Karl Marx's Ideas Of Communism

Karl Marx longed for the day that he could wake up in the morning and see equality of class, equality of possessions, equality of living standards, equality of everything. By writing The Communist Manifesto, he established the ideology that could create his fantasy; Communism. Although his book achieved popularity and critical praise, there were those who saw flaws and ways to improve Marx’s first ideas of Communism. However, when Vladimir Lenin had the opportunity to make his dream a reality, he does not stray from Marx’s ideas of the poor mixing in with the rich, the cut-down of the rich and a bringing up of the poor, to create an equal class under a government which would provide everything based on the hard work of every individual together
However, Lenin’s interpretation of some of his ideals, such as “flexible revolution.”Lenin failed to interpret that Marx meant an open door for revolution if the government corrupts, rather Lenin used the word to his own political advantage, most likely to lessen his people’s power and grow his own. Especially in his later years as leader of the Soviet Union, Lenin strayed from Marxist socialistic ideals and used much of his own ideology to run his country. “The [Russian] Revolution was successful in terms of its transfer of power from the provisional government to the vanguard Bolshevik party.”(Art of Polemics) That is to say, the Russian revolution did not produce the socialist society envisioned by Karl Marx. Instead, it was successful in giving
For instance, the “Abolition of property in land and application of all rent of land to public purposes.” that Marx presents in the Communist manifesto, is one thing that Lenin implemented into his new Communistic society. He also implemented the monopolization of all businesses to the government and the establishment of a national monopolized bank. Marx wanted the centralization of all means of transportation and production, and Lenin did exactly that by ratifying the Supreme Council for National Economy, which would oversee the transfer of such luxuries from private to government hands. Marx recognized that wealth was spread too thinly across the proletariat and the majority of wealth resided with the bourgeois. Therefore, Lenin not only introduced universal labor duty, but also established the Red Army to enforce the taking of wealth from the wealthy and giving it to the government to redistributed to society equally. From his letters, it is clear Lenin understood many of the principles of Marxist Communism, even using Marx’s “exploitation” diction to describe the bourgeois’ role in society. However, what is beautifully worded in principle is not always efficient in