Mao Zedong built China as a communist state in 1949, and the second communist revolution succeeded by the Soviet Union. The United States and Europeans will be familiar with the historical background of the enacted Russian communism.
However, it seems that Westerners are not familiar with the historical background of the communist largest nation in East Asia on the other side of the world. So, I interestingly looked at the historical background of the communist Soviet Union and China. I'm not a history guru, I'm short but I've described it.
Russia was a backward feudal nation compared to Europe. Tsarist Russia occupied the majority of the population during the Middle Ages. In 1854, Russia lost its weakness as a backward country in Europe by defeating the Crimean War against Britain and France. Since the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe has emerged as the ruler of the world by pioneering overseas colonies, while Russians have been shocked that Russia is less developed than Western Europe.
Realizing the strength of Western Europe, Russia was convinced that Russia would become a colony of Western Europe. So, in 1860, Russia began to imitate Western Europe, freeing its serfs. However, Russia was far more extensive than Western Europe, and there were many backward areas.
In particular, commercial and industrial zones were concentrated in western Russia, while eastern Russia was still undeveloped. Russia borrowed Europe's capital and technology and led Russia's modernization business, but development was slow.
Russia's industry and economy were subordinate to Western European capital and technology, and the gap between rich and poor in the ruling class and the common people became wider. As industrialization progressed, the lives of the Russian commoners became difficult, and Marx's socialism spread to Russia.
When World War I broke out, Russia took part in the war with money from Britain and France. The Russian emperor knew that without the capital and technology of Western Europe, the Russian empire could not be maintained. The Tsarist regime proved incompetent in World War I, and the Russians eventually destroyed the Tsarist regime. Russia, defeated by the German Empire in World War I, divided the territory of Eastern Europe, including Poland, into Germany, and Russia entered a civil war.
The Soviet Union was born by the victory of the Red Army in the Russian Civil War, which was fought by the White and the Communist Red Army. Russia collapsed into a revolution, recklessly participating in World War I, revealing the inability and fragility of the Tsarist regime.
This is similar to the background in which the Chinese Communist Revolution occurred and achieved success. After the destruction of the Qing Empire in 1912, it was divided into the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party, and China suffered a long civil war.
The Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek, with the support of the Western empire, pushed Mao Zedong's Communist Party to the end of its destruction. Luckily, however, when Japan invaded China in 1937, the Sino-Japanese War broke out and Mao Zedong and the Communist Party survived. Mao Zedong and the Communist Party secretly gained power and have powerful forces while the Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Party are at war with Japan.
As a result, the Communist Party drove the Nationalist Party to Taiwan in 1949, resulting in a final victory. The Communist Party, originally weak, gained enormous power through war and had unexpected success. It is interesting to note that the coincidence of the Soviet Union as a result of World War I and the communist country China as a result of World War II was very interesting.
However, while the Soviet Union collapsed and the authoritarian Russia was born, the fact that communist China still exists is different. I do not think that China is a real communist country at present. In Mao Zedong's day, everyone lived equally, but today, the extreme gap between rich and poor and the status system dominate China.
Until the 1980s, China shared the same clothes, homes, and meals and rode bikes from the heads of the Communist Party to the common people. By the way, officials of the Communist Party now live in a wealthy way, driving in foreign cars, while the Chinese are still poor. Russia's statue of Lenin has already been demolished, while Mao Zedong's photos are still hanging in Beijing.
This fact suggests that the backgrounds of the communist revolutions between the Soviet Union and China are similar, but the results are quite different. The Soviet Union and China were the same communist countries, but their essence seemed to be quite different. There will be a lot of consideration and research in the future.