Communism began in the early 19th century in response to the problematic beginnings of modern capitalism (Bottomore 11). At that time communism was the basis for many political settlements, most of which eventually failed. The concept itself was created by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, the concept, though, proved only to be effective in theory. Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in a place called Trier, in Prussia. His parents were of Jewish descent, however they did not practice Judaism (Payne 17

Now that I have looked what communism really was, I needed to find out how it made it's way from the Soviet Union into Poland. After WWII, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met in order to divide the Europe into "zones of influence" (Ascherson 137). This meeting would forever become known as the conference at Yalta. Much blame has been placed on Churchill and Roosevelt for allowing communism to take power in Poland, but most of the blame should be placed on Stalin. After the negotiations, Poland was plunged into a state of communism that it would not break out of for many years.

So, then, how has this affected Poland and its people? Well Communism effected probably effected the economy of Poland the most. The way people spend money greatly effects how they live. In the case of Poland's economy, it may be the fall of communism that contributed to their economic blunders. The introduction of higher meat prices led to strikes in factories near Warsaw. A wave of labor unrest began to spread through the country, and many industries and services were disrupted. Workers' demands for higher wages, however, developed into protests against the economic and political management of the country (Ascherson 163). Once communism lost its grip on Poland, the countries economic problems did not end. Poland was left with large foreign debts and their industries were not very competitive with other countries (Clark/Wildavsky 20). It was around this time that my interview partner, Ziggy, moved to the United States because he and his family were experiencing economic hardships like thousands of other polish citizens.

Joseph Stalin's rule in no way resembled the utopia that Marx and Engels envisioned. Even 30 years after Stalin's death the USSR was still ruled by command, not consent. It is ironic, though, because this led to the collapse of the Soviet Communism Party and the termination of the USSR. Joseph Stalin was born on 21 December 1877 to Ekaterina Georgievna and Vissarion Ivanovitch Dzhugashvili (Rigby 19). Vissarion, Stalin's father, was a drunkard and very cruel to his young son. Ekaterina, Stalin's mother, was a washerwoman to support the family. The first three of Vissarion and Ekaterina's kids had died shortly after their birth, so Stalin grew up as an only child. When Stalin was still a young boy he got small pox, which left his face scared forever. His first school was a little church school in Gori (Rigby 19). Gori was full of socialist movements and the Czarist government wanted to educate priests to fight the revolutionary ideas. He entered the school in 1894 for the study of priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church. Soon Marxist ideas

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Approximate Word count = 1808
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)