Everything about World Communism totally explained
World communism has a meaning close in meaning to ‘international communism’, which has usually been equated to the
Comintern (Communist International). This is the meaning that typically and historically has been meant by opponents of
communism. It has also a meaning within
Marxist theory, namely the terminal stage of development of the (future) history of communism.
Marxist theory may treat world communism as utopian, but it's the transition to world communism that attracts attention. World communism is to be achieved by
world revolution, according to a theory that was popular in the period 1917 to around 1933 (at least). World communism is incompatible with the existence of
nation states, so according to an older theory there will be an
abolition of the state preceding world communism. See
stateless communism.
Abolition of the state isn't incompatible with world revolution, but isn't in itself a distinctively Marxist doctrine. It was held by various
socialist and
anarchist thinkers of the nineteenth century. An apparent alternative is a theory going back to
Karl Marx, speaking of the “withering away of the state”.
The crux here's a text of
Friedrich Engels, from his
Anti-Dühring. It is often cited as "The state isn't 'abolished,' it withers away.” This is from the pioneer work of
historical materialism, a formulation of Marx’s idea of a
materialist conception of history. The withering away of the state is a graphic formulation, that has passed into cliché. The translation (Engels was writing in German) is also given as: “The state isn't "abolished". It dies out.” Reference to the whole passage shows that this happens only after the proletariat has seized the means of production. There has been a revolution.
The schematic is therefore revolution, transitional period, utopian period.
For
V. I. Lenin the transitional period, which for Engels was reduced to a single act, has become extended and “obviously lengthy”.. In the same place he argues strongly that Marx’s conception of communist society isn't utopian, but takes into account the heritage of what came before.
This gives, at least roughly, the position on world communism as the Comintern was set up in 1919: world revolution is necessary for the setting up of world communism, but not immediately or clearly sufficient.
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