WW Chapter 22: The Rise and Fall of Communism

I remember watching the wall between East and West Germany be torn down on TV. The collapse of the Berlin wall symbolized so much in terms of reuniting Germany and also in terms of the fall of communism. What I hadn't learned very much about was the history of how communism spread, and how it declined in so many countries.

I found the story of Russia to be very interesting. I remember growing up calling it the USSR, and after reading this chapter I feel that I know more about how it became to be such a large collection of different nations all under one flag, and also how it failed. A major red flag (no pun intended) in it's development is that communism was forced upon so many of the countries. To be honest, reading about how bad of an idea that ended up being has me a little more worried about the idea of pushing democracy on a country like Iraq and expecting it to stick. It was also amazing to me that the revolution in Russia happened so quickly. I imagine there were a number of components that all allowed it to be so rapid, but still it is pretty amazing considering the size and history of the country.


In terms of China, it seems like as a country it has changed so much from the original vision which the communist party had for it. They have gone from Mao combating capitalist tendencies within the Communist Party itself, to the kind of "free market socialism" that seems to be the driving force of China's now-booming economy. I do have to say, though, that China has really been able to make this hybrid system work far better than I or anyone who was talking about China 10 years ago seems to have predicted.

I was glad that they included a small analysis at the end of the chapter which examined the good and bad inherent in socialism. I think that especially in the U.S. it is used almost as a derogatory term, when in fact most of the developed nations have socialist policies in place in their countries. In fact, if you look at the top places to live in terms of quality of life (http://www.internationalliving.com/Internal-Components/Further-Resources/quality-of-life-2010) you will notice that many of the countries at the top of the list tend to favor more socialistic approaches to problems. So even as we examine the shortfalls of the communist regimes that have existed in history, lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater and ignore the benefits that can be reaped by integrating aspects of socialism into our own lives.