Is Communism dead?
August 3, 2006| By Nathaniel Ward
Other resources
- Watch this event online (Windows Media format)
- More about this event
Conventional wisdom holds that Communism was defeated in 1989, when the Berlin wall came down, or at the very latest in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. But a panel discussion yesterday at The Heritage Foundation served as a chilling reminder that fully a fifth of the world’s population continues to suffer under the Communist yoke.
All speakers highlighted Communism’s deadly toll in human lives and human suffering. More than 100 million died at the hands of Communist killers; some estimate that the Soviet Union’s death camps alone murdered upwards of 50 million. University professor Paul Goble in particular noted that counting deaths alone underestimates Communism’s impact, since families were torn apart and relocated at the whims of a brutal government.
But all speakers noted that we cannot think of Communism only as a relic of the past. It very much lives on today.
Chinese civil rights dissident Frank Wu, imprisoned for 19 years by Chairman Mao’s government simply because his parents were businessmen, told the panel that “we have a long time to go” before Communism is finally defeated. He argued that while few in China still believe in radical Marxism—the country introduced free-market reforms starting in the late 1970s—the country’s political leadership remains authoritarian and dictatorial. The government continues to suppress any dissent, often with extreme violence.
Cuban dissident Frank Calzon explained that “Cuba remains a Communist country. Despite Castro’s illness, little has changed.” The country, he explained, is a fatal mix of Latin American dictatorship and “socialist poverty and despair.” Thousands of Cubans have been executed simply for voicing their opinions of the government, he said. He also condemned American firms that trade with Cuba, which he says often end up as apologists for Castro’s government as they seek to continue their dealings.
Goble, who now lives in Estonia, said that the legacy of Communism lives on in the former Soviet Union. It is “a huge indictment against us” that so many countries in the former Soviet orbit are now led by the same cabal of dictators as 20 years ago. Russia, he explained, is becoming increasingly authoritarian under the leadership of a former KGB agent, while countries like Belarus suffer under brutal oppression and state-directed economies. Even relatively free countries like Estonia still have powerful minorities seeking a return to Communism.
Heritage scholar Lee Edwards, who hosted the panel in the Lehrman Auditorium, is chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. The organization expects to break ground next month on a memorial in Washington, DC, to those who suffered and continue to suffer in captive nations.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
