The sharp contrast that Alexis de Tocqueville drew in 1835 between the United States and Russia — “the principle of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude”
the United States
Like the United States, the Soviet Union is a nation founded on a distinct ideology.
In the case of America, the ideology was fundamentally Lockean liberalism; its best expressions are the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights of the U.S.
Constitution.
The Founders believed that there exist natural, individual rights that, taken together, constitute a sort of moral framework.
Translated into law, this framework defines the social space within which men voluntarily interact;
it allows for the spontaneous coordination and ongoing mutual adjustment of the various plans that the members of society form to guide and fill their lives.
The Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was founded on a very different ideology, Marxism, as understood and interpreted by V. I. Lenin. Marxism, with its roots in Hegelian philosophy, was a quite conscious revolt against the individual rights doctrine of the previous century.
The leaders of the Bolshevik party (which changed its name to Communist in 1918) were virtually all revolutionary intellectuals.
in accordance with the strategy set forth by Lenin in his 1902 work What Is to Be Done? They were keen students of the corpus of works of Marx and Engels published in their lifetimes.
The Bolshevik leaders viewed themselves as the executors of the Marxist program.
as those whom History has called upon to realize the apocalyptic transition to communist society foretold by the founders of their faith.
does karl marx support communism
Your guide to Karl Marx: who was he, what was the Communist Manifesto and why is he important?
The influential communist thinker Karl Marx, who died on 14 March 1883, was a German economist, sociologist and philosopher.
Here, Gregory Claeys, the author of Marx and Marxism, brings you the facts about Karl Marx’s life, death, his theory and his legacy.
Who was Karl Marx?
Karl Marx was a German economist, sociologist and philosopher. He was born on 5 May 1818 in Trier.
– which was then part of the Prussian Rhineland – and died in London on 14 March 1883.
Marx became interested in communism – the theory that the means of production ought to be owned in common and managed for the public good.
– after starting a career as a radical journalist in the early 1840s.
– a socialist working-class uprising against the French government that lasted two months.
What did Karl Marx believe?
Poverty was rife in the new urban slums.
Marx believed that as more and more workers were pushed down into poverty.