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Communism may not be knocking at your front door, but it is snooping around in our backyard. Why, then, are our children not being taught the truth of the deadliest ideology the world has ever known? After all, students deserve Facts about communismits brutal history and the ongoing oppression of those who still live under such regimes.
Communism emerged in the nineteenth century as a political, social and economic ideology. In his Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx laid out the goals and measures needed to achieve communism which included the abolition of private property, the abolition of inheritance rights, the creation of a classless society, and the centralization of power in the hands of the state. . He also specifically called for the destruction of all aspects of the old order through violence and revolution.
Demonstrators in China wave copies of Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book as they hold a Karl Marx poster during a rally on September 14, 1966. (The Associated Press)
To date, it has been more than 100 million people Communist regimes killed him around the world in their desire to access this utopian fantasy.
The first attempt to install communism took place in Russia in 1917Vladimir Lenin’s initial promise of peace, land, and bread soon turned into terror, rallying, famine, and civil war, resulting in the deaths of nearly 7 million people. Things got worse during the reign of Joseph Stalin, who killed more than 20 million Soviets. Those who disobeyed or stood against this harsh system of government were sent to the gulag – a system of forced labor camps – or executed. Many tried to flee. Most of them were unsuccessful.
Marxist teacher calls for an urgent war against capitalism: “Revolutions involve violence”
Millions of innocent people held behind the Iron Curtain at the end of World War II, like their Soviet counterparts, lived secret lives, afraid of being tipped off by their neighbors and punished by the regimes’ terrorist security services. This daily fear was exacerbated by food rationing, poor medical care, propaganda, and indoctrination, as well as a lack of basic necessities.
Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, left, with Soviet politician Nikolai Bukharin, November 21, 1930. (The Associated Press)
The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but communism did not. Today, a fifth of humanity still lives under his brutal rule. North Korea threatens nuclear war from sprawling 21st century camps; Cuba continues to imprison, torture and kill dissidents who dare dream of democracy. Vietnam arrests citizens simply for posting messages critical of the party; And China is committing genocide In mass “re-education” camps, he separates families, forcibly sterilizes minority women, uses child and forced labor, and harvests organs from political prisoners – all while crushing freedom in Hong Kong, threatening to invade Taiwan, spying on us at home, and stealing billions a year in Global intellectual property theft.
By ignoring the continued existence of communism, we fail to understand the challenges the United States faces at home and abroad.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who serves as general secretary of the Communist Party of China, greets the media before a meeting in Brasilia, Brazil, on November 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool, File)
Alarmingly, a 2020 VOC poll found that 40% of Americans hold a favorable view of socialism. That number rose to 49 percent in Generation Z, with a third of Generation Z supporting the gradual removal of capitalism in favor of a more socialist system. Even more shocking, 18 percent of Gen Z and 13 percent of Millennials say communism is a fairer system than capitalism and deserves consideration in America.
These results are only possible in a generation whose education was devoid of the real history of communist regimes and their deadly ideology. One recent state K-12 history and social studies academic standard fails to even mention the Russian Revolution, Lenin, or the gulag camps in its 400-plus pages. Unfortunately, the standards of many other countries are similar.
So, what can be done?
Education is the first The most important step. Unfortunately, some in the media as well as forces on the ground in Virginia and Florida oppose efforts to teach our children the enduring legacy of communism. This is a tragic disservice to America’s students and a flagrant expulsion of the 1.5 billion people who still suffer under communist regimes. Talking about historical facts and preparing our students for the world as it exists outside the classroom shouldn’t be controversial.
This is why the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) commends the many state-led efforts to ensure the truth about Communism is taught in all of our schools. But there is much more to be done.
To answer this call, the VOC opened the first museum in the United States dedicated to the victims of communism. We’ve launched a digital curriculum, as well as an in-person and online teacher certification program that includes lesson plans and other educational resources. We also offer a Witness Speaker Series that presents the testimony of those who suffered personally under communism. All of this we offer to students and teachers at no cost.
We ignore history’s warnings at our own risk. The truth about communism is readily available to all through the historical record, but future generations will not learn unless they are taught. As the great Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in his famous book A Warning to the West:::
“It’s amazing that communism has been writing about itself in the most open way, in black and white, for 125 years…but somehow nobody wants to understand.”
We must make sure our students understand.
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Ken Pope He is the CEO of the company Victims of Communism Memorial Association, A nonprofit educational, research, and human rights organization dedicated to commemorating the more than 100 million victims killed under communism and the more than 1.5 billion people still living under communist regimes.