Forward To The Past - Feudalism And Communism :: Communism Essays

<a href="http//www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknins Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs mesh SitesThe core countries of Central Europe (the Czech Republic, Hungary and, to a lesser extent, Poland) go through industrial capitalism in the inter-war period. But the countries comprising the vast expanses of the New indie States, Russia and the Balkan had no real acquaintance with it. To them its zealous introduction is nothing merely an early(a) ideological experiment and not a very recognise one at that. It is often said that there is no actor to the extant fortean transition from totalitarian communism to liberal capitalism. This might advantageously be true. Yet, nascent capitalism is not without historical example. The study of the make of capitalism in feudal Europe may yet persist to some surprising and potentially useful insights. The Barbarian conquest of the teetering papistic Empire (410-476 AD) heralded five centuries of existential i nsecurity and mayhem. Feudalism was the countrysides answer to this damnation. It was a Hobsons choice and an explicit trade-off. Local lords defended their vassals against nomad intrusions in return for changeless service bordering on slavery. A small percentage of the population lived on trade behind the massive walls of Medieval cities. In most move of central, eastern and southeastern Europe, feudalism endured well into the twentieth century. It was entrenched in the legal systems of the Ottoman Empire and of Czarist Russia. Elements of feudalism survived in the sweetened and prolix prose of the Habsburg codices and patents. Most of the denizens of these moribund swathes of Europe were farmers - only the profligate and epenthetic members of a distinct minority inhabited the cities. The present brobdignagian agricultural sectors in countries as diverse as Poland and Macedonia attest to this continuity of feudal practices. both manual labour and trade were derided in the Anci ent World. This derision was partly eroded during the Dark Ages. It survived only in relation to trade and other "non-productive" financial activities and even that not past the thirteenth century. Max Weber, in his opus, "The City" (New York, MacMillan, 1958) described this mental shift of paradigm thus "The mediaeval citizen was on the way towards becoming an economic man ... the ancient citizen was a political man". What communism did to the lands it permeated was to freeze this early feudal lay of mind of disdain towards "non-productive", "city-based" vocations. Agricultural and industrial occupations were romantically extolled. The cities were berated as hubs of object lesson turpitude, decadence and greed.