Chinese vs. Russian Communism: Which was more Marxist?
While Soviet and Chinese communism were both rooted in the ideas of Marxism, neither one of them was an accurate representation of true Marxism. In comparing the two different systems, we see that there are many differences between the Soviet idea of communism and the Chinese idea of communism. The first difference between these two systems has to do with the Land distribution. In the Soviet system, land was organized by collectivization. Stalin replaced the old system on private peasant farming with "collective farms" (kolkhozy) and "state farms" (sovkhozy), where peasants would work for the greater good of the proletariat under strict party supervision. In China on the other had, they had a social obligation where there was a goal set by the government, and any surplus product that the farmers made, they were allowed to use as they wanted. This system gives farmers incentive to produce more than the set goal for their own personal gain. Another difference has to do with the urban workers. In Russia there was forced urbanization when Stalin made people move to the cities. In China on the other hand, Mao's support was rural based, and people were kept out of the cities. Societal evolution is the next ground on which we see a main
difference. In Russia there was Industrial organization and economic determinism, which means that the economic base determines everything. In China however, societal evolution was politically driven because the Communist leaders thought that they had say in development. The elite class was different in these two countries as well. In the Soviet Union, there was a flourishing of the elite. During this time Russia was churning out scientists, mathematicians, playwrights, etc., whereas in China the Cultural Revolution destroyed the elite. Mao's enemies were the intellectuals, and it was these people that were killed during the Great Leap Forward, in which 30 million Chinese died. There is also no educational system in China because Mao was afraid of the production of any more educated people. Finally, the types of reform in China and Russia are completely different. The reform in the Soviet Union was a political reform, whereas the Chinese reform was completely economical and was characterized by the "Great Leap Forward". Some similarities between Russian and Chinese communism stem from the fact that Chinese communism was based to some degree on the Leninist system. Technology in the Soviet Union was initially technology driven, but there was no modernizing afterwards. In China this was somewhat ambiguous, but more similar than dissimilar. People are living in the rural areas of the country, but at the same time want to be involved in serious markets. However, because of the
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Approximate Word count = 1002
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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