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Just before we start, this video is part four
in a six-part series on world revolutions
done as a collaborative project with Cypher,
the Cynical Historian.
If you click up at the little i in the corner,
you can go to his channel and find part one
in the series.
Don’t worry, we’ll be here when you get
back.
Hey Comrades,
In the early years of the 20th century, a
spectre was haunting Europe.
The forces of victorian capitalism, and industrialization
resulted in a lot of wealth, but for very
few people.
Many worked very long hours, in dangerous
conditions.
They produced giant amounts of wealth that
only went to their bosses.
Enter the mid-19th century philosopher Karl
Marx.
He wrote that this increased inequality would
not be able to sustain itself, and that at
some point in the future, workers of the world
would overthrow their rulers, and implement
a new world order.
One without inequality between anyone.
A state called communism.
By the First World War, many activists across
the world were seeing this battle between
distant monarchs as the ultimate sign that
it was time for the world order to change.
In the age of nationalism, they believed in
creating governments working to make the world
into that communist dream Marx wrote of.
Governments moving in this direction are the
dictionary definition of socialists.
The idea was to create a Communist World Revolution,
overthrowing capitalism all over the planet,
and organizing a truly global working class
against the bosses, kings, and presidents
that ruled over them for too long.
This is the story of that revolution.
The true spark of this revolution came in
October of 1917, or November by the gregorian
calendar.
The Russian Empire, one of the most unequal,
feudal countries on earth overthrew their
emperor, the Czar Nicholas II, and placed
in a new government run by the socialist Bolshevik
party.
After a long civil war, the first socialist
country, the Soviet Union would replace the
old empire.
Communist revolutions would succeed across
the caucasus, and the Ukraine as well.
The first red banners on earth would spiral
across the globe.
German workers, inspired by Marx and the revolution
in Russia rose up against the emperor, resulting
in nationwide strikes.
This was the first domino that led to the
Germans ending the first world war, toppling
the monarchy, and establishing a new Weimar
Republic.
Similar revolutions occurred in Hungary, Finland,
and Italy.
The Chinese Kuomintang nationalists allied
with the Chinese Communist Party to embolden
the revolution against regional warlords.
Before anyone knew it, the world was on fire,
and right after the war to end all wars.
In 1918 and 1919, it looked possible that
capitalism would disappear from much of Europe,
and with colonies, much of the world.
In 1919 the Comintern was founded, an organization
to coordinate these revolutions across the
globe.
The optimism of Marxists in this period would
be short lived, however.
In America, it resulted in the first Red Scare,
actively oppressing Marxist activists in their
borders.
Liberals in Europe felt they either needed
to side with these socialists, or go to the
dark embrace of Fascism.
Fascism is an ideology that could be defined
as the exact opposite of Marxism.
It’s fiercely nationalistic, and embraces
rigid hierarchies.
The threat of these movements pushed Marxists
into supporting a Popular Front, an alliance
with liberal capitalists against Fascism.
This would be reflected in both the Spanish
Civil War, and the shaky alliance that defeated
Fascism in the Second World War.
On the behest of these new liberal allies,
the comintern was formally disbanded in 1943.
After World War Two, there was a new wave
of revolutions.
They were not as strong as in 1918, but Marxist
groups held a lot of sway in countries like
Greece, France, and Italy as they were credited
for fighting fascism in their country the
entire war.
However, in these countries they’d never
quite pass the threshold to form a government.
The story is a little different in eastern
Europe.
Communist movements formed governments across
the region, sometimes even without the support
of the Soviet Union.
The only survivor of the first wave of revolutions.
Western media criticized that these new socialist
governments took power with undemocratic means,
but nonetheless, they proliferated.
In the 1960s, and 1970s, Liberation Front
movements around the world took up the banner
of marxist revolutionaries in an effort to
push out colonial rulers, and dictators.
They even thought they’d find allies in
the New left, civil rights movements, and
groups like the Black Panthers, but you’ll
need to wait until next week to learn more
about them.
These movements began to fade in the mid 1970s.
In the west, a new wave of conservative rulers,
such as Margaret Thatcher in the UK, or Ronald
Reagan in the United States made being left-wing
an uncouth thing to be.
In socialist countries in east Asia, new free
market reforms started to kill the revolutionary
zeal.
In the 1960s, a new type of left wing, very
different from these guys, began to pop up
around the world, primarily in young people.
This revolution, is the subject of next week’s
video, and if you want to see it, go say hi
to Cypher at the Cynical Historian.
How did this revolution touch your country?
Tell me about it down below.
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