Communism Before and After: A Look at Communism in Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia

Communism Before and After: A look at communism in Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia

Communism is a conceptualized system of government in which resources and production facilities are the property of the entire society rather than individuals. In a communist society, labor is shared equally, as well, and the benefits of labor are distributed according to need. Under such a system, all people would be equal, without class stratification. Although the basic idea of communism has existed since the time of Plato, modern communism is identified with the system of government described by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels in the "Communist Manifest". They believed that capitalistic systems, in which the rich upper class prospered through the exploitation of the powerless lower class, were bound to destroy themselves. At this point, the poor would rebel against their former oppressors and form classless society. This prophecy has never come true, and countries who have attempted to base their governments on communism have ultimately failed to achieve the utopia described by Marx and Engels. Again, traditional communism is the common ownership of the means of production within society. The reference to communism in the book of Acts is having all things in common. "And all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Acts 2:45 The early kind of communism was practiced is different than what communism became . It was not, to be sure, an arbitrary communism and bears no relation to communists of today but the principle on which it was based was communistic. Individuals who lived under the beginnings of communism held jobs, bought and sold and made a profit on their earnings, much like you would see in an ideal social democracy. This was the spirit of Pentecost; the beautiful outpouring of unselfishness that was soon to be lost. It was the result of a spiritual oneness that should be an example to today.

To a Marxist, communism solved the enigma of history. For the purposes of this paper communism is looked at as a movement and consciousness of movement advancing towards the highest form of social organization. It settles the question of men and nature, existence and essence, freedom and necessity, individual and collectiveness. In theory it looks to solve all these questions and it mindfully attempts to solve them. With its criticism of oppression and expectations of a better world, Marxist communism started as a rational eschatology, in many ways asking to restore prophetic ideals. With the appearance of Communism within East European countries, particularly Soviet communism, however, the rational and eschatological setting was discarded and only the tyranny and atheism remained. Within this essay communism will be discussed as it played out in Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

World War II began in Europe in September 1939, as a struggle between Germany and the Allies, the group of nations led by France and Great Britain. Romania remained neutral at first. By June of 1940, Germany had gained a great military advantage over the Allies. Germany allowed Hungary to take northern Transylvania from Romania. The Soviet Union took part of northeastern Romania. Bulgaria took territory in the southeast. The territorial losses turned the people against King Carol, and he gave up his throne on Sept. 6, 1940. Carol's son Michael became king, but Premier Ion Antonescu ruled. Antonescu cooperated with Germany, and German troops occupied Romania in October. Romania then joined the war on the side of Germany. By August 1944, the tide of the war had turned against Germany. King Michael then overthrew Antonescu, and Romania joined the Allies. The war ended in 1945, and the Allies took northern Transylvania from Hungary and returned it to Romania. The Soviet Union and Bulgaria kept the Romanian territory they had taken. There were many adjustments that had to be made in order for Romania to switch to the communist agenda.

Romania, with its' very fertile land and plentiful resources went through the majority of its communist era under the reign of one man, Nicolae Ceauseseu. There were times when Romania saw the good economic benefits of communism during the 1970s in particular. Then a decision changed all that, Ceauseseu decided to concentrate the country's resources to heavy industrialization rather than agriculture. With this huge investment also came high debt. To compensate, Ceauseseu began to export heavily however, this tactic hurt instead of help.



Ceauseseu made many decisions that effected Romania in a negative way, during most of the communist era Romania experienced the second lowest standard of living in eastern Europe. In conclusion, Romania suffered more in the communist period under the reign of Ceausescu bringing the fact to life that when one central figure makes all of the decisions, a whole country can suffer the consequences.

Poland's sign of political change was under the communist political approach and was lead by dictator Joseph Stalin. He made a name for himself with a trademark of brutality which included prison camps and executions. This was only the beginning, Poland endured communism for nearly half of the 20th century. Nikita Krushchev was Stalin's successor. He was determined to "thaw" Stalin's crimes which virtually faded away from the minds of the citizens. Communist leadership attempted to destroy all social and class boundaries. The political party boasted better housing, education and medical care for the citizens. Looking back to World War II, which was started for Poland's sake, Poland was confronted with the enormous military might of the enemies and having no assistance from France and Britain, which were unprepared for war, Poland was forced to suffer a military defeat. The struggle ended at the beginning of October. Under the German-Soviet Treaty of September 28, 1939, dividing Poland into two partition areas, the Rivers Pisa, Narew and Bug became the borderline between the occupying powers. When the German Reich fell on May 8 or 9th, 1945, and the most bloody of wars was ending, Poland was theoretically in the group of the victorious allies. Polish soldiers had been fighting the Germans from the first to the last day of the war. Among all nations, however, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens, who fell in the struggle or were murdered as a result of the occupiers' policy of terror--a total of 6 and a half million people, including almost all the Jewish Poles. The capital city was annihilated, material and cultural losses were tremendous. In addition, Poland emerged from the war with a government imposed from the outside and made