A Short Note on the History of Communism

Communism is a political, social, and economic ideology that advocates the replacement of private ownership and profit-based economies with a classless economic system under which the means of production buildings, machinery, tools, and labour are communally owned.

Communism is a social and political ideology that strives to create a classless society in which all property and wealth are communally-owned, instead of by individuals.

The ideology of communism was developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848.

The term communism was not widely used until the 1840s. In 4th century, the Greek philosopher Plato, In his Socratic dialogue Republic, Plato describes an ideal state in which a ruling class of guardians, mainly philosophers and soldiers, serves the needs of the whole community.

Plato argued that the private ownership of property would make them self-seeking, indulgent, greedy, and corrupt, the ruling guardians, Plato argued, had to function as a large communal family that ownership of all material goods, as well as spouses and children.

In the Bible’s Book of Acts, for example, the first Christians practiced a simple kind of communism as both a way of maintaining solidarity and of avoiding the evils associated with the private ownership of worldly possessions.

English statesman Sir Thomas More, In his work Utopia (1516) describes an imaginary perfect society in which money is abolished and the people share food, houses, and other goods.

Contemporary Communism

Karl Marx, German philosopher concluded that class struggles resulting from income inequality would inevitably give rise to a society in common ownership of the means of production would allow prosperity to be shared by all.

In 1848, Marx, along with German economist Friedrich Engels, wrote The Communist Manifesto, in which they concluded that the problems of poverty, disease, and shortened lives that afflicted the proletariat could be resolved only by replacing capitalism with communism.

Under communism, as formulated by Marx and Engels, the major means of industrial production factories, mills, mines, and railroads would be publicly owned and operated for the benefit of all.

Marx predicted that the establishment of communism following the overthrow of capitalism would result in a communal society free of class divisions or government, in which the production and distribution of goods would be based upon the principle;

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”