Former parties
31-644: The All India Communist Party (AICP) was a communist party in India . It was formed after a split in the Communist Party of India in 1980, by a section of CPI cadres dissatisfied with the political changes that occurred during the 1978 Bhatinda conference of CPI. During most of the 1970s CPI had supported the government of Indira Gandhi and the Indian National Congress . But after the electoral defeat of Gandhi in 1977 CPI began to reconsider its relation to
62-662: A few cases where the original sections of the Communist International have retained those names. But throughout the twentieth century, many parties changed their names. For example, following their ascension to power, the Bolshevik Party changed their name to the All-Russian Communist Party. Causes for these shifts in naming were either moves to avoid state repression or as measures to generate greater acceptance by local populations. An important example of
93-500: A proletarian revolution. Some Marxists, such as Rosa Luxemburg , disagree with the idea of a vanguard as put forth by Lenin, especially left communists . Another line of criticisms insist that the entire working class—or at least a large part of it—must be deeply involved and equally committed to the socialist or communist cause in order for a proletarian revolution to be successful. To this end, they seek to build massive communist parties with very large memberships. The following
124-434: A top-down hierarchical structure, ideological rigidity , and strict party discipline . In contrast, other studies have emphasized the differences among communist parties. Multi-party studies, such as those by Robert C. Tucker and A. James McAdams, have emphasized the differences in both these parties' organizational structure and their use of Marxist and Leninist ideas to justify their policies. Another important question
155-496: Is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism . Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between capitalism and communism and may be the goal of the revolution, especially in Marxist–Leninist views. The idea that a proletarian revolution is needed is a cornerstone of Marxism ; Marxists believe that
186-501: Is why communist parties were able to rule for as long as they did. Some scholars have depicted these parties as fatally flawed from their inception and argue they only remained in power because their leaders were willing to use their monopoly of power and the state monopoly to crush all forms of opposition . In contrast, other studies have emphasized these parties' ability to adapt their policies to changing times and circumstances. Communist revolution A communist revolution
217-530: The Indian Communist Party and formed the United Communist Party of India , which would function as a continuation of the political line of AICP. Communist party Former parties Former parties A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism . The term " communist party" was popularized by the title of The Manifesto of
248-415: The bourgeoisie , followed by the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat . Leninism argues that a communist revolution must be led by a vanguard of "professional revolutionaries", men and women who are fully dedicated to the communist cause and who can then form the nucleus of the revolutionary movement . Thus meaning that under Lenin's framework a communist revolution is not necessarily
279-464: The workers of the world must unite and free themselves from capitalist oppression to create a world run by and for the working class . Thus, in the Marxist view, proletarian revolutions need to happen in countries all over the world . Karl Marx saw revolution as a necessity for communism, where the revolution would be based on class struggle led by the organised proletariat to overthrow capitalism and
310-537: The 107 parties with significant memberships, there were approximately 82 million communist party members worldwide. Given its worldwide representation, the communist party may be counted as the principal challenger to the influence of liberal-democratic , catch-all parties in the twentieth century. Following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc between 1989–1992, most of these parties either disappeared or were renamed and adopted different goals than their predecessors. In
341-661: The 21st century, only five ruling parties on the national level still described themselves as Marxist–Leninist parties: the Chinese Communist Party , the Communist Party of Cuba , the Communist Party of Vietnam , the Workers' Party of Korea and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party . As of 2023, the Chinese Communist Party was the world's second largest political party , having over 99 million members. Although
SECTION 10
#1732856098889372-573: The CPSU, the interpretations of orthodox Marxism were applied to Russia and led to the emergence of Leninist and Marxist–Leninist political parties throughout the world. After the death of Lenin, the Comintern's official interpretation of Leninism was the book Foundations of Leninism (1924) by Joseph Stalin . As the membership of a communist party was to be limited to active cadres in Lenin's theory, there
403-552: The Communist Party (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . As a vanguard party , the communist party guides the political education and development of the working class (proletariat). As a ruling party, the communist party exercises power through the dictatorship of the proletariat . Vladimir Lenin developed the idea of the communist party as the revolutionary vanguard, when the socialist movement in Imperial Russia
434-668: The Congress set up the Friends of the Soviet Union . But the control over FSU was completely taken over by the Congress. Although having Dange, a historical stalwart of the communist movement in India, as its leader AICP was not able to attract any major nationwide following. According to Bhattacharya two reasons were of significance. First of all, the Soviet Union did not give any political support to
465-458: The Congress. After the Bhatinda conference CPI distanced itself from the Congress and aligned itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) instead, promoting left unity. The founders of AICP wanted to retain the close relationship with the Congress. Roza Deshpande , the daughter of the founding leader of CPI S.A. Dange and her husband Bani Deshpande , played an important role in organising
496-660: The aegis of a new organization, the Cominform . Historically, in countries where communist parties were struggling to attain state power, the formation of wartime alliances with non-communist parties and wartime groups was enacted (such as the National Liberation Front of Albania ). Upon attaining state power these Fronts were often transformed into nominal (and usually electoral) "National" or "Fatherland" Fronts in which non-communist parties and organizations were given token representation (a practice known as Blockpartei ),
527-629: The agreed-upon policy. In contrast, the Menshevik faction, which initially included Leon Trotsky , emphasized that the party should not neglect the importance of mass populations in realizing a communist revolution . In the course of the revolution, the Bolshevik party which became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) assumed government power in Russia after the October Revolution in 1917. With
558-504: The appearance of charismatic revolutionary leaders and their ultimate demise during the decline and fall of communist parties worldwide have all been the subject of investigation. A uniform naming scheme for communist parties was adopted by the Communist International. All parties were required to use the name 'Communist Party of ( name of the country )', resulting in separate communist parties in some countries operating using (largely) homonymous party names (e.g. in India ). Today, there are
589-471: The creation of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1919, the concept of communist party leadership was adopted by many revolutionary parties, worldwide. In an effort to standardize the international communist movement ideologically and maintain central control of the member parties, the Comintern required that its members use the term "communist party" in their names. Under the leadership of
620-651: The dissolution of the Communist International. After the Second World War new international coordination bodies were created, such as the World Federation of Democratic Youth , International Union of Students , World Federation of Trade Unions , Women's International Democratic Federation and the World Peace Council . The Soviet Union unified many of the Comintern's original goals in the Eastern Bloc under
651-523: The fall of communist party regimes in the 1990s, mass organizations sometimes outlived their communist party founders. At the international level, the Communist International organized various international front organizations (linking national mass organizations with each other), such as the Young Communist International , Profintern , Krestintern , International Red Aid , Sportintern , etc. Many of these organizations were disbanded after
SECTION 20
#1732856098889682-639: The founding of the new party. Dange himself was initially largely sceptical of a split in the CPI. The first conference of AICP was held in Meerut , commencing on 13 March. Dange turned up uninvited to the Meerut conference and took charge of the new party. He was elected general secretary of the party. As an alternative to the CPI-controlled Indo-Soviet Cultural Society (ISCUS), members of AICP and
713-437: The historical importance of communist parties is widely accepted, their activities and functions have been interpreted in different ways. One approach, sometimes known as the totalitarian school of communist studies, has implicitly treated all communist parties as the same types of organizations. Scholars such as Zbigniew Brzezinski and Francois Furet have relied upon conceptions of the party emphasizing centralized control,
744-673: The international communist movement was fragmented due to the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s. Those who sided with China and Albania in their criticism of the Soviet leadership, often added words like 'Revolutionary' or ' Marxist–Leninist ' to distinguish themselves from the pro-Soviet parties. In 1985, approximately 38 percent of the world's population lived under "communist" governments (1.67 billion out of 4.4 billion). The CPSU's International Department officially recognized 95 ruling and nonruling communist parties. Overall, if one includes
775-491: The latter was the renaming of many East European communist parties after the Second World War, sometimes as a result of mergers with the local social democratic and democratic socialist parties. New names in the post-war era included " Socialist Party ", " Socialist Unity Party ", " People's (or Popular) Party ", " Workers' Party " and " Party of Labour ". The naming conventions of communist parties became more diverse as
806-592: The most popular examples of these being the National Front of East Germany (as a historical example) and the North Korean Reunification Front (as a modern-day example). Other times the formation of such Fronts was undertaken without the participation of other parties, such as the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia and the National Front of Afghanistan , though the purpose was
837-405: The name ' Young Communist League '. Later the youth league concept was broadened in many countries, and names like 'Democratic Youth League' were adopted. Some trade unions and students', women's, peasants', and cultural organizations have been connected to communist parties. Traditionally, these mass organizations were often politically subordinated to the political leadership of the party. After
868-564: The new party. The founders of AICP were upholding the pro-Soviet CPI policy of cooperating with the National Congress (which was in line with Soviet revisionism), but the Soviets were not interested in a split within CPI. Secondly, the Congress showed limited interest towards the idea of having a national alliance with the new party. In the end, the two parties would be poised against each other in several local elections. In 1987 AICP merged with
899-468: The same: to promote the communist party line to generally non-communist audiences and to mobilize them to carry out tasks within the country under the aegis of the Front. Recent scholarship has developed the comparative political study of global communist parties by examining similarities and differences across historical geographies. In particular, the rise of revolutionary parties, their spread internationally,
930-432: Was a need for networks of separate organizations to mobilize mass support for the party. Typically, communist parties built up various front organizations whose membership was often open to non-communists. In many countries, the single most important front organization of the communist parties was its youth wing . During the time of the Communist International , the youth leagues were explicit communist organizations, using
961-549: Was divided into ideologically opposed factions, the Bolshevik faction ("of the majority") and the Menshevik faction ("of the minority"). To be politically effective, Lenin proposed a small vanguard party managed with democratic centralism which allowed the centralized command of a disciplined cadre of professional revolutionaries . Once a policy was agreed upon, realizing political goals required every Bolshevik's total commitment to