Communism and Environment Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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As an ecoomic concept, Communism represents the establishment of communes, where large numbers of people work for the collective good. For many people during the 19th century, an agricultural cooperative was seen as a good idea in theory. However, many of these cooperatives failed. Robert Owen’s establishment of New Harmony in Indiana in 1825 was one of the best-known of these cooperative ventures, but it failed. There was then the influence of Charles Fourier, who promoted the concept of communes. Both Brook Farm and Fruitlands, run by the Transcendentalists during the 1840s, failed within a few years of their formation. A large number of similar cooperatives in Latin America during the middle of the 19th century also failed.

The Communist Manifesto of 1848 by Karl Marx advocated the idea that Communism would be the last stage of Socialism, at which time goods would be so abundant that they could be distributed on the basis of need rather than endeavor. It was in support of this idea that the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’s Party, which came to power during the Russian Revolution of 1917, changed its name to the All-Russian Communist Party in 1918. Soon afterwards many of its allied parties in other countries also changed their name to Communist Party, although a few continued to operate under other names, but stated that their doctrines were “Communist.”

Soviet Union: Ukraine

Communism in practice was very different to Communism as a theoretical construct. In the Soviet Union, the first task for the new government was to try to repair the damage during World War I and the Russian Civil War. Economically the country was in poor shape, and the industrial base, which was weak at the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917, was in tatters by the end of the wars. This led to what became known as War Communism, which lasted from June 1918 until March 1921, and the introduction of policies such as the expropriation of private business and also the nationalization of all industries, along with the forced requisition of surplus grain and other foods from peasant farmers. These measures damaged both agricultural and industrial production, reducing the incentives for people to grow surplus grain, and it also encouraged secret hoarding by many peasants. The result was that by 1921, industrial production had fallen to 20 percent of the level in 1913, with wages falling by one-third.

The resulting public discontent led to demonstrations and strikes, which were part of the cause of the Kronshtadt Rebellion of March 1921. This led to the Communists delaying their plans to introduce a socialist economic system by decree, and the introduction of their New Economic Policy. The Communists, therefore, had to embark on a massive campaign of industrialization. Vast factory complexes were built, the mining sector was expanded, and the plan was to build an economy based on coal, iron ore, and steel.

The workers who had supported the Communists coming to power in the Soviet Union also had to be housed after the Russian Civil War. The devastation that had taken place in the countryside had resulted in an influx of many people into the cities. To deal with the housing shortage quickly, many drab apartment buildings were erected on the outskirts of many of the main cities throughout the Soviet Union. This was combined with an upgrading of public transport to bring these people from satellite suburbs into work at factories and in cities. There was also the building of resorts along the Black Sea and other warmer regions.

In 1932 and 1933, millions of Ukrainian peasants starved when vast grain reserves were requisitioned by the government to feed the people in the cities. In spite of a drought and reduced harvest yields, the government under Stalin advocated farm collectivization for economic reasons, or as many suggest, to stifle any resistance to collectivization and eliminate nationalist sentiments.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June1941 destroyed vast tracts of western Russia, and then in the guerilla wars that followed. Once again, the Soviet Union had to devote much of its resources to providing housing for the people rendered homeless after the war, with many drab office blocks and apartment buildings being erected in many of these cities such as Minsk, Smolensk, and Kiev. After World War II, the Soviet Union embarked on a nuclear power and nuclear weapons program. Two underground nuclear test sites were established-at Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Circle, and at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.

Soviet Union: Asia and Mongolia

With the introduction of Communism into Central Asia, large cities were built either for administrative or military reasons, as well as close to sites of mining or industrial ventures. Soviet urban planners laid out enormous city complexes such as Alma-Ata (founded in 1854 as the small garrison town of Verny). The Soviet Union also used Kazakhstan and other parts of central Asia for military installations and parts of their space program. Many towns and cities, such as Chkalovsk in Tajikistan, were closed to foreigners. The development of new farmland was introduced with the Virgin Lands program. Massive infrastructure projects saw the construction of large dams and power plants such as those on the Dneiper River. Nuclear power also initially seemed to provide much cheap electricity, but the Chernobyl accident in 1986 created massive awareness of widespread pollution, not just in the nuclear field, but also industrial pollution and the prevalence of chemical waste, especially in some parts of central Asia.

Communism in Mongolia also led to many changes in the country. Initially after the death of Lenin in 1924, Stalin was content to allow Mongolia some level of independence-the proclamation of the Mongolian People’s Republic took place in 1924, making Mongolia the first Communist nation outside the Soviet Union.The moves introduced by Sükhbaatar, the leader of the Mongolian People’s Party, were initially moderate; but in 1920 Choibalsan became the minister of foreign affairs, and started to dominate the economic life of the country. Land was seized from landlords and handed over to peasants or turned into cooperatives. It has been estimated that 27,000 people (including 17,000 monks)-up to 3 percent of the population at the time-were killed. Gradually the moves became more extreme, with harsh punishments for any form of dissent. As with the Soviet Union, large numbers of office blocks and drab apartment buildings were erected in Ulan Bator and in newly created cities throughout the country. Although infrastructure was good during much of the Communist period, it was costly, and as soon as Communism ended, massive social problems arose with much of the population unprepared to adapt to free market policies.

China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba

The Communist victory in China in 1949 resulted in the whole of China being put under central planning for the first time. Initially, the changes were minor and administrative in many areas, with so much of the population at peace in the country since the warlord period of the 1920s, the civil war, the war with Japan and the final stage of the civil war from 1945 until 1949. China’s industry was badly damaged in the fighting, as well as substantial amount of the country’s infrastructure-roads, railways, hospitals, and schools. This meant that the new government had to divert many resources to these projects, as well as to sending soldiers to Korea from 1950 to 1954, and giving support to other friendly governments such as North Vietnam.

After land reform, the breakup of the big estates, and destruction of the landlord class, the next program embarked by the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong was to see through his plans for the industrialization of the country. The Great Leap Forward campaign of 1958-60, urging for the creation of a large steel industry, failed because it relied too heavily on small producers rather than major factory projects. This policy was gradually reversed, but the economic advancement of the country was dramatically affected with the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that started in 1966. It put ideology ahead of economic progress and led to major economic, cultural, and social problems, which were to plague China for many years. With the rise of Deng Xiao-ping, the Communist Party’s role remained unchallenged, but a capitalist economy was introduced.

Although there were environmental advances made in China during this period, there was little protection of wildlife. However, the panda bear became heavily identified with the country, and panda bears were given to zoos around the world as a gesture of goodwill and friendship.

Other Communist countries around the world experienced varying levels of success with their economic policies. In North Korea, collectivization started soon after the Communists came to power in 1945. Korea had long been isolated from the rest of the world, and after the Korean War of 1950-54, the Communist leader Kim Il Sung isolated his country even further by introducing his Communist concept of Juche, by which the North Korean economy was able to become wholly independent. Their industrial wealth was largely responsible for this, but North Korea has always suffered from its lack of agricultural land. When the harvests failed in the late 1990s, mass starvation followed.

North Vietnam and Cuba, also Communist countries, tried to engage with the rest of the world after Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro, respectively, came to power. However, they quickly became identified too strongly with Communist China and the Soviet Union; Vietnam eventually broke with the Chinese and allied with the Soviet Union.

Disasterous Consequences

The most extreme form of Communism was in Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot launched their hardline Maoist policies of collectivization within hours of coming to power. They evacuated the cities and towns, and tried to recreate an agricultural society. It was a disaster, with up to a million people killed by the regime or dead from disease, malnutrition, or overwork. It ended in December 1978 when Communist Vietnam invaded and established its client regime, the People’s Republic of Kampuchea, with a civil war fought from 1979-91. There have also been Communist governments in Africa: Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. All three had been former Portuguese possessions, with the first two enduring long wars against pro-Western guerilla movements backed by South Africa and the United States.

The environmental policies of Communist countries have varied considerably, with many facing severe shortages of resources because of wars. Underdevelopment and restrictions on movement, as well as on private land development, have helped some natural resources survive. However, many other areas have become badly polluted because of economic mismanagement and the lack of concern of some officials for the natural environment. While wildlife diversity and national parks were created in some countries, flora, fauna, and the environment have suffered badly in other areas.

Bibliography:

R. Bawden, The Modern History of Mongolia (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968);
Mark Elvin and Lieu Ts’ui-jung, , Sediments of Time: Environment and Society in Chinese History (Cambridge University Press, 1998);
Jean Esmein, The Chinese Cultural Revolution (Andre Deutsch, 1975); Robert Maxwell, , Information U.S.S.R. (Pergamon Press, 1962);
P. Nettl, The Soviet Achievement (Thames and Hudson, 1967);
J.K. Sanders, The People’s Republic of Mongolia (Oxford University Press, 1968).