Communist

=Communism= toc

Communism is a form of socialism that abolishes private ownership and a political theory favoring collectivism in a classless society. During the Cold War, Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union and enforced Communism. It started out with just the Soviet Union but then they convinced some other places to be Communist. The United States didn't like the idea of Communism spreading so they did everything they could to try and stop it. This lead to the Cold War. The Soviet Union also tried their hardest to stop the U.S. from stopping Communism.

[[image:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WH2yh36c2LM/SQfoIlvm5WI/AAAAAAAAAZU/2HGBxgLTrtA/s400/communism-5705.jpg width="193" height="193" align="left" caption="Communist Symbol"]]Beginning of Communism
The first head of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republicans was Vladimir Lenin. In March 1919 Lenin and other leaders met with revolutionary socialists from around the world and created the Communist International. Members of the new Communist International, including Lenin himself, broke off from the broader socialist movement. From that point onwards, they became known as Communists. As the civil war in Russia spread, Lenin adopted the policy of War Communism. This involved getting replies in exchange for little to nothing.

Most Important Events
When communism began to spread from the Soviet Union, the United States didn't like it. The U.S. thought Democracy was the best policy, but the Soviet Union did not. The U.S. began to spread Democracy in many places and then cut off the Soviet Union from the places. This began the Cold War.

Cold War
The Cold War went through mid-1940's and early 1990's. Throughout this time, the conflict between the U.S. and Soviet Union was expressed through military coalitions, espionage, weapons development, invasions, propaganda, and the Space Race. They would go back and forth making the "better" things and were very competitive. Neither sides would just sit down and talk about it but instead competed in an unsafe way.

Bomb Scare[[image:http://mr3058.k12.sd.us/yearborn/images/picture13.jpg width="379" height="379" align="right" caption="Berlin Wall"]]
The biggest thing that was scaring everyone, was the bombs. If one person fired a bomb, then the other side would. It would go back and forth and kill everyone. Even though that didn't happen, it was still frightening. The U.S. and the Soviet Union were sitting back waiting for the other side to do something so that they could counter attack. The war ended with no one hurt, but a lot of time wasted when they could have just talked and gotten the whole thing over with quickly.

Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier that separated West and East Berlin. The East side was a Democracy while the West was communist. Both of the borders came to "symbolize" the Iron Curtain between the sides. The wall separated each sides of Germany for more than a quarter century, from the day construction began on August 13, 1961 until the Wall was opened on November 9, 1989. During this time, at least 98 people were killed while trying to cross the Wall into West Berlin.

Conclusion
The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. The East side said that the West side could now come over and visit the East. Crowds and crowds of people from the East climbed over the wall to greet everyone on the West. Over the next weeks, the wall began to be chipped away from everyone that was climbing it and from some tools from souvenir hunters. Construction equipment was later used to destroy almost all of the remaining wall. This was not the end of Communism but it did impact it a lot.

=Bibliography=

"Encyclopedia: Communism." 2004. __The History Channel Website__. 10 April 2009. 

"The Fall of the Berlin Wall." 2001. __The Berlin Wall Online__. 10 April 2009. 

"Communism." 2009. __Wikipedia.com__. 11 April 2009. 

"Cold War." 2008. __Ibiblio.com__. 12 April 2009. 

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