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Karl Marx's analysis of History led him to conclude that all societies would evolve through various stages, from monarchy to aristocracy to oligarchy to industrial, at which point the downtrodden masses would rise up and seize control of the 'means of production'.

Much of his research was done in Britain during the world's first Industrial Revolution. His work was a tremendous intellectual achievement, but some of his ideas were colored by the terrible suffering and exploitation he saw around him in nineteenth century Britain.

British society had evolved roughly as Marx described and it seemed inconceivable to him that at some point the exploited masses would not rise up against the rich factory owners. He expected that other societies would evolve in the same way and with the same results, hence his prediction that 'Communist Revolution' was inevitable. It also seemed to him that when the revolution came the middle and upper classes would naturally be abolished as it was 'the workers' who actually did all the work of making things and generating wealth.

Revolution never came in Britain. Change came by evolution. Industrialization led to greatly increased national wealth which gradually raised the living standards of 'the masses'. Legislation improved working conditions and limited hours. The franchise was extended, making government more sensitive to working class aspirations. Although Marx's prediction had been reasonable, events proved he was wrong to have considered it inevitable. Nonetheless, generations of his devotees continued to work and act as if his ideas were Gospel.

In countries where Communist revolution was carried out, society had not reached the stage of industrialization which Marx had predicted to be the trigger. When Lenin seized control of Russia in 1917 he was faced with a country which did not fit Marx's blueprint and he was forced to improvise. He died within seven years or so and Russia gradually came under Stalin's control, ushering in an era of terror.

Even Lenin though had found that 'the masses' were not necessarily all keen on Communism. Many peasants wanted to own land themselves not work for the State. They wanted to keep their food and sell any surplus, not have it taken by the State for redistribution. The Communist ideal of 'From each according to his means, to each according to his needs' cuts across the grain of human nature!

In place of middle and upper classes other elites arose. Party members and political commissars had power and perks denied to the masses. It proved impossible to run even a Communist country without some group taking the decisions and making the plans. This was not how Marx had expected it to be. He had not foreseen Communist societies repressed by bloated security forces and secret police to keep 'the masses' in order.

The hostility of capitalist countries' governments towards Communist states can account for some of the distortions of Marx's ideas but can not explain all of them. Marx's fundamental analysis and prediction seems to have been proved wrong by events and some of his assumptions about human behavior were simply unrealistic.

Learn more about this author, Mark Hopkins.
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