Russian History
Questions
By: Jenny Zhao and Chris Zhu
Who was Karl Marx?
Marxism
Karl Marx was a Prussian-German philosopher
• very significant role in the creation of social
sciences and the development of the socialist
movement
• came up with theories about society, economics
and politics which are collectively known as
Marxism
• Marx also stated that socialism would eventually
be replaced by a stateless, classless society
(communism)
Karl Marx
Summary of the Communist Manifesto’s main points
•Introduction: states that Europe fears communism,
should put forward their ideas
•Section 1 – Bourgeois and Proletarians: All societal
history is a history of class struggles
•The working class (proletariat) are exploited by the owners of the
means of production (bourgeois) through low wages and private
property
•The proletariat gain power through revolutions, and this class struggle
will always exist as long as there is capitalism
• Section 2 – Proletarians and Communists:
communists will do everything in their power to help the
proletarians' goals/needs
• will not form a separate group from the proletarians, or oppose them
• continues to defend communism, made lists of short-term
goals/demands like, remove inheritance, equal responsibility to work
• Section 3 - Socialist and Communist Literature:
distinguishes communism from all other kinds of
socialism
•Section 4 or Ending - “Position of the Communists in
Relation to the Various Opposition Parties”: Talks
about communist position in other countries (France,
Switzerland)
•Predicts world revolution against the bourgeois
•“Workers of the world, unite!”
Summerize the main idea of Das Kapital
•an analysis of political economy
•Volume 1 - meant to reveal contradictions of the
capitalist production method and that the class
struggle was caused by those social relations in
production
•Volume 2, The Process of Circulation of Capital explains main ideas behind the marketplace
•explains how value and surplus-value are
created
•in this volume, proletariat and the bourgeois,
but the money owner, merchant, trader and
entrepreneur (hence the marketplace)
•Volume 3, The Process of Capitalist Production as
a Whole - essentially says that as the fixed capital
(monetary) requirements of production increase the
rate of profit begins to fall
•Due to this trend/pattern, there will be an
eventual collapse of capitalism
•This collapse then needs that a completely
new form of production must be created
•Has 7 sections in this volume dividing each
subjects
Definitions
Capitalism: an economic system based on the private
ownership of the means of production, with the goal of
making a profit (America, Germany, India)
Socialism: an economic system characterised by social
ownership of the means of production and co-operative
management of the economy (China, Finland, Denmark)
Totalitarianism: a political system where the state holds
total authority over the society and has control of all
aspects of public and private life (North Korea, Soviet
Union, Nazi Germany)
Fascism: a form of radical authoritarian nationalism,
seeking to unify the nation through a totalitarian state that
promotes the mass mobilization of the national community
(Italy, Indonesia, Syria)
Democracy: a form of government in which all eligible
citizens have an equal say in decisions that affect their
lives (Canada, France, Australia)
Proletariat: a term used to describe the lower social class,
usually the working class
Capitalism