Marxism

__**What is it?**__ **Definition of Marxism:** “The system of economic and political thought developed by Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, especially the doctrine that the state throughout history has been a device for the exploitation of the masses by a dominant class, that class struggle has been the main agency of historical change, and that the capitalist system, containing from the first the seeds of its own decay, will inevitably, after the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, be superseded by a socialist order and a classless society.”



__**Overview:**__ **Brief overview or summary of Marxism and who created it and the cause of it:** Marxism was based on the works that came from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19 century. It was an ideology that stressed socialism against the ideology of capitalism by separating the proletariat from the capitalist class and creating a society with no classes where all citizens were viewed as equals. Property and work would be divided up within the community according to skills and the production and benefits would affect “the community as a whole”. The ideology of Marxism was created because the capitalist theory created such a tremendous gap between the classes in the sense of benefits and of monetary value and income. It was unfair that various peoples in the capitalist society were in this case ‘filthy rich’ while others were suffering from such great poverty. The theory of Marxism was created to narrow this gap and have and create a sense of equality among the working class.

__**Orgins:**__ **Who is Karl Marx?** “German socialist of the mid- 19th century; blasted earlier socialist movements as utopian; saw history as defined by class struggle between groups out of power and those controlling the means of production; preached necessity of social revolution to create proletarian dictatorship.”(World Civilizations G-14) In 1818, Karl Marx was born Trier, Germany. Marx helped to create the ideology of Marxism. Marx focused some of his time studying law and other theories such as capitalism and private business ownership. He eventually went on to adopt materialism views that developed his knowledge on socialism and capitalism that later on help to create his later theory of Marxism. Karl Marx came to be known as the “Father of revolutionary communism” that was also called by another name such as Leninism. Marx believed that production should be publicly owned and distributed among the working class so that everyone would be equal. **Who is Friedrich Engels?** Friedrich Engels helped contribute to the ideology that Karl Marx so called Marxism. Engels possessed many same ideas or similar ones to Marx in that it was very helpful for both of them to easily collaborate with each other. **What did they do?** Engels and Marx both collaborated effectively with each other to eventually create a published document that was call the Communist Manifesto. The Communist Manifesto clearly stated their theories and ideologies about Marxism and socialism. Also, it provided an analysis of the history and the conflicts between the classes followed with a revolutionary appeal. Some of the key themes that were found in the document would have been the working class, and then necessity of global economic justice.

**__Historical Impact:__** **How did Marxism impact society?** Marxism impacted many societies by creating a sense of equality among the working class. In some societies and countries Marxism and capitalism were combined to create a partial socialist society such as in most of Europe after WWII. **What areas were affected by it?** **-Marxism in Latin America** Marxism helped to provide a “powerful analysis of Latin America’s history and present reality”. In the 20th century, the Marxists supported Latin America during the time of underdevelopment, but could not decide whether or not to help them because they did not know if the Latin Americans were in need of a social revolution. The Marxists were also associated with the dependency theory in Latin America which was the, “Belief that development and underdevelopment were not stages but part of the same process; that development and growth of some areas such as Western Europe were achieved at the expense of underdevelopment of dependent regions such as Latin America.”(World Civilizations G-7) And the Marxist critiques that were more tradition used this theory as a new kind of explanation. **-Marxism in Russia** In the early 1890s, a man by the name of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Vladimir Lenin, began to spread his modified version of Marxism. He believed that the proletariat was emerging in industrialization. Hence it was possible for Russia to have a proletariat revolution without a firm foundation of a middle-class. Lenin was responsible for creating a modernized Marxist group that was known as the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were created for the support of the majority party of the Marxist, but in turn happened to be a major supporter of the minority party. (World Civilization 656) Marxist ideas were able to become popular very quickly in this setting in Russia due to the oppressed peasants. The ideas of Lenin were favored greatly because the peasants did not want to be oppressed anymore and wanted to end the tyranny of the czars.

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