· Political and economic theory that land, transport, the chief industries, natural resources e.g. coal, water, power etc., should be owned and managed by the state, and wealth equally distributed.
· In 1848, Karl Marx and Engels laid down the principles of scientific socialism in ‘communist manifesto’, and Marxism became the theoretical and marxismebame the theoretical basis for most socialist thought.
· Socialism was split in Russia between the reformist Mensheviks and r evolutionary Bolsheviks that led to the term socialism and communism as they are now generally understood.
NOTE:
· In 1991, communist party rule in Soviet Union collapsed following the failure of an anti-Gorbachov coup by communist hardliners. The constituent republics asserted their independence and the Soviet Union were officially dissolved on Dec. 25, 1991. In the same month commonwealth of independent states (C.I.S.), a looser organization with responsibility for economic & military co-hope ration, was formed by Russia, Ukraine & military Belarus. Nine other former soviet republics joined later. Now CIS is a community of 12 independence states. There former soviet republics (Baltic States) – Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania - are fully independent states. It is notable that Soviet Union was a federal state consisting of 15 separate republics.
CHINESE REVOLUTION:
1911 (republican revolution); 1949 (communist revolution).
· In Oct., 1911, a revolution under the leadership of sun yat – sen ousted the Manchu or Ch’ing dynasty and a republic was st up.
· However, first president san yat – sen resigned in1912, in favors of strongman Yuan shik – kai (1912 – 16).
· The period 1916 – 18, known as the warlord era, was one of great chaos, has a number of generals seized control of different provinces.
· A party known as the Kuomintang (KMT) or nationalists (formed by sun yat sen in 1912 ) was trying to govern china and control the generals who were busy fighting each other, the KMT leaders were sun yat sen and after his death in1925, general chiang kai – shek.
· The Chinese communist party(CCP) was founded in 1921, and at first it cooperated with the KMT in its struggle against the warlords.
· As the KMT gradually established control over more and more of china, it felt strong enough to do without the help of the communists, and it tried to destroy them.
· The communists, under their leader Mao tse – tse – tunge (Mao Zedong), reached vigorously, and after escaping from surrounding KMT forces, embarked on the 6000 mile march (oct. 1934 – oct. 35 ) to form a be power base in northern china.
· Civil war dragged on, complicated by japans interference with culminated in a full – scale in valision him 1937.
· When the Second World War ended with defeat for japans and their withdrawal from china, the KMT and CCP continued to fight it out.
· Chiang kai – shek had help from the USA, but in 1949 it was Mao tse – tunge and the communists who finally triumphed.
· Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters fled to island of Taiwan (Formosa).
· Mao tse – tune quickly established control over the whole of china, and he remained ladder unit ill his death in 1976.