"Every Communist must grasp the truth, 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,'" said Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong in a speech on November 6, 1938. "Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party." War, revolution and violence are themes… Continue reading Militarism in China’s Political System – The Emergence of Warlords in Late Imperial China and Its Influence on the Chinese Communist Party and the Guomindang
Poster of Deng Xiaoping in Lizhi Park (by そらみみ via Wikimedia Commons) When the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party led by Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Russian government and established the world's first Communist dictatorship in 1917, the new regime's aim was to abolish capitalism. “Socialism means the abolition of classes,” declared Lenin… Continue reading Lenin’s New Economic Policy and Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening Up – Contradictions of Communist Theory and the Embrace of State-Led Markets
