“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” This proverb may accurately describe the foundation, and the final product of a communist system. The communist system has its origins in ancient Greece. The ancient Greek idea of the Golden Age influenced many of the communist followers especially Karl Marx. This envisionment of a perfect world was emphasized by Karl Marx and led to the writing of the Communist Manifesto, in which he describes the graveness of class struggles. This idea of a perfect world was used in three particular regimes, each having their faults. The regime of Vladimir Ilich Lenin was the first attempt by a government to create a communist political and economic system. A leader in the October Revolution in 1917, Lenin’s attempt lead Russia into a brief period of prosperity and then, with the help of his predecessors, forced it into a period of drudgery. The next attempt to employ a communist government was Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. He attempted to follow Lenin’s lead into a communist Russia with dreadful results. Mao Zedong was the last leader to attempt to lead his country through communist reforms. China is still, to this da

A common Hunanese peasant boy would grow up to change the face of China. His Name was Mao Zedong, or Mao Tse-tung. He was trained in Chinese classics and later he received a modern education. As a young man, he observed many of the oppressive social conditions and became one of the original member of the Chinese Communist Party. He organized many peasant and industrial unions and directed the Kuomintang’s Peasant Movement Training Institute. After the Kuomintang-Communist split in 1927, Mao led a disastrous uprising in the fall. His part in the uprising led him to be ousted form the central committee of the party. From 1928 until 1931 Mao, with Zhu De and others, established communals in the uplands and also built the Red Army. In 1931, Mao was elected chairman of the newly established government of the People’s Republic of China. After withstanding multiple attacks from Chiang Kai-sheik. Mao was tired of these little squabbles with Chiang and decided to lead his army on the long march form the People’s capital in Jiangxi, to Yan’an. Mao emerged as the most important Communist leader after he defeated Chiang. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) the Communists and the Kuomintang continued to battle each other even as they battled the Japanese. This civil war lasted far longer then the war with the Japanese. The civil war did not end till 1949, when Mao had taken most of mainland China. Mao was reelected the chairman of the People’s Republic of China in 1954. In an attempt to break form the Russian model of Communis and to imbue the Chinese people with renewed spirit, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward(1958). This program failed horribly and 20 million people starved. Mao was replaced as chairman, but eventually came back to power. In the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) Mao reasserted himself and purged the government of his opponents. In 1970 he was named supreme commander of the nation and the army. He died in 1976 and his predecessors unraveled most of the work that Mao had done. Mao too violated human rights with mass murders and executions.

The Golden Age of Greece is the point at which communism can begin tracing its roots. This was a concept of a world containing communal bliss and harmony, all without the institution of private property holdings. Plato may have wrote the earliest book concerning a rough form of modern Communism. His book, Republic, outlined a system of society with communal holdings of property, which is a staple of today’s recognition of Communism. According to researchers, Neoplatonists revived the idea of communal property, which was also a strong idea of some religious groups such as the Jewish Essenes and certain early Christian communities (Communism 1). Opponents of private property often remarked that God had created the world for the use of all humanity, not for the expedient uses of man. The next idea of communal holdings can be found in the manorial system of the Middle Ages. This system included the common cultivation of fields and the use of communal village commons.

His Great Leap Forward was an attempt to simultaneously advance both agriculture and industry. Twenty million Chinese died as a result of the lack of food. Mao was far more lenient in his government purges. Moa’s only known executions, besides the fate of the twenty million he forced to die in the Great Leap Forward, came during the Cultural Revolution. He murdered some intellectuals and those that opposed his rule. Mao left China with a sense of broken promise, very much like other Communist leaders.

Some topics in this essay:
Economic Policy, October Revolution, Communist Manifesto, Socialist Republic, Cultural Revolution, Civil War1918-1920, Russian Revolution, Terror Lenin, Soviet Union, Bloody Century, communist country, concentration camps, october revolution, lenin stalin, stalin power, perfect world, communist system, leap forward, utopian societies, revolution 1917, communist system origins, regimes human life, china name mao, rights human emotions, life human rights,