Order 1633971: editing my paper on Karl Marx

KARL MARX

BERK KIP

MODERN HISTORY

Friday, 15 March 2019

Karl Marx was a German Philosopher and revolutionary socialist born on May 5, 1818, in Prussia. In October 1835 He started studying in the University of Bonn, He finished his degree and began writing for the liberal Democratic Newspaper and became a paper editor and later came up with the idea of communism that was overall worse than capitalism, that along Friedrich Engels pursued, and they published a book together since they met and discovered that they have common interest and principle.[footnoteRef:0] However, communism still plays a disseminated role in today’s economic ideology since it was started in Russia in 1917 and still used in some countries up to date. [0: Szporluk, Roman. Communism and Nationalism: Karl Marx versus Friedrich List. Oxford University Press on Demand, 2014.]

Communism is a political and economic structure where the society itself owns everything, and everyone works to aim the same goal. Though it has been proven to have a toxic and harmful side effect on organizations such as the Soviet Union as brought about by Marx’s ideology. To begin with, People are kept in ignorance. The main issue of communism is the lack of transparency. Historically communism has been found not to promote good working ethics, for example when Germany was the Democratic Republic, workers were treated like fools, unlike in capitalism where the capitalist could quickly identify the problem and raise it out; however, in communism, there is no one blame.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Szporluk, Roman. Communism and Nationalism: Karl Marx versus Friedrich List. Oxford University Press on Demand, 2014.]

Communism was unsuccessful due to destruction it caused to societies such as the Soviet Union, for example, their trade activities with the Western industrialized countries that are Canada, Japan and Australia engaged either a direct exchange of one item for another that is cash or credit. Which was later dissolved in December 1991 because of its utterly unrealistic expectations and rules along with its downgrading effect on the work due to lack of motivation and creativity on workers?

According to research carried out Individual opposition is not allowed in the rule of communism, only one entity that is central authority controls the essential activities of the society, this has been found to limit the rights of citizens since people cannot point out their views appropriately in the community.

Research shows that Individual’s rights were restricted during the rule of communism since ways of communism prevented blame from society to anyone who brought issues with organization. The government was not allowed to interfere with the rights of the individual to make their living nor were they allowed to interfere with the economy. However, in capitalism issues such as the wealth controlling the market; people can identify them and pave ways for new ideas.[footnoteRef:2] [2: Andrew, Edward. "Class in Itself and Class against Capital: Karl Marx and His Classifiers." Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique (200): 577-584. ]

In the theory of communism developed by German Karl Marx, he said that people would work on each according to his ability and on what they loved most. This causes poverty in the Soviet Union in 1980 that its citizens revolted during communism since no savings were allowed, even if a household were to accumulate wealth, that wealth would belong to the community and note individual and there was no inheritance of properties.

According to Karl Marx, he had a different view of communism and capitalism. He referred to capitalism as a system of organizing where inputs and outputs of production and distribution are owned within private sectors, the owners of means of production that is the capitalist derives their income from bulk product produced by the workers. Though it had some positive impact on Societies, Capitalism can be termed as the ‘factory of ideology’ as stated earlier, capitalism can come up with new ideas as people are free even if the abnormal appear, they look normal.[footnoteRef:3] However, it brought about differences in society as the rich were becoming more affluent as the market is based on the individual rather than the community.[footnoteRef:4] [3: McLellan, David. Karl Marx: a biography. Papermac, 1995.Communist Studies 50, no. 4 (2017).] [4: Ibid]

Stalin revolution by his party was void; In 1927 Joseph Stalin came up with policies with the aim of finishing capitalism in the Soviet Union and introduce socialism. His plan involved rapid industrialization and collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union. He said that these policies would improve the economy. He came up with a five-year plan where he would increase industrialization willingly in the state.[footnoteRef:5] His goal was to boost industrial development by 250% and expand heavy industry by 330% by growth. His plan was unrealistic as there is no way state would achieve such development without engaging on outside help.[footnoteRef:6] [5: TarasKuzio. "Stalinism and Russian and Ukrainian national identities." Communist and Post-Communist Studies 50, no. 4 (2017).] [6: Ibid]

Stalin also suggested the collectivization of privately owned land to become government land; this way the products of the earth would increase as the government would use tractors and fertilizers on the farms which the peasants did not implement due to their high cost.[footnoteRef:7] With the increased production Stalin’s government would sell some of the produce in other nation then use some of the money to pay workers and to feed his country while the surplus would be used in the development of the industries. Since most of the money was used to develop the trades; there were high consumer goods shortages.[footnoteRef:8] Once he was informed about these shortages, he did not take action to help the people. Instead, he continued to oppress them. [7: Andrea Graziosi. "The National and the Social in Stalin's Political Famines." Contemporary European History 27, no. 3 (2018).] [8: TarasKuzio. "Stalinism and Russian and Ukrainian national identities." Communist and Post-Communist Studies 50, no. 4 (2017).]

Notably, to achieve the 5-year plan he had to find fertile land which could produce as much as he wanted, the fertile ground he saw was in Ukraine.[footnoteRef:9] Here he took away land from peasants and relocated them to the cities. He said that the state bought the property and its’ produce would be used to feed the growing cities. Chiefly, these cities were congested. Stalin was particularly hostile to the wealthier peasants known as Kulaks, who were taken away and never found.[footnoteRef:10] Stalin’s motive of collectivization of the Ukraine land was not to benefit the people but to grow the industries in the Soviet Union.[footnoteRef:11] [9: Ibid] [10: TarasKuzio. "Stalinism and Russian and Ukrainian national identities." Communist and Post-Communist Studies 50, no. 4 (2017).] [11: Andrew, Edward. "Class in Itself and Class against Capital: Karl Marx and His Classifiers." Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique (2001): 577-584. ]

Once the produce of these lands were sold abroad most of the money was used to develop the Soviet Union Industries and not to feed the growing cities. Due to Stalin’s unrealistic expectation, the communalists in Ukraine stated that the high targets of agricultural products to be sold for the sake of industrialization would cause starvation for the Ukraine people as they would be left with nothing.[footnoteRef:12] When Stalin received this report, he classified them as enemies of the state and punished them. Since most of the farm produce was sold to develop industries the people of Ukraine did not have enough to eat, and many died from starvation.Stalin was aware of what was happening, and he planned for the mass killing in Ukraine at the time. [12: Andrea Graziosi. "The National and the Social in Stalin's Political Famines." Contemporary European History 27, no. 3 (2018).]

The workers were not allowed to carry any grain from the farm, and thus they suffered from starvation.[footnoteRef:13] The oppression caused the workers to resist which affected agricultural produce; this led to a famine that killed millions. Stalin’s collectivization of agricultural land was for personal power; although he achieved his 5-year plan to increase industrialization in the Soviet Union the lives affected were incalculable. Stalin’s unrealistic plans resulted in chaos in the state. The turmoil changed the state’s economy as the economy deteriorated. Again, the bureaucratic ideology that Stalin implemented caused the wastage of resources, yet the nation did not have enough resources to waste.[footnoteRef:14] The farm workers resisted and this worsened the situation with the famine. Again, many things were destroyed as a result of the chaos in the nation. Those who opposed were arrested, and this affected the labor force. Women were employed in the industries due to the labor shortage. [13: TarasKuzio. "Stalinism and Russian and Ukrainian national identities." Communist and Post-Communist Studies 50, no. 4 (2017). ] [14: Ibid]

In the industries the workers were overworked; lateness or absenteeism was not allowed. Those who failed to show up at work were fined while others lost their jobs. Stalin’s need for industrialization was negatively affecting the people whom we overworked to achieve Stalin’s target.[footnoteRef:15] Failure to meet the objectives increased the targets which would be more difficult for the workers to reach.[footnoteRef:16] Although Stalin was achieving his goal for industrialization in the Soviet Union, he was slowly killing his people. [15: Gronow, Jukka. On the Formation of Marxism: Karl Kautsky’s Theory of Capitalism, the Marxism of the Second International and Karl Marx’s Critique of Political Economy. Brill, 2015. ] [16: Shanin, Teodor. Late Marx and the Russian road: Marx and the peripheries of capitalism. NYU Press, 1983 ]

Due to the resistance of the peasants who worked at the farms and the famine between 1932 -1933 affected the industries.[footnoteRef:17] Consequently, the nation did not have enough money to spend on their trades as they depended on the sale of agricultural products to foreign markets for the growth of these industries[footnoteRef:18]. To see to it that the trades did not fall, Stalin resulted in selling free grain to buy machinery for the sectors. The sale of the free grain which the growing population in the cities depended on meant that they were left with no grain to consume. Additionally, the wages in the industry reduced to cater for the deficit that the nation was experiencing. The peasants were left with no food to eat which resulted in the mass murder.[footnoteRef:19] Again, Stalin restricted the peasants from traveling to other cities and nations to beg for food. More and more people died every day during Stalin’s reign. The death of these millions of people is commemorated to date. Stalin’s policies did not work as it caused the death of millions. [17: AndreaGraziosi. "The National and the Social in Stalin's Political Famines." Contemporary European History 27, no. 3 (2018).] [18: Szporluk, Roman. Communism and Nationalism: Karl Marx versus Friedrich List. Oxford University Press on Demand, 1991. ] [19: Ibid]

Bibliography

Szporluk, Roman. Communism and Nationalism: Karl Marx versus Friedrich List. Oxford University Press on Demand, 1991.

Graziosi, Andrea. "The National and the Social in Stalin's Political Famines." Contemporary European History 27, no. 3 (2018).

McLellan, David. Karl Marx: a biography. Papermac, 1995.Communist Studies 50, no. 4 (2017).

Allman, Paula. Critical education against global capitalism: Karl Marx and revolutionary critical education. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.

Gronow, Jukka. On the Formation of Marxism: Karl Kautsky’s Theory of Capitalism, the Marxism of the Second International and Karl Marx’s Critique of Political Economy. Brill, 2015.

Shanin, Teodor. Late Marx and the Russian Road: Marx and the peripheries of capitalism. NYU Press, 1983.

Andrew, Edward. "Class in Itself and Class against Capital: Karl Marx and His Classifiers." Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue Canadienne de science politique (1983): 577-584.