The Marxist and communist ideologies may have originated in the 1800s but they weren’t put into practice until the 20th century in the year 1917, when a group of insurgents known as the Bolsheviks took advantage of their weakened nation known as the Russian empire and launched a coup to install a communist gov’t that would govern the Slavic people until 1991. Due to communism’s susceptibility to extremism and tyranny, there have been numerous groups throughout history that fought to smash the hammer and sickle. Some were successful and others weren’t. Here are some of the many atrocities committed by communist regimes. And below are some of the many historic stands against Marxism and communism.
1.) The Russian revolution (1917): The Russian Bolshevik revolution of 1917 was not unopposed, there were many Russians desperately tried to stop the growing red menace known as the Bolsheviks, among them were the Russian White army. The white army did everything they could to stop the Communist insurgency but they were under equipped, had lost to the German empire and were low on morale. These factors led to the overthrowing of the Tsarist government by the Bolsheviks.
Victors: The bolsheviks.
2.)Finnish civil war(1918): One year after Russia succumbed to Communism, a similar communist insurgency started to build up in Finland assisted by the Soviets but was stopped by the Finnish white Guard and the German empire, preventing communism from spreading to Finland.
Victors: Finnish white Guard and German Empire
3.)Sparticist uprising(1919): Much like Russia two years earlier a similar communist revolution took place but unlike the Russian revolution, the sparticist uprising failed. The Post WWI German mercenary group known as the Freikorps soundly crushed the sparticist communist insurgency.
Result: German Freikorps led by the Council of the People’s deputies crush the Sparticist revolt.
4.)Polish-Soviet war(1919-1921): Not many people talk about this David vs Goliath story but it was far more important than many people realize. Most of Western Europe was still recovering from WWI during this war. The Soviets started to push West but met heavy resistance from the Poles. Poland was the last country standing between the Soviet Union and Western Europe. Poland didn’t budge. The poles won the battle of Warsaw and started to push towards the East, into Soviet territory. This prompted the Soviets to call for peace, ending the war with a Polish victory over it’s gargantuan opponent.
Result: Poland victorious.
5.)Spanish Civil war(1936-1939): The Spaniards also had to deal with communist revolutionaries. The Nationalists fought the communist republicans for three years, eventually defeating the Communists in 1939. With the communists smashed, Francisco Franco established a fascist government and remained leader of Spain until his death in 1975. His lesser evil fascist government survived WWII because he remained neutral during WWII, not to mention that he helped some Jews escape.
Result: Spanish Nationalists victorious, establishment of Fascist falangist government.
6.) Chinese civil war (1927-1950): The Chinese Civil war is what made China, the nation it is today. It was fought between The Chinese Nationalists supported by Germany and the communists supported by the Soviet Union. The Chinese Nationalists led by Mao Zedong forced Mao’s communist forces into retreat(Long march). The Chinese nationalists would have mostly likely been the victors if were not for the Japanese invasion of 1936. This prompted both the nationalists and communists to join forces to fight the Japanese. After WWII both sides resumed fighting but the nationalists no longer had Germany’s support, while the Communists still had the support of the Soviet Union which had grown in power. The Chinese Nationalists put up a fight but were ultimately defeated and exiled to Taiwan. The Japanese invasion seemed to have played a major role in the outcome of the war, Mao even “thanked” the Japanese albeit sarcastically for invading China.
Result: Mao’s red army victorious, Chinese nationalists exiled to Taiwan
7.) Winter war(1939-1940): A war between Finland and the Soviet Union. This was another David and Goliath story. Despite Finland being outgunned, outmanned and outsourced by the Soviet Union. The Finnish put up a ferocious fight by using improvised tactics that inflicted numerous casualties on the Soviets and only allowed the Soviets to gain 11% of Finnish territory. This war was humiliating for the Soviet Union.
Result: Compromise. Soviets got a Pyrrhic victory on paper but Finland kept it’s independence. Finland would go on to reclaim it’s lost territories during continuation war and maintain it’s independence throughout the Cold War.
8.) Young woman flees to West Germany(date unknown): They say a picture can say a lot, well there’s one picture that shows a young woman who made it to West Germany while a group of West German and East German police argue for her custody.
9.)Conrad Schumann’s leap to freedom(1961): One of the most iconic photos showing defiance against Communism is Conrad Schumann an East German soldier jumping over to the Western side of the border line between East and West Germany.
10.) East German uprising of 1953: Many East Germans were not happy with their communist government and attempted to revolt. Unfortunately the East German rebels had no weapons to neutralize Soviet armor and thus the revolt was suppressed.
result: Uprising suppressed, East Germany remains under communist rule till 1989.
11.) Korean War(1950-1953): This was the first war that US troops fought without racial segregation thanks to efforts of the brave Japanese-American 442nd RCT during WWII. A 3 year war that was aimed at halting communism from spreading to other East Asian countries. US forces managed to push the communist Korean forces to the brink of defeat but before the final blow could be delivered to the Communists, the Chinese who outnumbered US forces pushed them all the way back to the 38th parallel diving North and South Korea.
result: Stalemate, armistice.
12.) Korean DMZ conflict(1966-1969): After the Korean War, skirmishes between American backed South Korean soldiers and North Korean soldiers occurred at the DMZ. The North Koreans attempted to spark a communist insurgency in South Korea but failed after the North Koreans were pushed back.
Result: American and South Korean victorious and over 2,000 North Koreans captured.
13.)Hungarian revolution of 1956: Another anti communist uprising took place two years after the uprising in East Germany. It lasted a few weeks before it was suppressed by the Soviets. The Hungarian rebels were outnumbered and outgunned.
Result: Hungarian resistance suppressed, Hungary remains under soviet influence until 1989.
14.) Anti communist resistance in Eastern Europe: There were many other anti communist uprisings throughout Eastern Europe post WWII that lasted until the 1960s when they were suppressed. Aside from the one listed above, there were 12 others, each in a different Eastern European country. On a side note, while Poland fell to communism after WWII, the true Polish government went into exile in the UK until 1990 and with it went many Polish soldiers.
Result: Resistance suppressed during the 1960s. Eastern Europe remained communist till 1989.
15.) 1959 Tibetan uprising: Tibetan guerrila’s desperately attempted to ward off the communist Chinese from their home land. They took up defensive positions on many Tibetan historical land marks and held off the Chinese forces for as long as they could but the poorly equipped Tibetan resistance fighters eventually succumbed to the numerical superiority of the Chinese. Though the resistance was suppressed, Tibetan defiance against the communist invaders continued for several years afterwards.
Result: Tibetan rebellion suppressed but Tibetan resistance continues even today. Tibetan uprise commemorated annually
16.) Bay of Pigs invasion(1961): A failed invasion of Cuba that intended to overthrow Fidel Castro. The primary forces were the CIA led Cuban democratic revolutionary front. The invasion failed because the invasion force was only at 1,500 strong up against the over 200,000 Communist forces.
result: Invasion repelled, Cuba creates closer ties with the Soviet Union.
17.) Soviet-Afghan war(1979-1989): The Afghan communist party took over Afghanistan after staging a coup and was very oppressive in nature, leading to the rise of anti communist resistance fighters. After the anti communist resistance fighters nearly overthrew the Afghan communist government, the Soviets intervened in 1979, starting the Soviet-Afghan war. The US, West, Germany and the UK supported the resistance fighters, who managed to stand their ground against the Soviet invaders. After being unable to subjugate the country, the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989 and thus began the fall of the Soviet Union.
Result: Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan, Afghanistani rebels overthrow Afghanistani communist government. Soviet Union collapses two years later
18.) Eastern European revolution of 1989: As nationalism rose in the Soviet satellite nations of Eastern Europe Gorbachev’s new reforms like perestroika and Glasnost and Ronald Reagan’s support of the Strategic Defense Initiative. The Soviet Union’s day’s were numbered. But let’s first talk about the nationalist movements in Eastern Europe, specifically the one in Romania. The Romanian communist government was quickly overthrown by Romanian rebels and soldiers who have had enough of their communist government. In Leipzig East Germany, numerous East Germans formed protests against the East Germsn government leading to the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.
Result: Eastern European countries reclaim their independence and abolishes communist influences. Germany is reunified and the Soviet Union collapses two years later as a result of infighting.
19.)August coup d’etat attempt (1991): With political reforms, loss of satellite nations, failure to keep up with the West and division within the soviet government. The final blow to the Soviet Union happened from within, a group of hardcore communists attempted to overthrow Gorbachev but failed after they were met by peaceful protesters and Russian troops loyal to Gorbachev.
Result: Coup fails, The remaining Easten European nations under Soviet control acquired independence from the Soviet Union, Soviet Union collapses, most communist nations around the world collapse, Russian Federation rises.
20.) Berkeley protests/ battle for Berkeley 2017: Almost three decades after authoritarian communism was smashed, a new form of communism has risen known as Anarcho-communism. The supporters of this new form of communism are predominantly millennial and some are from generation X. They go by many names such as “antifa”, “BAMN” and many others. During 2017, numerous antifa and BAMN were angry that several public figures with opposing views were going to show up to speak at UC Berkley, so they decided to protest, prompting milo’s “alt lite” and also republicans to show up to confront the antifa and BAMN protesters. Things got out of control as both sides would confront each other during protests.
result: numerous people injured from brawls. Numerous Antifa members arrested and Antifa gets further exposure for being a violent group.
Honorable mention: In 2017 a Korean student in a university library in Washington told several obnoxious SJW protesters to zip it with three simple words “This is library”. Ironically one of protesters shouted “Go back to Beijing”.
There are many more historic stands against communism but these are some of the most important ones. I was going to include the Eastern front of WWII, the Vietnam war and operation condor but those are too controversial due to the numerous shades of grey in those events.
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