Communism in Europe

Defining Communism

Communism is best defined as a social, economic, and political philosophy that aims to create a classless society based on the communal ownership of property and the means of production. It seeks to abolish private property and many communist thinkers propose the eventual elimination of money, social classes, and even the state.

Karl Marx

The most important thinker associated with communism was Karl Marx, a German economist and political philosopher who proposed a revolutionary theory based on what he considered the contradictions of industrial capitalism. Much of his writing occurred during the period of the mid-1800s, when workers movements were emerging in much of Europe, including the creation of communes in a number of cities during the Revolutions of 1848.

Marx and Friedrich Engels developed a theory that industrial capitalism creates an inherent class conflict between the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class who own factories, land, and wealth, and the proletariat, or the working class. He considered that the capitalist class were exploiting the workers by making the majority of the money from the sale of finished products, only paying the workers a small wage.

Therefore, he proposed that they would eventually rise up and take control of the factories, what he called the means of production, for themselves.

Fig. 1 - Karl Marx

The Russian Revolution and Marxism-Leninism

While Marx held that communism would only emerge once industrial capitalism developed, the first communist revolution was actually in largely rural (and occupied by farmers), unindustrialized Russia. In 1917, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik communist party seized control in Russia.

Lenin argued that a smaller group of workers, what he called the vanguard, would lead the revolution, pushing the rest of the proletariat towards revolution through a "dictatorship of the proletariat." This ideology placed the communist party as the highest political power.

In practice, communist ideology is implemented through socialism, or state planning of the economy, with nationalization and state ownership of industry and raw materials and collectivization of agrarian production in large state-owned farms. This was seen as a means to move society towards eventual communism. Often, these policies were carried out through authoritarian means via a strong state that claimed to be working for the good of the population at large.

The Spread of Communism in Europe

A number of political parties around Europe proposed reforms in favor of workers, although often in a less radical form than Marx proposed. In many countries these Social Democratic parties achieved considerable support in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

While communist and socialist parties gained some support in Western Europe before and after the Second World War, the spread of communism in Europe was limited to the countries of Eastern Europe occupied by the Soviet Union after the end of World War II.

Spread of Communism in Eastern Europe

As World War II came to an end, the armies of the Soviet Union occupied the countries of Eastern Europe that had been occupied by or allied with Nazi Germany.

While there was some organic support for the communist parties in those countries, communism in Eastern Europe was established under a degree of imposition from the USSR. The tactics used to take power are often called "salami tactics" as the communist parties with the support of the Soviet Union worked to eliminate rivals and opposition parties one by one, culminating in one party communist rule in each.

See how communism in Eastern Europe was established in each of those countries in the table below.

Keep in mind that the modern-day independent countries of Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Georgia were formally part of the Soviet Union in this period as were a number of modern-day republics in Asia. This group of countries that practiced communism in Eastern Europe were often referred to as the Eastern Bloc or the Soviet Bloc.

Fig. 2 - Map showing communism in Eastern Europe³

Characteristics of Communism in Eastern Europe

While each country had different domestic politics and dynamics, there were a number of characteristics of communism in Eastern Europe they held in common with the Soviet Union.

All had centrally planned economies, with their governments usually imitating the Soviet Union with 5-year plans and political power vested solely in the communist party. They all joined the military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact and the economic union known as COMECON.

Soviet Control

While each of the Eastern Bloc countries were theoretically independent, they all were under the strong influence of Moscow. Soviet and Warsaw Pact intervention to prevent reform and democratic challenges to communist rule in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 were important moments of the Cold War in Europe and made it clear that in practice they had limited independence.

Communism in Western Europe

Especially in France and Italy, communist parties received large numbers of votes in elections following the war. Communist parties also held significant numbers of seats in legislatures in Belgium and the Netherlands. In Greece, communist rebels threatened to take over the government.

Stopping Communism in Western Europe: Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

In response to the spread of communism in Eastern Europe and fears of the further spread of communism in Europe, the US attempted to stop the spread of communism in Western Europe.

In 1947, US President Harry Truman called for the US Congress to approve military aid to Greece and Turkey to help prevent communist takeovers there. This philosophy of supporting governments fighting against communism became known as the Truman Doctrine.

The Marshall Plan, named after the US general who proposed it, was a massive economic aid package to Europe to help rebuild after World War II. The plan was partly based on the idea that economic crisis and instability would lead to more support for communism in Western Europe. Therefore, a key goal of this plan was not just to rebuild Europe but also to stop communism in Western Europe.

Renewed economic prosperity and the political tensions of the Cold War led to communist parties losing significant support by the mid-1950s, meaning the Marshall Plan was largely successful in stopping communism in Western Europe.

Fig. 3 - Map showing countries that received Marshall Plan Aid⁴

Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

The communist governments in Eastern Europe retained firm control throughout the Cold War period. In the few cases where resistance or calls to reform happened, such as those in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the USSR intervened to ensure the continuation of communism in Eastern Europe.

However, by the late 1980s, cracks in the system were beginning to grow. The communist countries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union faced economic stagnation and constant shortages of consumer goods. Discontent was constantly kept just below the surface. When it finally bubbled over, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe came swiftly.

Gorbachev and the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev instituted a number of reforms in the Soviet Union. Notably, his policy of Glasnost, or opening in Russian, allowed more freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and dissent.

More importantly for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, he signaled clearly to the other communist governments in the Warsaw Pact that the USSR would not intervene militarily to prevent protest and revolution as they had in Hungary and Czechoslovakia earlier.

Solidarity in Poland

The most significant challenge to the rule of communism in Eastern Europe emerged in Poland. The group known as Solidarity was originally a trade union founded in 1980, however it grew to be a broad coalition of groups advocating for democratic reform.

At first the Polish government attempted to repress it with martial law. However, mass protests occurred in 1988. Once Gorbachev signaled the USSR would not intervene to stop further protest, the government began a series of negotiations with the leaders of Solidarity known as the Round Table Talks.

The Round Table Talks resulted in elections for parliament in mid-1989, the first since 1947. Solidarity won in a landslide and headed a coalition government. Further fully free elections were held in 1990 for president and 1991 for parliament, resulting in the end of communist government in Poland.

Fig. 4 - Solidarity protests in Poland in 1989⁵

Solidarity's victory had shaken the Eastern Bloc to its core, and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe more broadly quickly followed. See how it fell in each country in the table below.

Fig. 5 - East and West Berliners meet atop the Berlin Wall which had previously closed the border between them in November 1989. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a powerful symbol of the end of communism in Europe⁶

In just a matter of months, nearly all the countries that had adopted communism in Eastern Europe had fallen. The Soviet Republics in Europe, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia all declared themselves independent by 1991.

The fall of communism in Eastern Europe marked the end of the Cold War and led to attempts to integrate these countries into a larger European system. Many have faced continued challenges to establish strong democratic institutions and stable economies in the wake of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.