I’m happy to see communism alive and well in the classroom. It’s so important for kids to learn that communism was/is not just a political party but an evil regime.
I studied a bit of Russian and American history at high school, along with European and British. The Russian Revolution was always my favourite. It all seemed very romantic, as well as somehow the right response, even though the outcome was ultimately so dismal. I never became a communist, but I somehow "got" why so many did.
Only tangentially related, I played this Red Scare game with my 5th. Graders during the last week of school. I couldn’t believe how quickly they turned on each other! 😂
I was living and teaching in Moldova when I read Tolstoy's "The Devil." It's a novella about something altogether different from Communism, but it gave me an eye-opening view of life in Russia in the early 1900s. The appeal of Communism made so much sense after that. (And, sadly, I'm not even on summer vacation yet. I have summer school duty for one more week!)
So, let me lead off by saying I am a communist. Specifically an anarchist. I have a ton of criticisms of the USSR and the PRC since I am intensely skeptical of the ability to use the state to build a communist society. The USSR and PRC's failings are a large part of what makes up that critique.
First, communism does not necessarily seek the centralization of property in the hands of the state. Even communists who believe this only think it would need to happen during a transitionary state from capitalism to communism. For communists, the capitalist system represents a massive contradiction. On one hand, you have productive capacities that can satisfy everyone's needs better than any economic system before it. This wealth is produced socially. So many people in so many places are involved in production for all of society. So much so that it is difficult, or even impossible, to quantify how much each individual contributes to this socially, collectively generated, wealth. However, this is paired with "private appropriation," where individual business owners who do little to produce anything take most of the wealth and hand their workers a pittance in the form of a wage/salary. Communists seek to resolve this contradiction by having the workers themselves take control of production and steer it towards satisfying everyone's needs. In Marx and Engels time, they identified the Paris Commune as the prime example of the "dictatorship" of the proletariat. What that really meant was that the city was governed by assemblies of delegates from working-class neighborhoods from around the city: the vast majority of the population.
To be frank, the USSR and the PRC failed dramatically in achieving these aims. Both societies implemented bureaucratic, decayed forms of socialism that ensured the restoration of capitalism.
That said, many of the attacks against communism are just straight up Cold War propaganda. Not only are there countless alternative visions of communism/socialism to the USSR and PRC, but many of the preconceived notions about those extremely flawed governments are coming apart under more careful scholarly analysis. For example, there's increasing evidence that the PRC's commune system was extremely effective and contributed heavily to the remarkable modernization of Chinese society that we've witnessed in our lifetimes. Not only that, but the commune system was dismantled against the will of the peasants in the 1980s in exchange for access to international markets. I highly recommend "Red China's Green Revolution" for more details!
Stalin was a dictatorial bastard, no doubt. In fact, many of the alternative visions of socialism, such as anarchism, were suppressed specifically by Stalin aligned groups and individuals. The best example is the Spanish Revolution, where anarchist aligned unions numbering millions of members took over much of the nation during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Republic could only get weapons from the Soviets, and Stalin used that leverage to massacre and imprison anarchist, Trotskyist, and other socialist militants. In fact, Stalin's henchmen dismantled the communes that the anarchist aligned peasants had established across much of the country. It collapsed the economy of the country so badly that Stalin had no choice but to reconstitute many of the communes just to keep society functioning (and if you look deep into Spanish history, especially in Catalonia, you'll find an organic history of communal land relations, as you do across much of the world before capitalism's rise).
Even so, the USSR was instrumental in the decolonization movement after WWII. Many African nations would likely still be under the yoke of direct European colonial rule if it weren't for Soviet support for anti-colonial movements around the continent. That said, the PRC and even more so Cuba had much more to do with this than the Soviets.
I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that the history you're engaging with here is far more complicated than most Americans realize. I am more than happy to recommend and share all sorts of resources with you about this topic.
Russian history was one of my favorite classes in undergrad. I found the Romanoff family history fascinating! And then when I got to use what I learned in the class to teach Animal Farm, it was even better 😊
I’m happy to see communism alive and well in the classroom. It’s so important for kids to learn that communism was/is not just a political party but an evil regime.
Whenever I teach about communism, all I think about is my old grandpa marching around talking about "those commie bastards," lol.
That's a great opening to the lesson, Jenna!
I studied a bit of Russian and American history at high school, along with European and British. The Russian Revolution was always my favourite. It all seemed very romantic, as well as somehow the right response, even though the outcome was ultimately so dismal. I never became a communist, but I somehow "got" why so many did.
Yeah, after reading about the situation that peasants and urban workers were in, the lure of communism sure makes sense.
Only tangentially related, I played this Red Scare game with my 5th. Graders during the last week of school. I couldn’t believe how quickly they turned on each other! 😂
http://www.laurathrower.com/Red_Scare_Dot_Activity.pdf
Your older students might have fun playing.
I love it! We'll do it after finals on the penultimate day of school
I was living and teaching in Moldova when I read Tolstoy's "The Devil." It's a novella about something altogether different from Communism, but it gave me an eye-opening view of life in Russia in the early 1900s. The appeal of Communism made so much sense after that. (And, sadly, I'm not even on summer vacation yet. I have summer school duty for one more week!)
So, let me lead off by saying I am a communist. Specifically an anarchist. I have a ton of criticisms of the USSR and the PRC since I am intensely skeptical of the ability to use the state to build a communist society. The USSR and PRC's failings are a large part of what makes up that critique.
First, communism does not necessarily seek the centralization of property in the hands of the state. Even communists who believe this only think it would need to happen during a transitionary state from capitalism to communism. For communists, the capitalist system represents a massive contradiction. On one hand, you have productive capacities that can satisfy everyone's needs better than any economic system before it. This wealth is produced socially. So many people in so many places are involved in production for all of society. So much so that it is difficult, or even impossible, to quantify how much each individual contributes to this socially, collectively generated, wealth. However, this is paired with "private appropriation," where individual business owners who do little to produce anything take most of the wealth and hand their workers a pittance in the form of a wage/salary. Communists seek to resolve this contradiction by having the workers themselves take control of production and steer it towards satisfying everyone's needs. In Marx and Engels time, they identified the Paris Commune as the prime example of the "dictatorship" of the proletariat. What that really meant was that the city was governed by assemblies of delegates from working-class neighborhoods from around the city: the vast majority of the population.
To be frank, the USSR and the PRC failed dramatically in achieving these aims. Both societies implemented bureaucratic, decayed forms of socialism that ensured the restoration of capitalism.
That said, many of the attacks against communism are just straight up Cold War propaganda. Not only are there countless alternative visions of communism/socialism to the USSR and PRC, but many of the preconceived notions about those extremely flawed governments are coming apart under more careful scholarly analysis. For example, there's increasing evidence that the PRC's commune system was extremely effective and contributed heavily to the remarkable modernization of Chinese society that we've witnessed in our lifetimes. Not only that, but the commune system was dismantled against the will of the peasants in the 1980s in exchange for access to international markets. I highly recommend "Red China's Green Revolution" for more details!
Stalin was a dictatorial bastard, no doubt. In fact, many of the alternative visions of socialism, such as anarchism, were suppressed specifically by Stalin aligned groups and individuals. The best example is the Spanish Revolution, where anarchist aligned unions numbering millions of members took over much of the nation during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Republic could only get weapons from the Soviets, and Stalin used that leverage to massacre and imprison anarchist, Trotskyist, and other socialist militants. In fact, Stalin's henchmen dismantled the communes that the anarchist aligned peasants had established across much of the country. It collapsed the economy of the country so badly that Stalin had no choice but to reconstitute many of the communes just to keep society functioning (and if you look deep into Spanish history, especially in Catalonia, you'll find an organic history of communal land relations, as you do across much of the world before capitalism's rise).
Even so, the USSR was instrumental in the decolonization movement after WWII. Many African nations would likely still be under the yoke of direct European colonial rule if it weren't for Soviet support for anti-colonial movements around the continent. That said, the PRC and even more so Cuba had much more to do with this than the Soviets.
I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that the history you're engaging with here is far more complicated than most Americans realize. I am more than happy to recommend and share all sorts of resources with you about this topic.
Russian history was one of my favorite classes in undergrad. I found the Romanoff family history fascinating! And then when I got to use what I learned in the class to teach Animal Farm, it was even better 😊