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Communism is a political and economic system that seeks to create a classless society in which all property and wealth are collectively owned, instead of by individuals. It was advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. This socioeconomic order was structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state. This political theory was derived from Karl Marx who is considered to be The Father of Communism. He was a German philosopher and economist who proposed the new ideology in his Communist Manifesto, which he wrote with Friedrich Engels in 1848.

Communism was adopted in Russia after the Russian Revolution (a series of revolutions that lasted throughout 1917). Russia was an absolute monarchy for centuries leading up to World War I. Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik party overthrew the provisional government formed by the Imperial Parliament and appointed themselves to all of the high offices and started implementing communist practices described by Marx.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the dictator and first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924. This period is best known as "Leninism." After taking control of the country, Lenin promised everyone “Bread, Land, and Peace” that were affected by the famine, further increasing the popularity of the party. However, when the Bolsheviks gained only 25% of the votes in the 1917 “elections,” Lenin overturned the results and used military force to prevent democratic assembly. Lenin designed the GOLERO Plan that brought electricity to the whole of Russia. He established a free healthcare system and free public education. He also established the CHEKA, a secret police force that defended the success of the Russian Revolution and censored and controlled anti-Bolshevik newspapers and activists.

After two failed assassination attempts, Lenin, following the advice of a military leader, Joseph Stalin, authorized the start of the Red Terror, an execution order of former government officials under the Czar and the Provisional Government, as well as the royal family. The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was a campaign of political repression and executions carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It started in late August 1918 after the beginning of the Russian Civil War and lasted until 1922. Cheka agents targeted any individual or group considered a threat to Bolshevik rule or policies. Among the victims of the Red Terror were tsarists, liberals, non-Bolshevik socialists, members of the clergy, kulaks (affluent peasants), foreigners, and political dissidents of all stripes.

Communism is terrible because a union of countries united by force never ends well. The Soviet Union is the major example. Communism still affects our world today even though we may not feel it. Some countries still live under communism and are not considered the best countries to live in. Therefore, communism never does any good for society.

Nowadays, it is a trend to support and praise communism. These trend followers do not understand what horrifying things happened to people living in the USSR, especially under Stalin and Lenin. Some people idolize Stalin today, but they do not know that he was one of the most terrible dictators in history. He sent 10,000,000 innocent people to labor camps where more than half died. There are still many countries living under communism such as China, North Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam. Therefore, communism still affects our world today.