Why Soviet Communism Failed

So far, all of my articles have been purely historical. However, with this article I intend to establish my views concerning the reasons that communism fell in the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics:

- Communism assumes that all individuals will work to their fullest potential without any incentive to do so. When people under the Soviet government realized that they received the same government-regulated wage no matter how hard they worked, they worked less than efficiently.

- The Soviet Communist government spent too much money producing military goods for the escalating Cold War and less on consumer goods.

- The consumer goods produced by the Soviet-regulated industries lacked variety and were of lesser quality than goods produced in a market economy with competition.

- Communism champions the equality of everyone. However, as George Orwell said in Animal House, "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others." The Communst government of the Soviet Union had individuals that had great power, including the Politburo members. These leaders proved to be both the failure of Soviet Communism and a source of hypocrisy between Soviet Communism and Marxism.

Soviet Communism originated with the creation of the Soviet Union under Vladimir I. Lenin, whose philosophy was similar to the Communism first described by Karl Marx. However, he made several alterations to Marx's ideas, creating a separate form of Communism known as Leninism. Stalin helped solidify the gap between Marxism and Soviet Communism and set in stone the bureaucracy that proved to be both the failure of Communism and a hypocritical moral paradox.

Sources: Personal knowledge