Who invented communism, Marx, Lenin or Trotsky?

Dear Dave,

First let me say Hello and thank you for your contribution to the masses. I believe the fundamental sharing of learned information between people is the very basis of evolution. So, thank you for helping to perpetuate the survival of our species. This is my first time writing to you and ironically, I have a follow-up comment/question. I agree with your interpretation of the development of communism and appreciate your reader for asking such a question. As I see the former Soviet Union bicker like a family trying to exclude all others from the "estate will", I also see a far greater struggle much closer. Here, in the United States of America, our constitution and our very foundation are being revised. It is becoming painfully apparent that Marx was accurate in his depiction of a capitalist society becoming a society of limited and extreme classes (or the "have's" and the "have not's" as Erich Fromm would say). China, with their communist flaws and occasional human rights violations and mass murder (population control), has had the most stable society that our history is currently aware of. Although growth and creativity are limited to spiritual ideals as opposed to scientific discovery in a society such as China's. My question is this: Should our goal as Americans, as well as Humans in the 21st century be to establish a fundamental society asborbing the various traits of each societal model, tempered with the lessons of history, and coupled with the compassion and sensitivity of spirituality (we are merely ONE species in the Universe)? I think that Eisenhower was on the right track, as well as F.D. Roosevelt. They may not have been motivated by the vision of a Global trade market, but they knew we would eventually all have to get along as a species. Perhaps the 21st century is the dawn of a new era in Human history; the Era of Humanity.

I'd just like to point out a small mistake in your explanation. Lenin never 'picked' Stalin, as in Lenin's own testament he mentions Stalin being rude and obnoxious and unable to carry on the work that Lenin had started. Trotsky, on the other hand, was the one who was praised by Lenin despite his arrogance. Stalin only came to power by manipulating the Politburo with his position as party secretary.

I would like to thank you for answering this question with some level of intellect. However, you failed miserably in keeping your answer apolitical. The question in no way included what you think of marxism. I would like to point out that when Lenin came to power, Russia was a bankrupt nation ravaged by war and a lack of industry. Lenin focused much more on what was best for the toiling masses, not the communist ideal. Marx himself said that a certain economical and industrial requirement existed for true socialism to be put in place. Lenin tried his best to transform Russia from a backward country to one with a more industrialized nation so that Communism could be initiated. I would also like to add that the vile "communist" governments of China, Cuba, North Korea, and the "stalinist" USSR do NOT represent a true workers' government that Lenin dreamed of. Stalin manipulated and destroyed the Communist movement for his own thirst for authority; something Lenin warned the Congress about in his last testement. This split the movement in two (one side followed the Stalinist faction {dictatorship), and one followed the Trotskyist faction {free speech, art, culture, democracy through workers unions}; Stalin's side prevailed because of it's ruthlessness and assassinating Trotsky. As Lenin, Marx, and Trotsky said, Communism in one country cannot survive; international worker solidarity and democracy is the only true form of marxism and the only one that can work. The Trotskyist faction, in an effort to distance themselves in any way from the totalitarian states that Stalinism built; refer to themselves as "Socialists" because "Communism" means something totally different than it did in Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky's time. The Communist Party supports and hails Stalin as a hero he was not, he was the biggest mass murderer in history, killing more Jews than Hitler did by several million. The idiocy of Mao, Pol Pot, and Kim Jong led them all to adopt the Stalinist model, because they lacked the intellect to be original. Stalin used Lenin's work to elevate himself and WWII elevated him to the international stage, Mao Zedong simply copied Stalin's machine, Kim Jong copied Mao, and the cycle continued. A new hope is rising in Latin America; Hugo Chavez is building a future for the Trotskyist faction alongwith Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Cuba (Chavez has shown Castro errors of his ways in copying the Soviet model of Communism)

Hi,
Thanks for posting this. I am doing a graduate paper on this topic and through my reasearch i have found that the ideas of Communism were forcibly evolved by Lenin. The proper evolution of this "Utopian" needed to pass through two other stages before reaching its pinnicle. Those stages were First Capitalism, Which at the time of pre-Bolshevik occupation was unatainable becuase the industrial system in Russia was VERY weak. Therefore the second (Socialism) was never ran through properly. The end result was a tyranical dictatorship. Marx would have been sick to hear his ideas being used like this by Lenin and especially Stalin. Marx was a Genius in all manners of the word. his theories on Communism were Idealistic. they could only happen through evolution and not through being forces such as when lenin encited the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. If Marx were alive in Lenins time I doubt that he would even thought that it would work. So i stress this very heavily, Marx's ideas on communism were dead on, Lenin's interpretation and exicution of those ideas were what was messed up.
And to fully answer the initial question. Marx did not com up with communism, it was already an idea before his time that is why we call his idea "Marxism" the end result would be called "Communism" but it was already an existing idea. Lenin's program should have never been called communism, its a disgrace to the actual idea and it has given the term a sour taste to its historical reference for the rest of time. It should have been called OFFICIALLY Leninism. And as time went on it was in fact leninism that evolved into Stalinism, Maoism ect.... Communism has never been a working political system in the world and it will never be becuase of the petty humans that are able to control the public.

Sorry for the spelling errors, im in a hurry
CK

Marx and Engels did in fact come up with the idea of socialism. It was put into practice by Lenin, but was skewed and twisted and called Communism. Lenin HATED Stalin! Evidently Stalin had offended Lenin's wife. On Lenin's deathbed he wrote a letter to the Communist Party telling them that Stalin was not the man they thought he was, how wrong some of his ideas were and that it was Trotsky who should be the next head of the Communist Party. After Lenin's death, Stalin out manuevered Trotsky and through trickery, deceit, and violence became the head of the Communist party.

Tell me: What exactly was the difference between Trotskyism and Leninism in a nutshell? Briefly...
Thanks Much