The Communist Manifesto (Webquest)

In 1848, Karl Marx published his Communist Manifesto. It was not very influential at the time, but later it would be cited as the basis for the communist movement. By the end of the nineteenth century, socialism—a political movement that sought to improve the conditions of working men and women and all of society—was splitting into two factions: a more radical “communist” one, represented by such people as Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), and a so-called “reform” one which sought gradual economic reform before complete political reform. In 1899, the Russian Socialist Party, under Lenin’s influence, decided that it would not follow the reform movement and instead would call for a complete revolution.

It this resource, students will look at the role The Communist Manifesto had in helping to shape the Soviet Union short after Russia withdrew from WWI.

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