Capital Blockade

Karl Marx was a fiercely bearded German economist and philosopher.

seriously look at beard .fierce. with the help of his equally bushy pal Friedrich [Marx pictured]

angles Marx wrote a little book that would have enormous influence on the

Russian revolutionaries of the early 20th century. that book of course was

called Little House on the Prairie. it's just making sure you're with us. it

was actually called the communist manifesto. so let's break it down .the

world according to Marx suffers because of social classes. well in the Western

world we started with feudalism as the class system .if you were a king life was

groovy. if you were a serf and not so much. feudalism crashed and burned and

capitalism rolled in with its booze huazi and proletariat classes. well

according to the Communist Manifesto capitalism was much much much worse than

feudalism. why ?because the booze huazi or owners are the means of production who [communist manifesto pictured]

embraced capitalism would do anything to make a dollar.

this included dehumanizing abusing and manipulating the proletariat or worker

class who toiled on their behalf. so Marx and Engels believed that capitalism

caused enormous suffering and hardship in the modern world. furthermore it

caused corruption because the government was essentially in cahoots with the

bourgeoisie. thanks to the unfairness inherent in capitalism Marxism states

that the proletariat and bourgeoisie will forever be butting heads .more

importantly that tension will eventually result in a revolution of the masses. and

just what would that revolution look like? well Marx and Engels had a few

ideas .there would be no private ownership of land. there would be no

inheritance rights. the state would control the means of communication and

transport .and instead of laboring in factories kids would go to school where

they'd get a free education. the communist manifesto posits that Marxism

would succeed where other forms of socialism had failed because communists

would always put the proletariat first. furthermore other forms of socialism

were nothing more than programs for small reforms .if the ship of the worker [different ships with different forms of government written on sails]

was going to be set right full-blown an all-out revolution was needed.

and that's what Marxism was all about. Marx and Engels like to think that

Germany would be ground zero for the proletariat takeover.

they probably rolled over in their graves when Hitler came to power, but

never fear the Communist Manifesto was a home run for one group. da the Russians.

at the turn of the 20th century there were two divisions of the Russian social

democratic Labour Party .the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks many of whom had been

kicked out of Russia for being naughty revolutionaries spent about a decade

meeting in pubs in London. over a nice warm pint they'd argue about whose

interpretation of Marxism was correct and what the best method for taking over

Russia was .well frankly we would have picked somewhere tropical for our

communist revolution but well to each his own. while the Mensheviks and [Castro pictured]

Bolsheviks both wanted Russia to ditch capitalism and the Czar their

medium-term goals were quite different. well the Mensheviks wanted to work with

Russian officials already in office to build a kind of democratic system that

would make Russia a better place for everyone. Bolsheviks wanted to burn it

all down. well if you're wondering where Vladimir Lenin is and all this wonder no

more it was at the head of the Bolsheviks. he thought the Mensheviks

were wusses and that Russia's communist government would need to be small and

tightly controlled so that the masses wouldn't rebel. anywho after all those

years of plotting abroad the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks finally saw an

opportunity to get things going in 1917. and viva la revolucion. but that's for [mob of Russians protest]

another video. what, you thought we'd give you all the fun stuff right now?