Karl marx 4
Karl marx 4In the nineteenth century, it seemed as if the entire world was moving towards democracy. In the two decades between World Wars I and II, fascism was the main challenge to the democratic way of life. World War II destroyed the military ambitions of the fascist Axis, though. Before the end of World War II, communism surfaced as the next big threat to democracy. At the end of World War I, communism seemed as if it were just a Russian spectacle because Russia was the only communist state in the world. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Russia became the dominant military power in Europe, and the strength of Communist Russia was revealed. At the end of World War II, Russia quickly communized Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Eastern Germany.
It was not just the strength of the Russian armies the proved valuable in spreading communism, but also the force of communist ideology. Communism addressed itself to the world as the true heir of the libertarian, equalitarian democratic tradition. It accepted the democratic ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Its trouble with democracy was not that democracy was too faithful to its ideas, but that it betrayed them.
The most significant influence in the development of revolutionary communism was Karl Marx. Marx attended the University of Berlin and studied jurisprudence, philosophy, and history. While at the University, Marx became involved in political activities and joined the staff of the Rheinische Zeitung, a democratic newspaper in Cologne, in 1942. The next year, however, the Prussian Government suppressed the paper, and Marx went to Paris, the European headquarters of radical movements.
While in Paris, Marx met Proudhon, the leading French socialist thinker, Bakunin, the Russian anarchist, and Friedrich Engels, a Rhinelander like himself. Engels soon became Marx’s lifelong friend. In 1845, Marx was expelled from France and he went to Brussels, another center of political refugees from all over Europe. There, Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto with the help of Engels. The Communist Manifesto is said to be the most influential of all Marx’s writings.
In 1849, Marx went to London with Engels soon to follow. Marx stayed there until his death in 1883.
Marx writings show a great knowledge of the English economic system. Marx’s analyses of the capitalist system have influenced the making of history even more than the writing of history.
In German philosophy, Hegel greatly influenced Marx. Similar to Hegel’s beliefs, Marx believed that history had meaning, and that it moved in a set pattern toward a known goal. Marx believed that history had both a meaning and a goal, and the historical process was dominated by the struggles between social classes. Each phase of struggle represented a higher phase of human evolution than the preceding one. Hegel and Marx had shared views on...
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