Communist Ideologies: Soviet Union And Yugoslavia

Discussion Paper 1 During the 20th century ideology based on the readings of Karl Marx began to achieve major appeal to many societies in the world. Among two countries that adopted the communist ideology was the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. In understanding the transition from a monarchial system in regards to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia to the socialist revolution that cultivated a communist society, the preconditions for this should be examined to identify the factors which led to the structure for communism to be successfully administered and applied. These preconditions are usually symbolized by evaluating the class systems, the main source of obtaining capital, external support, and also catastrophic events such as war.
In analyzing …show more content…
At this time nationalism was proving to be a key issue in nation building because everybody was determining the identity of their nation. The charismatic leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, and Tito all determined the national identity of their country through their eyes. That is why the Soviet Union wanted to build itself internally without the aid of any other country because they viewed this would weaken their national identity because they would be forced to the influence from the aiding country and the Soviet Union achieved this. Although Tito was a charismatic leader who built the national identity of Yugoslavia, they accomplished this through having external support of the allies. Tito received assistance from the Allies to successfully overthrow the monarchial structure that was in place. Although they achieved this using external support, Yugoslavia proved that this could not affect their nationality. This can most notably be seen through his tensions with Stalin, in fact “Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalinism and confirmation of separate paths to socialism in 1956 seemed to clear the way for a rapprochement between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia” (Wegs, Ladrech p.112). This quote showed how Yugoslavia was building its own national identity and influence would not encroach upon it even from other communist …show more content…
For each group communism had its own appeal that identified with the needs of each group. The peasants were very willing to support communism because it allowed for redistribution of the land. This proved to be the case for Yugoslavia the citizens actually wanted communism to be implemented. Land redistribution was an influential topic for the peasants because many did not own the land that they worked on. In regards to the working class they approved of communism because they had plans to implement many social reforms that would create a better working environment, and also the emphasis on production allowed the job market to grow as well as for better jobs to form. The charismatic leaders supported communism because they saw it as the best model because it didn’t have the problems that the capitalistic government yielded. These leaders liked the authoritarian government they could implement through communism. They also saw communism as a method to dominate the economy and create more stability in it. They saw that having an economy built on the market was unstable because they could not control the prices but the through the nationalization element of communism they controlled all property and production. They used this to build the power of their country which at the time was through the production of heavy industry and the Gross National Product. Although communism