Let’s Learn About the Cold War: Part 3 - Communism Published July 29, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- To discuss the core conflict of the Cold War, we have to understand its roots. Communism is a political ideology focused on building a socioeconomic order without social classes, without money and without a governing body. There are many different takes on communism, but with the Soviet Union and the Cold War in mind, we're going to talk about Marxism-Leninism. We start with Karl Marx, a German philosopher, intellectual and revolutionary socialist. Marx's views were focused around the concept of class struggle, the idea that any capitalist society is divided into two groups: the people who work, and the people who profit from that work. Marx asserted that states favored the ruling class over the common man, and he believed that was fundamentally unjust. Marx wrote a great deal during his life, but the most notable with regards to the Cold War was The Communist Manifesto, published in 1849. This was a political pamphlet that spoke out against capitalism, advocated communism and called for reform. The closing line of The Communist Manifesto is this: "Working men of all countries, unite!" Marx's written work and beliefs influenced a man named Vladmir Lenin, a key Russian figure around the turn of the century. Lenin was an active revolutionary. Despite being exiled to Siberia for sedition, Lenin returned to Russia, hoping to take advantage of World War I to bring about change in his country. In 1917 Russia's Tsarist government was overthrown, creating a political opening for a new ruling party and ideology. Lenin assisted in a coup that led to the establishment of the government that would see Russia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics through much of the 20th century. Marxism was a doctrine intended to empower the common man, but Lenin brought his own spin to it. He proposed that a vanguard party was necessary to lead the working class in its revolution. While Marx had also mentioned the concept of such a party, Lenin added the notion that this party should retain power after a revolution to guide the emerging society. This sentiment was an early indication of where Soviet communism would lead. Marxism-Leninism became the groundwork for the Soviet society that began to take shape in the early 20th century, creating the world of thought that led to the Cold War in the wake of World War II. Communist rule was less utopian in practice than it had seemed on paper, but by 1948 the USSR was determined to spread its influence and doctrine. The West wasn't having it. Next Time: Stalin and Truman