine and socialism in the 20th century

Between 1917 and 2017, communist governments presided over the deaths of 100 million of their own citizens.
The collectivisation of farming transferred food production and land from individual farmers who owned crops to a government-owned farming project. Once the government controlled all of the country's food, food could be withheld from people to make them do whatever the government wanted. If they didn't comply, they starved to death. Poor organisation, incompetence, or a lack of information could also lead to less deliberate famines.
- In Stalin's Russia in the 1930s, up to 3.3 million people died in Ukraine in the 'Holodomor' meaning 'extermination by hunger'.
- In Mao's China, up to 45 million people are thought to have died from starvation and famine.

Concentration of power and socialism in the 20th century

In socialism, all economic and political decisions in a society are made centrally. Power is naturally concentrated into the hands of a very small number of people, a bit like a dictatorship.
- After Stalin succeeded Lenin as the leader of the USSR, the Moscow Trials tried and executed many of Stalin's political rivals - Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Bukharin.
- Stalin had a secret police called the NKVD who arrested 1.5 million people, caused the death of 680,000 people and sent 635,000 to gulags in Siberia (forced work camps). The NKVD had quotas for the minimum number of people that they had to arrest.
- In Cambodia, a communist party, the Khmer Rouge killed up to 2 million Cambodians, including political rivals and enemies of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader.

Incentives and socialism in the 20th century

In socialism, a small number of individuals decide everything that must be produced in a country. An individual is told what to produce and they are not permitted to produce anything else.
There is little incentive for workers to work hard, as people gain no additional benefit for working harder or for making higher quality products.
Although social planners try to guide control economies, they have the brainpower, innovation and information of only a small number of individuals in government.
Since China shifted closer to a capitalist model, companies like Tencent and Alibaba were founded and innovation in China and the standard of living has risen rapidly.

1Key Topics

1.1Conflict & Cooperation 1918-1939

1.1.1The Treaty of Versailles

1.1.2The Terms of Versailles 1

1.1.3The Terms of Versailles 2

1.1.4Versailles & the League of Nations

1.1.5LoN Successes & Failures

1.1.6LoN Failure - Upper Silesia

1.1.7LoN Failure - Corfu & Washington

1.1.8End of Topic Test - Treaties and Agreements

1.1.9The Great Depression

1.1.10Tension in Europe in the 1930s

1.1.11WWII & Failure of the League of Nations

1.1.12End of Topic Test - Tension in the 1930s

1.1.13Grade 9 - Conflict & Cooperation

1.2The Cold War 1945-c.1989

1.2.1Emerging US-Soviet Rivalry

1.2.2Communism in the 20th Century

1.2.3The Truman Doctrine & Marshall Plan

1.2.4East-West Alliances

1.2.5Berlin Crises

1.2.6The End of the Berlin Wall

1.2.7End of Topic Test - East & West

1.2.8Build-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis

1.2.9The Cuban Missile Crisis

1.2.10Cold War Conflict - Vietnam

1.2.11Cold War Conflict - Afghanistan

1.2.12End of Topic Test - The Cold War 1945-1989

1.2.13Grade 9 - The Cold War

1.3From the End of the Cold War to 9/11

1.3.1Reagan & Gorbachev

1.3.2Consequences of the Soviet War in Afghanistan

1.3.3End of Topic Test - End of the Cold War to 9/11

1.3.4Grade 9 - The End of the Cold War

2Changing Interpretations

2.1Changing Interpretations

2.1.1Appeasement

2.1.2The Responsibility for Cold War Tensions

2.1.3End of Topic Test - Appeasement

2.1.4Grade 9 - Changing Interpretations

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