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communism: Quick Facts

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Did You Know?

  • Well-known communist writings are still read today; "The Communist Manifesto" written by Marx and Engels in 1848 was a best seller in Britain in 2015.
  • The first known use of the word "communism" was in 1840.
  • Many anticolonial nationalists in East Asia in the 1940s and Latin and South America starting in the late 1960s saw communism as a promising ideology.

Photos and Videos

Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels
Vladimir Lenin seated at a cluttered desk with papers and books, looking forward. Shelves of books are visible in the background.
Joseph Stalin
Mao Zedong
Emma Goldman
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Know why Karl Marx called religion “the opium of the people” and his dream of a communist revolution
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Key People

Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
prime minister of Soviet Union
Mao Zedong smiling and waving with his right hand while standing outdoors in front of large lanterns and a crowd.
Mao Zedong
Chinese leader
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
premier of Soviet Union
Nikita Khrushchev smiling and wearing a suit with medals on the lapel, shown from the chest up in a black and white photograph.
Nikita Khrushchev
premier of Soviet Union
Ho Chi Minh, president of North Vietnam, with a long white beard and mustache, wearing a dark jacket, seated and looking to the side in a 1957 black-and-white portrait.
Ho Chi Minh
president of North Vietnam
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Russian revolutionary
Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia, wearing a suit and tie, speaks at a podium with microphones during a conference in Belgrade.
Josip Broz Tito
president of Yugoslavia
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
premier of China
Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai, and other Chinese officials stand in uniform, holding up Little Red Books during a 1967 Red Guard rally in China.
Lin Biao
Chinese military leader
Portrait of Chen Duxiu wearing a traditional Chinese garment, facing forward with a neutral expression against a plain background.
Chen Duxiu
Chinese leader
Władysław Gomułka
Władysław Gomułka
Polish politician
Kim Jong Un speaks at a podium with microphones, standing in front of North Korean and Russian flags during a press conference in Pyongyang.
Kim Jong-Un
North Korean political official
Portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il wearing glasses and a gray collared shirt, looking forward with a neutral expression.
Kim Jong Il
North Korean political leader
Dayton Accords
Slobodan Milošević
president of Yugoslavia
Roy Cohn
Roy Cohn
American lawyer
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
president of Soviet Union
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko stands at a podium, wearing a dark suit and tie, speaking during a formal meeting.
Alexander Lukashenko
president of Belarus
Prachanda
Prachanda
prime minister of Nepal
Kim Il-Sung
Kim Il-Sung
president of North Korea
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinovyev
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinovyev
Russian revolutionary