Abstract:
The Communist Revolution of China can not be clearly
classified as a Marxist revolution. A revolution
following the doctrine of Marxism would be set in an
industrialized nation with a substantial proletariate
population. The capitalists natural tendency to
achieve greater profit would steadily decrease the wage
until it was at the bare subsistence level, creating
intolerable living conditions. This leads to the
formation of more trade unions, as well as strengthening
existing ones, giving some power back to the workers. The
unions would eventually become strong enough to topple
capitalism and create a new system. Communism would solve
the problems associated with industrialization, without
sacrificing the advantages for the masses. People would
be willing to abolish private property because nine
tenths of the population have no property to abolish.
China was an undeveloped nation during its revolution.
Industry was just beginning, the far majority of the
population were still peasant farmers. The revolution was
achieve through armed conflict against the existing
government. The proletariat was too weak to overthrow
capitalism. Instead of unions fighting for more power, it
is one single army which forces the previous government
to flee, leaving the nation in the hands of the
revolutionaries. The end result is more or less the same,
but the paths were very different. Marxs outline of
the revolution was drastically different than
Chinas revolution of Maoism.