COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM

Communism is a political system that had existed in the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1917-1991 and in the Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, The Former Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania, and The Former Yugoslavia) since the end of the 2nd World War to approximately 1990 (Zaremba, A. 2001). Communism is based on the ideas and teachings of Karl Marx who is the founder of Communist Union in 1947 as modified by Lenin who is the first communist leader in Soviet Union. In addition, the ideal of communism is a system in which everyone is seen as equal and wealth is distributed equally among the people. There is no private ownership, so the state owns and controls all enterprises and property, and it is run by the leading elite. For instance, the Soviet model of communism was based on these ideals. All opposition parties were banned, even so some of them accepted the communist ideals because communist regime never accepted another power except for themselves, so all power was concentrated into the hands of the Communist party. Free press and civil freedoms were suppressed, likewise censorship and propaganda were widely used. Apart from that, there was state ownership of the economy, so no private enterprise was allowed. The Communist Party interfered and controlled every aspect of political, social, cultural and economic life. This situation was not different in other eastern countries, because this communist trend on these countries stemmed from Soviet Union, and also it had a position of leader country on these countries for communism. However, this strict political system brought about serious economic, political, and social problems in the Eastern Europe and USSR, so it had begun to collapse after the 1980s. It seems to me that there are three main reasons of collapse of communism in these countries; weakening in politic power, corruption in social structure, and economic failure.

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The first factor that contributed to the failure and eventual collapse of communism was the fact that all communist administrations’ domination was illegitimate from the beginning. In fact, communism is a strict regime that was achieved by undemocratic methods such as rigged elections, terror, and threats. For example, in Soviet Union, Lenin came to power after a Civil War between those who supported Lenin and those who opposed the Soviet regime. Terror was to become the chief instrument of power and Lenin was to assume the role of dictator. Therefore, it can clearly be seen that starting from the establishment ...

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