Chronology

 ♦ 1818 Birth of Karl Marx.

 ♦ 1844 Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, outlines his theory of alienation and human nature.

 ♦ 1845 Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, sketches a terse account of Marx’s materialist outlook.

 ♦ 1846 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology, contains the fullest account of Marx’s materialist conception of history in contrast to a philosophically idealist approach.

 ♦ 1847 Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, a riposte to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s System of Economic Contradictions, focuses particularly on Proudhon’s theory of value and his abstract and philosophically idealist methodology. It also provides a statement of Marx’s own materialist approach.

 ♦ 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, provides the clearest and briefest statement of the views of Marx and Engels, including specific policy proposals.

 ♦ 1850 Karl Marx, The Class Struggles in France, represents Marx’s first attempt to explain specific historical events using his materialist conception of history.

 ♦ 1852 Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, is the further application of Marx’s method to recent events, specifically focusing on Louis Bonaparte’s 1851 coup d’état.

 ♦ 1859 Karl Marx, Preface to a Critique of Political Economy, famously gives the most succinct account of the materialist conception of history.

 ♦ 1864 Foundation of the First International (dissolved 1876).

 ♦ 1867 Karl Marx, Capital vol. I, is of all his works Marx’s greatest theoretical achievement. It includes his theory of surplus value and exploitation.

 ♦ 1869 Foundation of German Social Democratic Party.

 ♦ 1871 France: Paris Commune; Karl Marx, The Civil War in France, sells thousands of copies throughout Europe and earns Marx notoriety for its praise of the revolutionary character of the Paris Commune. It includes interesting indications of Marx’s vision of the future communist society.

 ♦ 1872 Hague Congress of the First International.

 ♦ 1875 Gotha Congress.

 ♦ 1884 Death of Marx.

 ♦ 1887 Great Britain: Independent Labour Party (ILP) formed.

 ♦ 1889 Foundation of the Second International (collapsed 1914).

 ♦ 1892 Friedrich Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.

 ♦ 1895 Death of Engels.

 ♦ 1898 Russia: Foundation of Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP); Georgii Plekhanov, The Role of the Individual in History.

 ♦ 1899 Lenin, Development of Capitalism in Russia; Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism; Rosa Luxemburg, Social Reform or Revolution.

 ♦ 1900 Great Britain: Foundation of British Labour Party.

 ♦ 1901 United States: Foundation of Socialist Party of America.

 ♦ 1902 Second Congress of RSDLP: Bolshevik–Menshevik split; Lenin, What Is to Be Done?

 ♦ 1905 Russia: Uprising provoked by “Bloody Sunday” massacre in St. Petersburg. It is eventually quelled after use of military force and promise of various political reforms.

 ♦ 1916 Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism.

 ♦ 1917 Russia: February and October Revolutions in Russia; Lenin, State and Revolution.

 ♦ 1918 Karl Kautsky, The Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

 ♦ 1919 Nikolai Bukharin and Evgeny Preobrazhensky, ABC of Communism. Germany: Rosa Luxemburg murdered by right-wing German army officers; Foundation of the Third International also known as the Comintern (dissolved 1943).

 ♦ 1921 Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovak Communist Party founded.

 China: First Chinese Communist National Congress.

 ♦ 1923 Russia: United Socialist Soviet Republic (Soviet Union) established; Georgii Lukács, History and Class Consciousness; Karl Korsch, Marxism and Philosophy.

 ♦ 1924 Soviet Union: Death of Lenin; Josef Stalin, Foundations of Leninism; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) officially formed. Mongolia: Mongolian People’s Republic comes into being.

 ♦ 1925 Cuba: Cuban Communist Party founded.

 ♦ 1927 Soviet Union: Leon Trotsky and Grigory Zinoviev expelled from Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

 ♦ 1929 Soviet Union: Trotsky expelled from Soviet Union; Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks (1929–1935).

 ♦ 1930 Soviet Union: Collectivization of agriculture. Vietnam: Indochinese Communist Party founded.

 ♦ 1934–35 China: Long March; Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed.

 ♦ 1937 Mao Zedong, On Practice and On Contradiction.

 ♦ 1938 Josef Stalin, Dialectical and Historical Materialism; Foundation of the Fourth International.

 ♦ 1940 Mexico: Trotsky murdered by an agent of Stalin.

 ♦ 1942 China: Rectification movement (Zhengfeng) begins marking start of “Mao Zedong Thought.”

 ♦ 1944 Yugoslavia: Josip Tito’s Communist government recognized by British Government. Albania: Envar Hoxha forms Provisional Democratic Government. Greece: Greek Communist uprising defeated by British forces. Bulgaria: Communist coup. Poland: Red Army intervention to support Polish communists in struggle for power.

 ♦ 1945 Poland: Communist-dominated Polish Committee for National Liberation recognized by Soviet Union as government of Poland. Romania: Communist coup supported by Soviet Union. Germany: Founding of Communist Party of Germany. Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh proclaims Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Korea: Liberated from Japanese rule with Soviet army occupying much of North Korea.

 ♦ 1946 Korea: Kim Il Sung chairman of North Korean Interim People’s Committee. Albania: People’s Republic of Albania formed.

 ♦ 1947 Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment; Foundation of Communist Information Bureau also known as Cominform (dissolved 1956).

 ♦ 1948 Yugoslavia: break with Soviet Union (expelled from Cominform). Germany: Berlin Blockade (ended 1949). Czechoslavkia: Communist coup. Korea: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea founded by Kim Il Sung.

 ♦ 1949 China: People’s Republic of China established; New Democracy Period begins. Germany: German Democratic Republic (GDR) formed; Theodore Adorno et al., Authoritarian Personality.

 ♦ 1950 Yugoslavia: Workers’ self-management established. Tibet: Chinese People’s Liberation Army invades; Stalin, Marxism and Linguistics.

 ♦ 1952 Yugoslavia: Yugoslav Communist Party renamed League of Communists and workers’ self-management officially identified as the distinctive contribution of Yugoslavia to socialist theory and practice.

 ♦ 1953 Soviet Union: Death of Stalin. Hungary: New Prime Minister Imre Nagy introduces “new course.” China: Start of first Five Year Plan.

 ♦ 1955 Hungary: Nagy expelled from Communist Party and reforms ended; Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization.

 ♦ 1956 Soviet Union: 20th Congress of CPSU: Denunciation of Stalin. Hungary: Hungarian Revolution and Soviet invasion. China: The Hundred Flowers Period begins. Angola: Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) founded.

 ♦ 1957 Ghana (formerly Gold Coast): Becomes independent under Kwame Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CCP); Mao Zedong, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People; Milovan Djilas, The New Class.

 ♦ 1958 Poland: Yugoslav League of Communists adopts program asserting unique Yugoslav road to socialism. China: Great Leap Forward.

 Guinea: Becomes independent under Sékou Touré’s Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG).

 ♦ 1959 Cuba: Revolution resulting in overthrow of Fulgencio Batista regime and establishing of Fidel Castro’s leftist regime.

 ♦ 1960 Beginnings of Sino–Soviet split. Mali: Becomes independent under Modibo Keita’s Soudanese Union Party. Kampuchea: Communist Party of Kampuchea founded; Jean-Paul Sartre, Critique of Dialectical Reason.

 ♦ 1961 Building of Berlin Wall. Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika): Becomes independent under Julius Nyerere’s Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).

 ♦ 1962 Algeria: Becomes independent under Ahmed Ben Bella’s Front de Libération Nationale.

 ♦ 1963 Soviet and Chinese communist party relations broken. Congo: Military coup and new president Alphonse Massemba-Débat declares Congo/Brazzaville to be a Marxist–Leninist state.

 ♦ 1964 Soviet Union: Downfall of Nikita Khrushchev, replaced by Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man.

 ♦ 1965 Louis Althusser, For Marx; Che Guevara, Socialism and Man in Cuba.

 ♦ 1965 Algeria: Ben Bella’s socialist government overthrown.

 ♦ 1966 China: Beginning of Cultural Revolution (ends 1969). Ghana: Nkrumah and the CPP overthrown.

 ♦ 1967 Régis Debray, Revolution in the Revolution. Yemen: People’s Republic of South Yemen founded (became People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1970). Mali: Keita overthrown by military.

 ♦ 1968 Czechoslavkia: Prague Spring and Soviet invasion. France: May events in Paris. Congo (Brazzaville): New president, Major Marien Ngouabi, oversees creation of People’s Republic of Congo; Congo notable as Africa’s first lasting regime with Marxism–Leninism as its political outlook.

 ♦ 1969 Somalia: Colonel Mohamed Siad Barre comes to power in coup and creates increasingly pro-Soviet Marxist–Leninist regime. Sudan: Colonel Gaafar Nimeri overthrows elected government and bans all political parties except Sudanese Communist Party which plays key role in new regime. Libya: Colonel Muammar Qaddafi comes to power.

 Vietnam: Death of Ho Chi Minh.

 ♦ 1970 China: Disappearance of Lin Biao.

 ♦ 1972 Benin: Lieutenant Colonel Mathieu Kérékou seizes power.

  1973 China: Rehabilitation of Deng Xiaoping. Guinea Bissau: Independence declared under leadership of Partido Africano da Independencia da Guiné e Cabo Verde.

  1974 Benin: Kérékou declares Marxism–Leninism to be the regime’s framework for theory and practice. Ethiopia: Military seizes power and allows country to become “client state” of Soviet Union.

  1975 Mozambique: Becomes independent under Samora Machel’s Frente de Libertação da Moçambique (FRELIMO) which begins transition from national liberation movement to Marxist–Leninist vanguard party. Angola: MPLA led by Agostinho Neto takes power and begins change from national liberation movement to Marxist–Leninist vanguard party.

  1975 Laos: Lao People’s Democratic Republic formed, led by Prince Souphanouvong.

  1976 China: Death of Mao; Death of Zhou Enlai; Deng Xiaoping dismissed; Gang of Four arrested. Vietnam: Following military victory in 1975, unified Vietnam is renamed Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Kampuchea: Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge creates new Democratic Kampuchea regime. Somalia: Barre’s Supreme Revolutionary Party changes into Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, a Marxist–Leninist vanguard party.

  1977 Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, A Historic Stage on the Road to Communism.

  1978 China: Deng Xiaoping endorsed by Third Plenum as leader; Gerry Cohen, Karl Marx’s Theory of History.

  1980 Yugoslavia: Death of Tito. Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia): Becomes independent under Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

  1981 China: Hu Yaobang elected Chairman of Central Committee.

  1982 Soviet Union: Death of Brezhnev; Yuri Andropov becomes general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chief of State.

  1984 Guinea: Touré dies and PDG overthrown.

  1985 China: “Document No.1” endorses new enterprise agricultural policies. Soviet Union: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

  1987 China: Hu Yaobang ousted from power.

  1989 China: Tiananmen Square massacre. Poland: Solidarity-led government formed. Berlin: Berlin Wall breached. Czechoslavakia: Government of National Understanding formed. Romania: Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu executed.

  1991 Soviet Union: Collapse of Soviet regime; Comecon dissolved.

  1994 Mexico: Zapatista rebels rise to prominence.

  1997 China: Death of Deng Xiaoping. Cuba: Communist Party of Cuba reaffirms commitment to Marxism–Leninism at party conference.

 Vietnam: Le Kha Phieu becomes Communist Party of Vietnam leader, Tran Duc Luong president and Phan Van Khai prime minister (all reappointed July 2002). Mongolia: People’s Revolutionary Party candidate Bagabandi wins presidential contest (re-elected 2001).

  1998 Laos: Khamtai Siphandon becomes president and two years later leads celebrations of 25 years of communist rule. China: Zhu Rongji succeeds Li Peng as premier. North Korea: Deceased Kim Il Sung affirmed “eternal president.”

  2001 Vietnam: Man Duc Manh becomes Communist Party of Vietnam leader.

  2002 Laos: Elections return to power the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party which fields 165 of the 166 parliamentary candidates. Vietnam: Unopposed Communist Party of Vietnam returned to power in National Assembly election. China: Hu-Jintao appointed head of the Chinese Communist Party in place of Jiang Zemin.

  2003 Mexico: Zapatistas announce complete establishment of their own “state within a state” in Chiapas. China: Hu-Jintao replaces Jiang Zemin as president.

  2005 Mongolia: People’s Revolutionary Party candidate Nambaryn Enkhbayar wins presidential contest.