Understanding and explaining the rise and fall of dominant political ideologies is no easy task, making it difficult to point out the reasons communism failed to survive. Apart from the complexity of the factors involved, the fact that so many countries adopted communism during the 20th century makes it almost impossible to figure out the exact reasons for its demise.
Although most communist nations dealt with similar problems, one can hardly ignore the differences between them. If you doubt the importance of this argument, simply recall that countries such as Cuba and North Korea continue to boast communist regimes. Hence, revealing the reasons communism failed not only requires us to limit the scope of our analysis, but also to accept that it continues to be the dominant political ideology in some countries.
Due to the difficulties involved in figuring out the reasons communism failed, which we have pointed out above, the following post will focus on the Soviet Union. This seems appropriate since the Russians were not only the first to adopt communism, but were the main force behind its international expansion. As a superpower, the Soviet Union was not exposed to the same threats as smaller nations, thus making it easier to maintain the stability of its political regime. Hence, the following is actually a list of the five reasons communism failed to survive in Russia, rather than the world in general.
If you are interested in academic topics, then be sure to also read one of our previous posts regarding the most influential papers in economics. Considering the effect of communism on a nation’s economic performance, these papers might help clarify some of the troubles these regimes ran into. Otherwise, we hope you still enjoy the list of reasons communism failed in the Soviet Union, which takes a number of objective factors into consideration, while ideological arguments are left aside. In other words, we abstained from considering philosophical reasons, in order to focus on more tangible issues, such as economic collapse.
5. Excessive Military Spending
The Soviet economy might have performed well in absolute terms, yet it wasn’t strong enough to sustain the continuously growing military budget. Although understandable under the circumstances, the communist regime eventually suffered the consequences. The Soviet Union’s financial troubles, stemming from their failure to diversify and grow economically, were only made worse by pouring billions into the arms race.
4. Poor Living Conditions
While social tension might have been calmed with an increased sense of welfare in the past, the last decades in Soviet history depict a society far less convinced of the benefits of communism. In the end, the dominant ideology lost its ability to justify its superiority to capitalism.
3. Lack of Innovation
It is evident that communism failed in the Soviet Union primarily due to economic reasons. In other words, had the regime managed to evolve economically, like China successfully has, then history could have played out quite differently. One of the main reasons for the economic stagnation was the Soviet’s failure to manufacture innovative products that could compete on the market.
2. International Pressure
The amount of international pressure the Soviet Union experienced throughout the Cold War eventually led to the collapse of its communist regime for several reasons. Not only did it have a hard time finding economic partners, it was also pushed into an arms race it couldn’t possibly win. With a great deal of its attention placed on winning the Cold War, the communist regime disregarded social issues and even failed to achieve economic progress.
1. Failure to Adapt
Despite the relevance of all the reasons presented before, the main reason communism failed in the Soviet Union seems to be quite simple. When presented with the opportunity, the regime failed to adapt to the changing times, thus failing to evolve economically, socially, and even politically. Hence, whereas communist regimes in nations such as China transformed their systems into productive ones, and modernized their economy, the Soviet Union succumbed to the inefficiency of its outdated methods.
