The Rise and Fall of Communism

Communist’s ideals have always been taught to students at school as something that is bad. The leaders of the communist group try to make everybody equal, which results in the unfair distribution of work. A doctor who is working hard to save lives can make the same amount of income as someone who is working out in the fields.  This is what I have always thought about communism, but while reading the Rise and Fall of World Communisms, I realized that there were some good that came out of the communist ideals. In the 1920’s, Stalin created an organization called the Zhenotdel organization, which is a group that will fight for Women’s write. Because of this group, women were allowed to go to school, illiteracy was not allowed and women finally had more freedom. Women now had the freedom to divorce their husband without taking the blame for there failing marriage. Strayer writes that, “the Marriage Law of 1950 made it possible for women to divorce easily, it ended concubinaged and child marriage, permissions for widows to remarry, and equal property rights for women” (669).

The Marriage Law is a good that came out of communism. I remember doing some research on the marriage law and I realized that women had no name to themselves. Women were passed along from father to husband, and if their husband died before they did they were passed along to their sons. It is hard to imagine a life where you couldn’t choose your spouse and if your marriage was an unhappy one, there was nothing you could do. My parents were lucky enough to have married each other out of love but I remember my grandparents telling me stories of how they met each other. My grandmother said that she didn’t know what to expect on her wedding night, but she was hoping that her soon to be husband would be a good man. My grandmother was one of the lucky women who were able to fall in love with my grandfather. Although I never met him, I was glad that  my grandmother didn’t have to go through a loveless marriage.