Communism in its modern form grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe that argued capitalism caused the misery of urban factory workers. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels offered a new definition of communism in The Communist Manifesto. In the 20th century, Communist governments espousing Marxism–Leninism came to power, first in the Soviet Union with the 1917 Russian Revolution, then in Eastern Europe, Asia, and other regions after World War II. By the 1920s, communism had become one of the two dominant types of socialism in the world, the other being social democracy. For most of the 20th century, a third of the world's population lived under Communist governments. These were characterized by one-party rule, rejection of private property and capitalism, state control of economic activity and mass media, restrictions onfreedom of religion, and suppression of opposition. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many governments abolished Communist rule. Only a few nominally Communist governments remain, such as China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. Except North Korea, these have allowed more economic competition while maintaining one-party rule. Communism's decline has been attributed to economic inefficiency and to authoritarianism and bureaucracy within Communist governments.
Problems of Peace and Socialism (Russian: Проблемы мира и социализма), often referred to by the name of its English-language edition World Marxist Review (WMR), was a joint theoretical and ideological magazine of communist and workers parties around the world. It existed for 32 years, until it closed down in June 1990. The offices of WMR were based in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Each edition of the magazine had a circulation of above half a million, being read in some 145 countries. At its height, WMR appeared in 41 languages, and editors from 69 communist parties around worked at its office in Prague. The master copy of the magazine was its Russian-language edition Problemy Mira i Sotsializma.
Charilaos Florakis (also Harilaos Florakis; Greek: Χαρίλαος Φλωράκης; 20 July 1914 – 22 May 2005) was a leader of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Florakis was born on 20 July 1914 in the village of Paliozoglopi, located near Agrafa in the Itamos municipality, prefecture of Karditsa, Greece. He joined KKE, in 1941. An ELAS partisan during the resistance to the Nazi occupation in World War II, Florakis was on the losing side of the Greek Civil War that followed the liberation of the country, and subsequently left the country.
On his return to Greece in 1954 he was arrested. During his life he spent 18 years in detention or jail - including being put in internal exile by the Greek colonels in the beginning of the 1967-74 military dictatorship. First elected to parliament in 1974, Florakis led KKE as its general secretary from 1972 until 1989, when, though still fit for the job, he announced his decision to step down from the party's top post and proposed Grigoris Farakos as his successor.
...that Moscow City Hall, built in the 1890s to the tastes of the Russian bourgeoisie, was converted by Communists into the Central Lenin Museum after its rich interior decoration had been plastered over.
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The Industrial Unions work in conjunction with the Communist Party and the Soviets. The activities of these three institutions are closely linked. To make clear the mutual relations of these bodies, it must be remembered that the Soviets actually include larger masses than the Industrial Unions themselves; also that the Soviets have taken over part of the functions of the Industrial Unions.
The Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party has given the following definition of the Party and of the Soviets: –
“The Soviets are the State organisations of the workers and poor peasants which effectuate the Dictatorship of the Proletariat during the period when the State in all its forms is gradually being extinguished. The Soviets unite within their ranks ten million workers, and, little by little, must strive to include the entire class of workers and poor peasants.
“The Communist Party, on the other hand is an organisation which takes in only the advance guard of the workers and poor peasants; only that part of these two classes which fights consciously for the practical application of the Communist programme. The aim of the Communist Party is to obtain a preponderating influence and complete control of all the workers’ organisations, the Industrial Unions, the Co-operatives, the rural Communes, and so on. The Communist Party strives specially to introduce its programme into the actual organisations of State – the Soviets – and to obtain complete control there. No doubt can exist that in the future the various existing organisations of the workers will be finally united in one form. It is useless to speculate to-day as to which form will prove the most durable. Our present duty is to determine precisely the mutual relations which should exist between the Communist Party, the Industrial Unions, and the Soviets.”
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