VisionIAS - Video Classroom Lecture

World History Class 01

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS CLASS (01:05 PM)

MARXISM (01:06 PM)

In multi-party democracy, there is political capture by capitalists as per Marx. Therefore he desired a dictatorship of the proletariat/working class i.e. absolute will of the masses in a fully industrialized society.
Therefore Marx wanted direct democracy and not anti-democracy.
He desired a stateless society because he wanted complete decentralization of political power in the hands of the community (* Communism).
He also considered the State as an agent of Bourgeoise and for him Rule of Law of multi-party democracies was the Rule of Bourgeoise as parliaments were dominated by Bourgeoise.
He wanted decentralization of Economic power with control of factories in the hands of the workers and all decision-making powers with workers.
With the end of the profit motive, there would be production for social good. "From each according to his capacity and to each according to his need" was the motto of Marx.
Internationalism: Since capitalism is a global force therefore workers of the whole world need to unite to end capitalism. Marx wanted unity of workers irrespective of Nationality, language, ethnicity, color, etc.
Example- For him, racism is a tool of capitalism to prevent unity between black and white workers
Marx was anti-religion and favoured irreligion as a form of secularism. Religion is opium for the masses i.e. Pain-reliever which prevents the masses from revolting against oppression. For example- Christianity argues that Human is born to suffer.
Karl Marx was of the view that Wars and Colonialism are products of Capitalism as here the goal is to maximize the profits of capitalists by capturing new sources of Raw materials and Export markets. Therefore, at the global level also, capitalism leads to disharmony and inequality

Lala Lajpat Rai was the first Indian to link capitalism to colonialism+ Mahatma Gandhi argued that India has nothing to learn from a Godless Western Civilization whose only motive is profit motive without any concern for morality
Mahatma Gandhi wanted a stateless society but via non-violence and for absolute liberty for Individuals. While Marx wanted absolute power in the community
Mahatma Gandhi was against the use of class as it leads to hatred in society
[* In any factory, Interests of the capitalist class (i.e. Profits) ∝ 1/ Interests of the working class (wages)]
For Mahatma Gandhi, Class is a Western concept not suited to India and he favoured the Varnashram as a way to organize society

Gist of Karl Marx
Two issues of Marx: Power to make decisions @process, Production, and Polity and Money

MULTIPLE ROADS TO SOCIALISM (01:43 PM)

Socialism: The goal is the creation of an Egalitarian society.

Issue 1: Multiple Roads

One of the roads was provided by Karl Marx in the form of Marxism.

Issue 2: Revolutionary v/s Reformist

A socialist can be a Revolutionary i.e. Wants radical changes and Rapid changes

Reformist: Seeks milder changes, addressing only the negatives of capitalism, and prefers a slower pace.

Issue 3: Power to whom- State, Community, Individual.

Strong State: Jawaharlal Nehru, Leninists.

Power to Community: Karl Marx.

Power to Individual: Mahatma Gandhi.

Issue 4: Sector of Economy, or, Is the worker is the only possible vanguard of the communist revolution?

Yes	It is called Industrial communists (Example- Stalin), they want a rapid Industrial revolution, and they believe that communism will be secure only when the masses are workers
No	Then it is called Agrarian communists (Example- Maoists), they want a gradual Industrial revolution i.e. allocate more budget resources to Agriculture, they trust peasants and they do not view peasants as petty Borgeoise

Consequences: In Economy

Centralized

Decentralized

Urbanization and social uprooting of rural masses
Centralized Industrial Revolution
GDP will be more i.e. Machines do rapid mass production
Masses will be working-class
Less women empowerment
Cost of living is high in Urban areas therefore only men migrate while women handle family. Stereotypes are there that women can't handle big machines.
Rurals masses are uneducated
A strong military is present
Example- Stalin (1929-53) believed that there would be an attack from the capitalist West as they followed the rapid Industrial Revolution. Post Word War II, the USSR became a superpower

No uprooting thus the focus is on agriculture
Decentralized Industrial Revolution Example- 6 lakh small factories desired by Mao in China as per Great Leap Forward 1958/ Maoism
GDP will not be that much and hence less focus on industry.
Masses will be Ryots
More women empowerment
Agriculture has more women's participation
Here rural masses are educated.
A weak military is present

Marx: He was revolutionary, wanted to give power to the community, focused on the Industrial Revolution economy, and his method was Violence
In Russia,
Mensheiviks were strict followers of Marx because the Russian economy was not industrialized therefore did not want to attempt revolution and wanted to wait for the Industrial Revolution
Bolsheviks like Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin wanted revolution as soon as possible and wanted to do Industrialization after the revolution (I.e. First take political power, end private property, and then do industrial revolution )
Bolsheviks wanted a strong state i.e. one-party system i.e. using the power of the state to preserve communism in the USSR (1920) and spread it in the world.
Russian Revolution (October 1917)
Civil War (1918-1920): Bolsheviks v/s Whites + USA, British, Japan etc
During Russian Civil War (1918-20): War Communism i.e. Policies adopted to win the Russian Civil War
a) All factories now of state
b) Peasants followed only minimum produce, the rest all taken by the state
c) Above to meet needs of Red Army or Bolshevik army
Result of the war communism
i) Won the Russian Civil War and Creation of the USSR in 1920
ii) But the economy was devastated as now no incentive for peasants to produce and the Russian economy is agrarian
[* New Economic Policy, 1921-29 is not equal to Communism but equal to Fabianism or Mixed economy]

LENINISM (02:46 PM)

Leninism (1921-29) (he died in 1925)
Large-scale Industry: Ownership of State
Small-scale industry: Ownership of the private was allowed
Trade of goods from Small scale industries: Private sector was allowed
Private ownership of agriculture plots was allowed
Budget resources: More to the Agriculture sector as the masses were peasants therefore they should experience positives from the new regime
The goal was the Stability of the USSR, In 1921 USSR signed a Trade and investment agreement with Britain for FDI in the USSR
Therefore, Lenin was practical and pragmatic. [* Notice how Lenin took the help of capitalist Britain]
Lenin built a strong centralized state.

STALIN (1929-53)

No faith in peasants ===> He did rapid Industrialization
He hated propertied class ===> He ended Private property with respect to Agriculture and Industry
He believed in future attacks from the West ===> Allocated more Budget resources to Industrialization and Military (Proven right in June 1941 when Germany attacked)
He was a dictator ===> No economic decentralization i.e. no control of factories with workers and engaged in purges i.e. imprisoned, exiled, and killed opponents within the country. He also set up Gulags i.e. concentration camps like Hitler where forced labor in factories and farms.
There was high use of secret police and control of media (i.e. no freedom of the press), Indoctrination in education, and no anti-communism/ no anti-communist party/ no Lenin/ no Stalin/ no anti-marx articles or movies or novels were allowed.
Stalin won World War II and made the USSR the superpower. [* Atomic bomb 1949, Hydrogen Bomb 1953]
He began the Cold War (Truman doctrine (1945-53) v/s Stalin (1929-53))
He provided social security to workers but struggled in the domain of food security.
Stalin brought Five Year Plans.

NIKITA KRUSCHEV (1953-64) (03:08 PM)

He was famous for Destalinization in domestic and foreign affairs.
Domestic affairs
a) Polity
i) Revealed details of Stalin's purges
ii) Critisized Stalin within the Party
iii) Decreased cult of personality
iv) Allowed some freedom of speech but still party, Stalin, etc can't be criticized
v) Ended Gulags
b) Economy
i) Small Private plots allowed peasants for more earnings apart from wages from work in collective farms. One collective farm was roughly 1500 families which began during the time of Stalin.
ii) In factories- Bonuses and piece wage rates were introduced to boost GDP, therefore, bringing some profit motive.
In International Affairs
Tried to decrease the tensions in the Cold War
"Peaceful coexistence with capitalist west is imperative to prevent Nuclear catastrophe", as, by 1953, both USA and USSR had hydrogen bombs.
USSR lifted veto on entry of capitalist countries into the UN. Similarly, The US also lifted the Veto on the entry of eastern communist countries and the UN became more representative.
The Cold War did not end but tensions came down.

BREZHNEV ERA (1964-84) (03:22 PM)

This is also called an Era of Stagnation as no reforms in the economy, the prevalence of huge corruption in bureaucracy, and the escalation of the Cold War.
This era is also known for the Brezhnev Doctrine: "USSR will intervene if communism is threatened in a country."
He invaded Poland in 1968, and Afghanistan (1979-89).

MIKHAIL GORBECHEV (1985-91)

It will be discussed in the Cold War

CHINA (03:27 PM)

Maoism (1949-76)

It is also known as "Agrarian Communism". It is also known as the Great Leap Forward (1958-76)
Reason for Great Leap Forward 1958
From 1949-58, they followed the USSR-like Model: Rapid industrialization; Centralized Industrialization i.e. Big factories in Urban areas; 5-year plans i.e. command economy; No Private property; In agriculture- organizing peasants into collective farms where 1500 families do joint production.
But then in 1954, a feedback campaign revealed people demanding capitalistic features like those brought by the USSR (By Nikita Kurschev) and some demanded even political reforms i.e. opposed one-party system.
Mao believed now that the USSR model of Big factories and Urbanized industry led to the strengthening of Bourgeoise government servants i.e. engineers and managers. Thus he criticized Nikita Kurschev publically. This led to the worsening of USSR-China relations.
Great Leap Forward 1958/ Maoism
The focus was on the agriculture sector i.e. more budget resources for agriculture
Also, China was an agrarian economy i.e. masses were rural Ryots, therefore it increased political stability for the Chinese Communist Party (1921).
Organized Ryots into communes which were much bigger than the collectives of the USSR.
Also, the commune was made a unit of local self-government. It was given money and power to implement small projects. Example- Irrigation, Schools, Hospital projects, etc. Therefore, at the local level, the element of self-government was a positive beginning.
To enable rural masses, the government allocated engineers, and doctors to commune. Also, the party cadre attached to communes gave feedback to the government on grievances.
Therefore, by 1976, empowered and educated masses lived in the countryside.
Gist of the Great Leap Forward:
In Agriculture, no private property, and the property owner was the community.
Members of the commune engaged in joint production and got wages.
Also, the government procured agricultural goods from communes and redistributed them for consumption in the country.
Therefore peasants were agrarian workers doing joint production
In Industry, there was gradual industrialization.
Decentralized industrialization by having 6 lakh factories spread across villages and making tools for the use in Agriculture sector.
Less focus on machines and more focus on labour-intensive industries.
The reason was generating employment for a huge population.
Overall, Mao revised the principles of Marxism in line with the context, and the economy of China.
The goal was to achieve food security, and employment and to preserve communism.

Analogy of the Economic Model
Mao: Bullock Cart
USSR: Ambassador/ Alto
Deng Xiaoping (1976-89): Alto with the engine of Range Rover (In polity using communist features but in Economy, using capitalist features) i.e. Money from a capitalistic economy was used to preserve the communist polity.

DENG XIAOPING: MARKET SOCIALISM (04:10 PM)

Even within the communist party, there can be right-wing.
One-party system in polity.
Capitalism in Economy.
In fact, the state via its PSUs will compete in an economy with the private sector achieving efficiency for PSUs.
Today, 1/3rd of GDP in China by PSUs
Some call the Chinese system "State Capitalism."
The state does not just earn taxes but it wants to earn by selling goods and services in the economy.
Members from the communist party are present on the board of Private companies, to ensure that the state can give directions if desired.
SEZ Model (Special Economic Zone) i.e. created a new country for economic purposes (not political purposes).
The Non-SEZ model was like a containment zone. In Non-SEZ it was a communist economy and in SEZ there was a capitalist economy.

A special economic zone is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country.
SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increased investment, job creation, and effective administration.

In 1978, the Democracy Wall, In 1989, the Tiananmen incident, and recently, the Jack Ma episode proved the belief that freedom in economics will ultimately lead to freedom in politics was a myth.
When China felt that the One Party System was under threat then brutally repressed. The reason was that China believed that a multi-party system leads to political capture by capitalists

THE TOPIC FOR THE NEXT CLASS: THE COLD WAR.