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Essay on Communism in Crisis Question: The USSR was the pioneer for communism and so China had the

benefit of learning from the USSRs mistakes. To what extent do you agree with this statement? The collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991 meant two things to the world: the end of the Cold War and a possibility that the same fate may befall upon other communist states. Especially resounding was the signal for China, which had also been troubled with problems in the political, social and economic spheres for quite a few years. The collapse, along with other suggestive events preceding it, provoked further discussions on the actions taken by the USSR by Chinese scholars and leaders - and called for a reevaluation of Chinas own policies and the Partys goals. The Soviet Union, being a pioneer in communism provided a model on which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could depend on for the legitimacy of its own experiments and see the real-life demonstrations of various policies and strategies and their effects. Furthermore, despite the differing particularities and circumstances in each of the two nations, the lessons learnt from the Soviet Unions mistakes and failures lent themselves to China and the hindsight gained contributed to Chinas relative flexibility and adaptability that markedly distinguished it from the Soviet Union. One of the major concerns that both nations faced was one related to the economy. Though socialism, in theory, was supposed to provide quasi equal and ideal living conditions for the people, the countries were fraught with economic problems such as high inefficiency, overstaffing and low productivityi as their socialist economies lacked the economic mechanisms to address the problems. In the Soviet Union, attempts to dramatically reform the structure of the economy and sustain the changes for a long term eventually came with Mikhail Gorbachev, though rather late by then. His predecessors had made moderate reforms, as the bureaucratic upper layers in the party served to hinder drastic ones, to the system, with Brezhnev and Kosygins introduction of the wage system and social wage and Andropovs campaigns. However what Gorbachev had inherited was still a rigid, state-run economy insensitive to market forces, currency fluctuations or ordinary human incentives ii, which called for much more modifications and fixing. In trying to accommodate more market elements in the system, Gorbachev compromised the short term gains for long term ones and attempted to sweeten the economic medicine with political reforms. iii However, people were intensely dissatisfied and later uncooperative - with the current situation at hand and once again, the bureaucratic layer resisted the reforms and effectively intervened in those that would remove their privileges, thwarting the progress of the policies and contributing to the bankruptcy that broke the nation. Learning from

the USSR the perils of extreme bipartisanship, China had settled the most significant political split in the CCP, one between the Gang of Fours Leftists and Dengs Rightists, through the trial of the Gang of the Four and there was bipartisan support for reforms from the two contending factions, Huas Whateverists and Dengs Rightists. Also China, deviating from the path followed by Mao and the USSR, publicly stated that it doesnt matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice iv and often resolved itself of the ideological conflicts that strangled the USSR when implementing reforms. Eliminating the possible obstacles allowed for a smoother implementation of reforms and the success of the reforms, which brought many positive results to the country such as an annual GDP growth rate of 11% by 1987 and therefore a general increase in wealth (though it is questionable to whom most of it went to) and silenced many criticisms. Other critical problems, now more focused in the political arena, that both nations faced were the treatment of the deceased leader and the position of the party in society. The two problems were interrelated in both cases as the deceased leaders Stalin in the USSR and Mao in China gave the foundations on which the parties were able to validate their claim to power exerted on the countries. In the USSR de-Stalinization despite efforts to rehabilitate Stalin by other leaders in between - initially started with Khrushchevs Secret Speech and further developed through Gorbachevs glasnost, which revealed the past acts of the party and called for criticisms. Despite its other merits, de-Stalinization led to confusion and peoples disillusionment and cynicism with the party, which at this point had already been losing its grasp on the country with other policies that gave autonomy and freedom in various areas. Such disappointment and loss of faith in the party led to an increase in tension in society and pessimistic attitudes that are not very helpful to any country trying to have a New Beginning. Furthermore, as professor of at Tsinghua University claims, de-Stalinization led to the disastrous consequences of denying the history of the Soviet Union, and finally opposing the systems and goals of communism v. Though quite dramatic, these words reflect upon the loss of identity in people and the nation as it went through an overly speedy removal of a figure that was once so central in every spheres of life. Learning the values of retaining links back to the past leaders, especially the one with most contribution to the establishment of the party, China officially - never went any further than admitting that Mao was 70% right and 30% wrong though the party did overlook moderate criticisms of Mao from the citizens as long as they didnt go overboard. Even when the party implemented reforms, such as those that introduced market elements, that contradicted Maos words, it insisted that it was adhering to [the Four Cardinal Principles] including Mao Zedong Thought.vi Though the truthfulness behind these words is certainly debatable, the words and the constant reference back to Mao reflects the party s eagerness to maintain the connections on

which the legitimacy of the party lies and the positive outcomes reflect the effectiveness of the partys maintenance of full control over various aspects of life. For certain, China has managed to differentiate its own strategies from the former communist superpower and avert some of the devastating consequences it faced in its times. However, many of Chinas approaches include smoke screen and manipulation of words which deter but do not propose solid solutions to the problems at hand. The question of China s identity and its position on the crossroads between socialism and capitalism may resurface back and peoples discontent, as once ostensibly expressed through the Tiananmen Square demonstration of 1989, with the increasing gap between the elites and the rest may conceive a force that runs counter and poses real threats to the party. China has avoided, until now, the economic bankruptcy and the collapse that ended the USSR: but now it is up to the Chinese Communist Party to come up with real solutions and to transform deterrence into solvency of crises. Works Cited:

Todd, Allan. "History for the IB Diploma Communism in Crisis." Pearson, n.d. FarmerJ.John. Capitalism Is How China Differs From Soviet Union. The Seattle Times

ii

, 1998/July/1: 1.
iii

Todd, Allan. "History for the IB Diploma Communism in Crisis." Pearson, n.d. Xiaoping, Deng. Communist Youth League conference . Beijing, July 1962. Shulin, Liu. "Four lessons from the collapse of the Soviet Union ." n.d.

iv

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2011-05/20/content_22605700.htm.
vi

Extracts From Deng's speech. 1979/March/30.

english.peopledaily.com.cn/denxp/vol2/text/b1290.html.

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