Backed by Russia, Korean communist leader Kim Il-Sung was installed as leader of the new nation. North Korea did not become a communist country until 1945 when South Korea declared its independence from the North, which quickly declared its own sovereignty in return. At the time, no one thought the partition would be permanent, but the division has lasted. Korea was occupied by Japan during World War II, and after the war, it was divided into a Russian-dominated north and an American-occupied south. Yet today, only five communist countries remain in the world. By the middle of the 20th century, it appeared that communism could supersede democracy as the dominant political and economic ideology. But it wasn't until the Russian Revolution of 1917 that a communist nation-the Soviet Union-was born. The basic principles of communism were articulated in the mid-1800s by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, two German economic and political philosophers. Unlike communism, private ownership is encouraged in most socialist nations. A socialist party does not have to be in power for socialist principles-such as a strong social safety net and government ownership of key industries and infrastructure-to be part of a nation's domestic agenda. In economics, the party controls the country's economic system, and private ownership is illegal, although this facet of communist rule has changed in some countries like China.īy contrast, socialist nations are generally democratic with multi-party political systems. In politics, communist parties have absolute power over governance, and elections are single-party affairs. that played a significant role during the Cold War but no longer exist.Ĭommunism is both a political system and an economic one. Other communist countries, such as East Germany, were essentially satellites of the U.S.S.R. Some of these nations, like the People's Republic of China, were (and still are) global players in their own right. During the time of the Soviet Union (1922–1991), communist countries could be found in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Malist communist