Karl Marx : Founder of Communism

Ask students in modern Bangladesh what they know about communism and the chances are that they will mention atheism as one of its major principles. A few may talk about failed revolutions in Russia, the atrocities committed by Stalin in the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong in China. Some of the world’s greatest literature of the twentieth century concerns totalitarian states, where freedom of speech is a crime and even freedom of thought is a dirty word. Very often, these books are based on Communist regimes. And then there is the threat of nuclear war between the capitalist democracies and the communist dictatorships! Even today, Russia and China are often seen as untrustworthy and the USA still does not trade with Cuba. In fact, the failure of Latin American left-wing governments is a favourite theme of western media. And all this is blamed on Karl Marx, the 19th century thinker who gave us the idea of communism.