This ambitious plan for a series of blogs details the rise and fall of the Marxist tradition of communism from 1848 to 2000. The reason for these dates is that the political experience of 1848 shaped Marx’s fundamental understanding of politics and the political strategy that the proletariat must adopt to achieve socialism. It ends at the millennium because by this point Marxism is completely dead. It died many kinds of deaths, all of which I will track. This series is not intended to be an exhaustive history, but it is an exhaustive introduction to the history of the rise and fall of Marxist communism.
Part one deals with the intellectual origins of Marx’s thought in German Philosophy, French Socialism and British Political economy, outlining the scope and nature of Marx as a thinker, and what his fundamental concerns about capitalism were and his humanistic Utopianism. In part two his views on history and revolution are outlined, with the historical context of 19th century political-economic conflict. The third part deals with the only successful European Marxist movement, that of Lenin, and deals with his views and strategies. Parts four to six summarise the events of the Russian revolution and explain the essential elements of the events and take the necessary lessons from them, allowing for a true understanding of them. Parts seven to nine go through the interwar years and enables a complete understanding of the Communist International’s shifting strategy first in the west, then in Asia, and then dealing with the Moscow Pact with Hitler.
Finally in part eighteen the abandonment of any sort of orthodox Marxism by the left in Europe and America is examined.
One may feel that anti-communism is old hat, precisely because communism is a moribund force, but this fascinating history is absolutely a treasure trove of a myriad lessons. Just to advertise why I decided to embark on this project I’ll give you my reasons. First of all with communists emerging online it’s important to know your history and know how to refute them, secondly by knowing the history back to front you’ll be able to see clearly exactly what realities the theory of communism ran up against, thirdly I personally hope to bring to more popular consciousness the correctives on socialist self interpretation of the history of communism made possible by chiefly the examinations of Russian and Chinese archives, finally I hope to provide a better understanding of the post-Marxist, post communist left by showing its contrast and how and why it broke from the old left.
Parts ten to twelve deal with the Second World War from the perspective of Stalin and Mao. Parts thirteen and fourteen are a political analysis of the infamous Maoist period with its many atrocities. Part fifteen is an analysis of the two Marxist-Leninist regimes in Africa, Ethiopia and Angola. Part sixteen is an analysis of the collapse of the soviet satellite states. Parts seventeen and eighteen will compare and contrast soviet collapse to Chinese adaption, and will to answer the difficult question as to whether China today is “communist”. Part nineteen deals with the collapse of Marxism as an intellectual and electoral force in the west. Finally part twenty is a recapitulation, summarising the lessons from this deep dive going forward.
(I left out South East Asia and the Latinx communist experiments, yes I’m aware, yes this would make it more complete, sue me, also this series may expand depending on whether I’m able to fit Substack Limits and cover all the necessary detail here)
Part 1: The Origins of Marxism
Part 2: Marx on History and Revolution
Part 3: The Origins of Leninism
Part 4: The Russian Revolution part 1: The Twilight of Tsarist Russia
Part 5: The Russian Revolution part 2: Luck and Stupidity
Part 6: The Leninist Power Structure
Part 7: Collectivism and Terror
Part 7: Soviet Foreign Policy in the west
Part 8: Soviet Foreign Policy in Asia
Part 9: The Devil’s alliance
Part 10: Barbarossa
Part 11: Soviet Superpower
Part 12: Red Star over China
Part 13: The Great Leap Forward
Part 14: The Cultural Revolution
Part 15: Communism in Africa
Part 16: The Fall of the Iron Curtain
Part 17: Soviet Collapse
Part 18: Chinese Adaption
Part 19: The Strange Death of Marxism
Part 20: Recapitulation
This is really gonna be exciting. Also for economics partly marx was reacting to adam smith as subsquently keynes would to him. "taxes is when you help poor"
-adam smith probably
"uh oh acktully, Smith you're bit wrong... I think invisible hand is when not good for proletariat, here I corrected your theory uwu"
-marx
"uh oh marx you're wrong, but I understand why so many people have supported you. You're like Islam, there must be a reason so many people support you but I don't completely understand why... Although lolberals can cope, here's how you use taxes instead, see corrected ya uwu"
-keynes
People making fun of Marx is part of greater disease with social sciences. Nobody cries that Philip Sclater was an idiot for proposing lemuria, he simply did not know better. Its always intresting to see the reddit wars that was happening at that times 🧐