Misconceptions of Communism

In the 1930’s during the Great Depression, many people

turned to Communism to answer the problems that Capitalism

seem unable to solve. Although the Great Depression affected each

class negatively, the middle/lower class seemed to be hit the

hardest because of stock market crash combined with the dust bowl

movement. At the time of the Great Depression, creating an equal

class really sounded like a good idea because of its sympathy

towards the working class rather than business owners. The appeal

of Communism was protect and serve the working majority.

Democratic leaders are afraid of Communism because during the

1920s, the public associated communism with anarchy and

immigrants attempting to destroy our type of government. They

saw the treaty signed by the new Communist Government in

Russia, taking itself out of the Great War, as an example of

communists not supporting the efforts of the nations fighting

Germany. The Cold War began as World War II was ending.

American leaders saw the power and ambition of the Soviet Union

as a threat to our national security.

Joseph Stalin soon turned to heavy industrialization. The

First Five-Year Plan called for rapid industrialization of the

economy, with particular emphasis on heavy industry. The

economy was centralized: small-scale industry and services were

nationalized, managers strove to fulfill Gosplan's output quotas,

and the trade unions were converted into mechanisms for

increasing worker productivity. But because Stalin insisted on

unrealistic production targets, serious problems soon arose. With

the greatest share of investment put into heavy industry,

widespread shortages of consumer goods occurred, and inflation

grew.

Also during the 1930’s, there were reports of false articles

about Communism. Walter Duranty, a reporter of The New York

Times, did many articles on the Soviet Union. He is best known for

his denial of the famine that caused millions of Ukrainians to die.
Because of reporters like Walter Duranty, there was only a one

sided story to the Soviet Union. These reporters only showed how

affluent and thriving certain parts of the Soviet Union was. They

never seemed to mention anything about gulags, forced labor
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camps, the failure of collective farming, or the mass starvation in

the Ukraine. These reporters followed an “agenda” to only show

the benefits of Communism and none of the hindrances it caused to

the rest of the country. The New York Times should not report

only a one sided story because eventually word got out that Walter

Duranty was lying about his reports. Besides starving his people

and forcing people to work for him, he also had his competition

eliminated. Whether it be his wife or people who ran against him,

he killed all who opposed him and he always had an alibi to cover

it up. This goes to show that its not always a good idea to follow

another political theory. Many people were fed lies by the

“glowing” reports of Communism, it just ended up being false

reports.