Russian politics

The primary differences between Marxism and Marxism-Leninism are that Marxism is an analysis of capitalism, a path to understanding it, while Marxism-Leninism is an approach to using that analysis in political terms, using the analysis of capitalism to create an alternative to it named socialism. Socialism is basically Communism with tiny bits of capitalism in it. Everything is owned by the government and jobs are rotated, with freedom of speech either frowned upon or outright banned.

Historian Richard Pipes wrote, “Soviet Russia was the first society in history to outlaw law.” What he meant by that was when the Russians revolted in WWI, nobody could agree on any laws, and if anybody set up a new government, the people who disagreed with the government would just overthrow it. He also referred to the fact that judges made decisions on their “revolutionary conscience”, meaning it didn’t matter who was innocent or guilty. The decision was made based on what would benefit the state most. A great power struggle followed.

The Russian government under Lenin was oppressive and brutal to anyone who protested his rule. There was also a huge famine that took hundreds of thousands of lives, almost all of which were peasants. Standard of living plummeted through the bottom of the earth and freedom of speech became a thing of the past. And people today still think that communism is better than capitalism.