document_title: History of communism

question_text: which country was the first to adopt communism as the way to develop it economy

text: History of communism

text: History of the word "communism"[edit]

text: "Communism" derives from the French communisme which developed out of the Latin roots communis and the suffix isme – and was in use as a word designating various social situations before it came to be associated with more modern conceptions of an economic and political organization. Semantically, communis can be translated to "of or for the community" while isme is a suffix that indicates the abstraction into a state, condition, action or doctrine, so "communism" may be interpreted as "the state of being of or for the community". This semantic constitution has led to various usages of the word in its evolution, but ultimately came to be most closely associated with Marxism, most specifically embodied in The Communist Manifesto, which proposed a particular type of communism.

text: The term was first coined in its modern definition by the French philosopher Victor d'Hupay. In his 1777 book Projet de communauté philosophe, d'Hupay pushes the legacy of the Enlightenments to principles which he lived up to during most of his life in his bastide of Fuveau (Provence).[7] His book can be seen as a backbone of communist philosophy as d'Hupay attempts a definition of this lifestyle which he calls a "commune" and advises to "share all economic and material products between inhabitants of the commune, so that all may benefit from each other's work".[8] His friend and contemporary author Restif de la Bretonne also describes him as a "communist" in one of his books.[9]

text: "Socialism" is also a word which is essentially the same as "communism" and became popular among leftists especially in France (where the word originated) before communism did. However, the semantic evolution of these two words has led them to contain different associations. Some of these developments can be traced to various organizations which operated in Europe as well as the Americas, since the particular programs of various parties, leagues, confederations, associations, etc. infused the terms with their own political orientation. For instance, the communist party has been perceived as an embodiment of communism despite the fact that a variety of other self-identified communists belong to contrary political, as well as economic, positions.

text: Early development (1840–1916)[edit]

text: Pre-Marxist communism[edit]

text: Many historical groups have been considered as following forms of communism. Karl Marx and other early communist theorists believed that hunter-gatherer societies, as were found in the Paleolithic, were essentially egalitarian and he therefore termed their ideology to be "primitive communism". Early Christianity supported a form of common ownership based on the teachings in the New Testament which emphasised sharing amongst everyone. Other ancient Jewish sects, like the Essenes, also supported egalitarianism and communal living.[10]

text: In Europe during the Early Modern period, various groups supporting communist ideas appeared. Tommaso Campanella's 1601 work The City of the Sun propagated the concept of a society where the products of society should be shared equally.[11] Within a few centuries, during the English Civil War various groups on the side of the Roundheads propagated the redistribution of wealth on an egalitarian basis, namely the Levellers and the Diggers.[12] In the eighteenth century, the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau in his hugely influential The Social Contract (1762) outlined the basis for a political order based on popular sovereignty rather than the rule of monarchs.[13] His views proved influential during the French Revolution of 1789, in which various anti-monarchists, particularly the Jacobins, supported the idea of redistributing wealth equally among the people, including Jean-Paul Marat and Gracchus Babeuf. The latter was involved in the Conspiracy of the Equals of 1796 intending to establish a revolutionary regime based on communal ownership, egalitarianism and the redistribution of property.[14] The plot was however detected and he and several others involved were arrested and executed. Despite this setback the example of the French Revolutionary regime and Babeuf's doomed insurrection was an inspiration for radical French thinkers such as Compte Henri de Saint Simon, Louis Blanc, Charles Fourier and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who declared that "Property is theft!".[15]

text: Karl Marx[edit]

text: Communism is the riddle of history solved, and it knows itself to be this solution.

text: In the 1840s, a German philosopher and sociologist named Karl Marx (1818–1883), who was living in England after fleeing the authorities in the German states, where he was considered a political threat, began publishing books in which he outlined his theories for a variety of communism now known as Marxism. Marx was financially aided and supported by another German émigré, Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), who like Marx had fled from the German authorities in 1849.[17] Marx and Engels took on many influences from earlier philosophers and politically they were influenced by Maximilien Robespierre and several other radical figures of the French Revolution, whilst economically they were influenced by David Ricardo and philosophically they were influenced by Hegel.[18] Engels regularly met Marx at Chetham's Library in Manchester, England from 1845 and the alcove where they met remains identical to this day.[19][20] It was here Engels relayed his experiences of industrial Manchester, chronicled in the Condition of the Working Class in England, highlighting the struggles of the working class.

text: Marx stated that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles", something that he believed was happening between the bourgeoisie (the select few upper class and upper middle class) who then controlled society and the proletariat (the working class masses) who toiled to produce everything but who had no political control. He purported the idea that human society moved through a series of progressive stages from primitive communism through to slavery, feudalism and then capitalism – and that this in turn would be replaced by communism. Therefore, for Marx communism was seen as inevitable, as well as desirable.

text: Marx founded the Communist Correspondence Committee in 1846 through which the various communists, socialists and other leftists across Europe could keep in contact with one another in the face of political repression. He then published The Communist Manifesto in 1848, which would prove to be one of the most influential communist texts ever written. He subsequently began work on a multi-volume epic that would examine and criticise the capitalist economy and the effect that it had upon politics, society and philosophy; the first volume of the work, which was known as Capital: Critique of Political Economy, was published in 1869. However, Marx and Engels were not only interested in writing about communism, as they were also active in supporting revolutionary activity that would lead to the creation of communist governments across Europe. They helped to found the International Workingmen's Association, which would later become known as the First International, to unite various communists and socialists – and Marx was elected to the Association's General Council.[21]

text: Early development of Marxism[edit]

text: During the latter half of the 19th century, various left-wing organisations across Europe continued to campaign against the many autocratic right-wing regimes that were then in power. In France in 1871, socialists set up a government known as the Paris Commune after the fall of Napoleon III, but they were soon overthrown and many of their members executed by counter-revolutionaries.[22] Meanwhile, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels joined the German Social-Democratic Party, which had been created in 1875, but which was outlawed in 1879 by the German government, then led by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who deemed it to be a political threat due to its revolutionary nature and increasing number of supporters.[23] In 1890, the party was re-legalised and by this time it had fully adopted Marxist principles. It subsequently achieved a fifth of the vote in the German elections and some of its leaders, such as August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht, became well-known public figures.[24]

text: At the time, Marxism took off not only in Germany, but it also gained popularity in Hungary, the Habsburg Monarchy and the Netherlands, although it did not achieve such success in other European nations like the United Kingdom, where Marx and Engels had been based.[25] Nonetheless, the new political ideology had gained sufficient support that an organisation was founded known as the Second International to unite the various Marxist groups around the world.[26]

text:
The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

—Karl Marx

tag: div

text: However, as Marxism took off, it also began to come under criticism from other European intellectuals, including fellow socialists and leftists. For instance, the Russian collectivist anarchist Mikhail Bakunin criticised what he believed were the flaws in the Marxian theory that the state would eventually dissolve under a Marxist government, instead he believed that the state would gain in power and become authoritarian. Criticism also came from other sociologists, such as the German Max Weber, who whilst admiring Marx disagreed with many of his assumptions on the nature of society. Some Marxists tried to adapt to these criticisms and the changing nature of capitalism and Eduard Bernstein emphasised the idea of Marxists bringing legal challenges against the current administrations over the treatment of the working classes rather than simply emphasising violent revolution as more orthodox Marxists did. Other Marxists opposed Bernstein and other revisionists, with many including Karl Kautsky, Otto Bauer, Rudolf Hilferding, Rosa Luxemburg, Vladimir Lenin and Georgi Plekhanov sticking steadfast to the concept of violently overthrowing what they saw as the bourgeoisie-controlled government and instead establishing a "dictatorship of the proletariat".

text: International communism: periodization[edit]

text: The Comintern's historical existence is divided among periods, regarding changes in the general policy it followed.[27][28][29]

text:
The War Communism period (1919–1923) which saw the forming of the International, the Russian Civil War, a general revolutionary upheaval after the October Revolution resulting in the formation of the first communist parties across the world and the defeat of workers' revolutionary movements in Germany, Hungary, Finland and Poland.
The New Economic Policy period (1923–1929) which marked the end of the civil war in Russia and new economic measures taken by the Bolshevik government, the toning down of the revolutionary wave in Europe and internal struggles within the Bolshevik Party and the Comintern after Lenin's death and before Stalin's absolute consolidation of power.
The Third Period (1929–1934), an ultra-left turn which saw rapid industrialization and collectivization in the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule, the refusal by communists to cooperate with social democrats in other countries (labeling them "social fascists") and the ultimate rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, which led to the abandonment of the hard-line policy of this period. These years also saw the complete subordination of all communist parties across the world to the directives of the Soviet Party, making the Comintern more or less an organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The Popular Front period (1934–1939) which marked the call by Comintern to all popular and democratic forces (not just communist) to unite in popular fronts against fascism. Products of this period were the popular front governments in France and Spain. However, this period was also marked by widespread purges of anyone suspected as an enemy of the Stalinist regime, both in the Soviet Union and abroad. These mass purges resulted in the breaking up of the popular front in Spain amidst the Spanish Civil War and the fall of Spain to Francisco Franco.
The period of "advocating peace" (1939–1941), a result of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. In this period, communists were advocating non-participation in World War II, labeling the war as "imperialist". A new term, "revolutionary defeatism", was coined by Comintern in this period, referring to anti-war propaganda by communists in the Western Europe against their national governments.
The Great Patriotic War period, sometimes called the Second Popular Front (1941–1943), was the last period of the Comintern, starting immediately after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, with Stalin's 3 July 1941 call to the entire free world to unite and fight Nazism by all means. This was a period of militant anti-fascism, the emergence of national liberation movements all across occupied Europe and ultimately the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943.
The Early Cold War (1947–1960) in which the Soviet Union and the Red Army installed the communist regime's in most of Eastern Europe (except for Yugoslavia and Albania, which had independent communist regimes). A major effort to support communist party activity in Western democracies, especially Italy and France, fell short of gaining positions in the government.
The Late Cold War (1960–1970s) in which China turned against the Soviet Union and organized alternative communist parties in many countries. Intense attention was given to revolutionary movements in the Third World, which were successful in some places such as Cuba and Vietnam. Communism was decisively defeated in other states, including Malaya and Indonesia. In 1972–1979, there was détente between the Soviet Union and the United States.
The end of communism in Europe (1980–1992) in which Soviet client states were heavily on the defensive, as in Afghanistan and Nicaragua. The United States escalated the conflict with very heavy military spending. After a series of short-lived leaders, Michael Gorbachev came to power in the Kremlin and began a policy of glasnost and perestroika, designed to revive the stagnating Soviet economy. European satellites led by Poland grew increasingly independent and in 1989 they all expelled the communist leadership. East Germany merged into West Germany with Moscow's approval. At the end of 1991, the Soviet Union itself was dissolved into non-communist independent states. Many communist parties around the world either collapsed, or became independent non-communist entities. However, China, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Cuba maintained communist regimes. After 1980, China adopted a market oriented economy that welcomed large-scale trade and friendly relations with United States.

text: The early Communist states (1917–1944)[edit]

text: The Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union[edit]

text: At the start of the 20th century, the Russian Empire was an autocracy controlled by the Tsar, with millions of the country's largely agrarian population living in abject poverty, and the anti-communist historian Robert Service noted, "poverty and oppression constituted the best soil for Marxism to grow in".[30] The man responsible for largely introducing the ideology into the country was Georgi Plekhanov, although the movement itself was largely organised by a man known as Vladimir Lenin, who had for a time been exiled to a prison camp in Siberia by the Tsarist government for his beliefs.[31] A Marxist group known as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was formed in the country, although it soon divided into two main factions: the Bolsheviks led by Lenin and the Mensheviks led by Julius Martov. In 1905, there was a revolution against the Tsar's rule, in which workers' councils known as "soviets" were formed in many parts of the country and the Tsar was forced to implement democratic reform, introducing an elected government, the Duma.[32]

text: In 1917, with further social unrest against the Duma and its part in involving Russia in the First World War, the Bolsheviks took power in the October Revolution. They subsequently began remodelling the country based upon communist principles, nationalising various industries and confiscating land from wealthy aristocrats and redistributing it amongst the peasants. They subsequently pulled out of the war against Germany by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which was unpopular amongst many in Russia for it gave away large areas of land to Germany. From the outset, the new government faced resistance from a myriad of forces with differing perspectives, including anarchists, social democrats, who took power in the Democratic Republic of Georgia, Socialist-Revolutionaries, who formed the Komuch in Samara, Russia, scattered tsarist resistance forces known as the White Guard, as well as Western powers. This led to the events of the Russian civil war, which the Bolsheviks won and subsequently consolidated their power over the entire country, centralising power from the Kremlin in the capital city of Moscow. In 1922, the Russian SFS Republic was officially redesignated to be the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, whilst in 1924 Lenin resigned as leader of the Soviet Union due to poor health and soon died, with Joseph Stalin subsequently taking over control.

text: Comintern, Mongolia and the communist uprisings in Europe[edit]

text: In 1919, the Bolshevik government in Russia organised the creation of an international communist organisation that would act as the Third International after the collapse of the Second International in 1916 – this was known as the Communist International, although was commonly abbreviated as Comintern. Throughout its existence, Comintern would be dominated by the Kremlin despite its internationalist stance. Meanwhile, in 1921 the Soviet Union invaded its neighboring Mongolia to aid a popular uprising against the Chinese who then controlled the country, instituting a Marxist government, which declared the nation to be the Mongolian People's Republic in 1924.[33]

text: Comintern and other such Soviet-backed communist groups soon spread across much of the world, though particularly in Europe, where the influence of the recent Russian Revolution was still strong. In Germany, the Spartacist uprising took place in 1919, when armed communists supported rioting workers, but the government put the rebellion down violently with the use of a right-wing paramilitary group, the Freikorps, with many noted German communists, such as Rosa Luxemburg, being killed.[34] Within a few months, a group of communists seized power amongst public unrest in the German region of Bavaria, forming the Bavarian Soviet Republic, although once more this was put down violently by the Freikorps, who historians believe killed around 1200 communists and their sympathisers.[35]

text: That same year, political turmoil in Hungary following their defeat in the First World War led to a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party taking control. The communists, led by Bela Kun, soon became dominant and instituted various communist reforms in the country, but the country was subsequently invaded by its neighbouring Romania within a matter of months who overthrew the government, with the communist leaders either escaping abroad or being executed.[36] In 1921, a communist revolt against the government occurred whilst supportive factory workers were on strike in Turin and Milan in northern Italy, but the government acted swiftly and put down the rebellion.[37] That same year, a further communist rebellion took place in Germany only to be crushed, but another occurred in 1923 which once again was also defeated by the government.[38] The communists of Bulgaria had also attempted an uprising in 1923, but like most of their counterparts across Europe they were defeated.[39]

text: Front organisations[edit]

text: Communist parties were tight knit organizations that exerted tight control over the members. To reach sympathisers unwilling to join the party, front organizations were created that advocated party-approved positions. The Comintern, under the leadership of Grigory Zinoviev in the Kremlin, established fronts in many countries in the 1920s and after. To coordinate their activities, the Comintern set up various international umbrella organizations (linking groups across national borders), such as the Young Communist International (youth), Profintern (trade unions),[40] Krestintern (peasants), International Red Aid (humanitarian aid), Sportintern (organized sports), etc. In Europe, front organizations were especially influential in Italy[41] and France, which in 1933 became the base for Communist front organizer Willi Münzenberg.[42] These organizations were dissolved the late 1930s or early 1940s.

text: The Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat (PPTUS) was set up in 1927 by the Profintern (the Comintern's trade union arm) with the mission of promoting communist trade unions in China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and other nations in the western Pacific.[43] Trapeznik (2009) says the PPTUS was a "Communist-front organization" and "engaged in overt and covert political agitation in addition to a number of clandestine activities".[44]

text: There were numerous Communist front organizations in Asia, many oriented to students and youth.[45] In Japan in the labor union movement of the 1920s, according to one historian, "The Hyogikai never called itself a communist front but in effect, this was what it was." He points out it was repressed by the government "along with other communist front groups".[46] In the 1950s, Scalapino argues, "The primary Communist-front organization was the Japan Peace Committee". It was founded in 1949.[47]

text: Stalinism in the Soviet Union[edit]

text: In 1924, Joseph Stalin, a key Bolshevik follower of Lenin, took power in the Soviet Union.[48] He was supported in his leadership by Nikolai Bukharin, but had various important opponents in the government, most notably Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. Stalin initiated his own process of building a communist society, creating a variant of communism known as Stalinism and as a part of this he abandoned some of the capitalist, free market policies that had been allowed to continue under Lenin, such as the New Economic Policy. He radically altered much of the Soviet Union's agricultural production, modernising it by introducing tractors and other machinery, by forced collectivisation of the farms, by forced collection of grains from the peasants in accordance with predecided targets. There was food available for industrial workers, but those peasants who refused to move starved especially in the Ukraine. The Communist Party targeted "Kulaks", who owned a little land.

text: Stalin took control of the Comintern, and introduced a policy in the international organisation of opposing all leftists who were not Marxists, labelling them to be "social-fascists", although many communists, such as Jules Humbert-Droz, disagreed with him on this policy, believing that the left should unite against the rise of right wing movements like fascism across Europe.[49] In the early 1930s, Stalin reversed course and promoted "popular front" movements whereby communist parties would collaborate with Socialists and other political forces. A high priority was mobilizing wide support for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War.[50]

text: The Great Terror[edit]

text: The "Great Terror" mainly operated from December 1936 to November 1938, although the features of arrest and summary trial followed by execution were well entrenched in the Soviet system since the days of Lenin, as Stalin systematically destroyed the older generation of pre-1918 leaders, usually on the grounds they were enemy spies or simply because they were "enemies of the people". In the Red Army, a majority of generals were executed and hundreds of thousands of other "enemies" were sent to the gulag,[51] where terrible conditions in Siberia led quickly to death.[52]

text: Pre-war dissident communisms[edit]

text: The International Right Opposition and Trotskyism are examples of dissidents who still claim communism today, but they are not the only ones. In Germany, the split in the SPD had initially led to a variety of Communist unions and parties forming, which included the councilist tendencies of the AAU-D, AAU-E and KAPD. Councilism had a limited impact outside of Germany, but a number of international organisations formed. In Spain, a fusion of Left and Right dissidents led to the formation of the POUM. Additionally, in Spain the CNT was associated with the development of the FAI political party, a non-Marxist party which stood for revolutionary communism.

text: Spreading communism (1945–1957)[edit]

text: As the Cold War took effect around 1947, the Kremlin set up new international coordination bodies including the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the International Union of Students, the World Federation of Trade Unions, the Women's International Democratic Federation and the World Peace Council. Kennedy says the, "Communist 'front' system included such international organizations as the WFTU, WFDY, IUS, WIDF and WPC, besides a host of lesser bodies bringing journalists, lawyers, scientists, doctors and others into the widespread net".[53]

text: The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was established in 1945 to unite trade union confederations across the world; it was based in Prague. While it had non-communist unions it was largely dominated by the Soviets. In 1949 the British, American and other non-Communist unions broke away to form the rival International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The labor movement in Europe became so polarized between the communists unions and social democratic and Christian labor unions, whereas front operations could no longer hide the sponsorship and they became less important.[54]

text: Soviet Union[edit]

text: The devastation of the war resulted in a massive recovery program involving the rebuilding of industrial plants, housing and transportation, as well as the demobilization and migration of millions of soldiers and civilians. In the midst of this turmoil during the winter of 1946–1947, the Soviet Union experienced the worst natural famine in the 20th century.[55] There was no serious opposition to Stalin, as the secret police continued to send possible suspects to the gulag.

text: Relations with the United States and Britain went from friendly to hostile, as they denounced Stalin's political controls over eastern Europe and his blockade of Berlin. By 1947, the Cold War had begun. Stalin himself believed that capitalism was a hollow shell and would crumble under increased non-military pressure exerted through proxies in countries like Italy. He greatly underestimated the economic strength of the West and instead of triumph saw the West build up alliances that were designed to permanently stop or "contain" Soviet expansion. In early 1950, Stalin gave the go-ahead for North Korea's invasion of South Korea, expecting a short war. He was stunned when the Americans entered and defeated the North Koreans, putting them almost on the Soviet border. Stalin supported China's entry into the Korean war, which drove the Americans back to the prewar boundaries, but which escalated tensions. The United States decided to mobilize its economy for a long contest with the Soviets, built the hydrogen bomb and strengthened the NATO alliance that covered Western Europe.[56]

text: According to Gorlizki and Khlevniuk (2004), Stalin's consistent and overriding goal after 1945 was to consolidate the nation's superpower status and in the face of his growing physical decrepitude to maintain his own hold on total power. Stalin created a leadership system that reflected historic czarist styles of paternalism and repression, yet was also quite modern. At the top, personal loyalty to Stalin counted for everything. However, Stalin also created powerful committees, elevated younger specialists and began major institutional innovations. In the teeth of persecution, Stalin's deputies cultivated informal norms and mutual understandings which provided the foundations for collective rule after his death.[57]

text: Eastern Europe[edit]

text: The military success of the Red Army in Central and Eastern Europe led to a consolidation of power in communist hands. In some cases, such as Czechoslovakia, this led to an enthusiastic support for socialism inspired by the Communist Party and a Social Democratic Party willing to fuse. In other cases, such as Poland or Hungary, the fusion of the Communist Party with the Social Democratic party was forcible and accomplished through undemocratic means. In many cases, the communist parties of Central Europe were faced with a population initially quite willing to reign in market forces, institute limited nationalisation of industry and supporting the development of intensive social welfare states, whereas broadly the population largely supported socialism. However, the purges of non-communist parties which supported socialism, combined with forced collectivisation of agriculture and a Soviet-bloc wide recession in 1953 led to deep unrest. This unrest first surfaced in Berlin in 1953, where Brecht ironically suggested that the Party ought to elect a new People. However, Khrushchev's Secret Speech of 1956 opened up internal debate, even if members were unaware, in both the Polish and Hungarian Communist Parties. This led to the Polish Crisis of 1956 which was resolved through change in Polish leadership and a negotiation between the Soviet and Polish parties over the direction of the Polish economy.

text: Hungarian Revolution of 1956[edit]

text: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a major challenge to Moscow's control of Eastern Europe.[58] This revolution saw general strikes, the formation of independent workers councils, the restoration of the Social Democratic Party as a party for revolutionary communism of a non-Soviet variety and the formation of two underground independent communist parties. The mainstream Communist Party was controlled for a period of about a week by non-Soviet aligned leaders. Two non-communist parties which supported the maintenance of socialism also regained their independence. This flowering of dissenting communism was crushed by a combination of a military invasion supported by heavy artillery and airstrikes; mass arrests, at least a thousand juridical executions and an uncounted number of summary executions; the crushing of the Central Workers Council of Greater Budapest; mass refugee flight; and a worldwide propaganda campaign. The effect of the Hungarian Revolution on other communist parties varied significantly, resulting in large membership losses in Anglophone communist parties.[59]

text: Prague Spring 1968[edit]

text: The Czechoslovak Communist Party began an ambitious reform agenda under Alexander Dubček. The plan to limit central control and make the economy more independent of the party threatened bedrock beliefs. On 20 August 1968, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev ordered a massive military invasion by Warsaw Pact forces that destroyed the threat of internal liberalization.[60] At the same time, the Soviets threatened retaliation against the British-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt. The upshot was a collapse of any tendency toward détente, and the resignations of more intellectuals from Parties in the West.[61]

text: West Germany[edit]

text: West Germany (and West Berlin) were centers of East-West conflict during the Cold War and numerous communist fronts were established. For example, the Society for German–Soviet Friendship (GfDSF) had 13,000 members in West Germany, but it was banned in 1953 by some Länder as a communist front.[62] The Democratic Cultural League of Germany started off as a series of genuinely pluralistic bodies, but in 1950–1951 came under the control of communists. By 1952, the U.S. Embassy counted 54 "infiltrated organizations", which started independently, as well as 155 "front organizations", which had been Communist inspired from their start.[63]

text: The Association of the Victims of the Nazi Regime was set up to rally West Germans under the antifascist banner, but had to be dissolved when Moscow discovered it had been infiltrated by "Zionist agents".[64]

text: China's Great Leap Forward[edit]

text: Mao Zedong and the Communist Party came to power in China in 1949, as the Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan. In 1950–1953, China engaged in a large-scale but undeclared war with the United States, South Korea and United Nations forces in the Korean War. It ended in a military stalemate, but it gave Mao the opportunity to identify and purge elements in China that seemed supportive of capitalism. At first there was close cooperation with Stalin, who sent in technical experts to aid the industrialization process along the line of the Soviet model of the 1930s.[65] After Stalin's death in 1953, relations with Moscow soured—Mao thought Stalin's successors had betrayed the Communist ideal. Mao charged that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was the leader of a "revisionist clique" which had turned against Marxism and Leninism was now setting the stage for the restoration of capitalism.[66] The two nations were at sword's point by 1960. Both began forging alliances with communist supporters around the globe, thereby splitting the worldwide movement into two hostile camps.[67]

text: Rejecting the Soviet model of rapid urbanization, Mao Zedong and his top aide Deng Xiaoping launched the "Great Leap Forward" in 1957–1961 with the goal of industrializing China overnight, using the peasant villages as the base rather than large cities.[68] Private ownership of land ended and the peasants worked in large collective farms that were now ordered to start up heavy industry operations, such as steel mills. Plants were built in remote locations, despite the lack of technical experts, managers, transportation or needed facilities. Industrialization failed, but the main result was a sharp unexpected decline in agricultural output, which led to mass famine and millions of deaths. The years of the Great Leap Forward in fact saw economic regression, with 1958 through 1961 being the only years between 1953 and 1983 in which China's economy saw negative growth. Political economist Dwight Perkins argues, "Enormous amounts of investment produced only modest increases in production or none at all. […] In short, the Great Leap was a very expensive disaster".[69] Deng put in charge of rescuing the economy, adopted pragmatic policies that the idealistic Mao disliked. Mao for a while was in the shadows, but he returned to center stage and purged Deng and his allies in the "cultural revolution" (1966–1969).[70]

text: Early post-war dissident communisms[edit]

text: Following the Second World War, Trotskyism was wracked by increasing internal divisions over analysis and strategy. This was combined with an industrial impotence that was widely recognised. Additionally, the success of Soviet-aligned parties in Europe and Asia led to the persecution of Trotskyite intellectuals, such as the infamous purge of Vietnamese Trotskyists. The war had also strained social democratic parties in the West. In some cases, such as Italy, significant bodies of membership of the Social Democratic Party were inspired by the possibility of achieving advanced socialism. In Italy this group, combined with dissenting communists, began to discuss theory centred on the experience of work in modern factories, leading to Autonomist Marxism. In the United States, this theoretical development was paralleled by the Johnston-Forrest tendency, whereas in France a similar impulse occurred.

text: The Cold War and revisionism (1958–1979)[edit]

text: Maoism and the Cultural Revolution in China[edit]

text: The Cultural Revolution was an upheaval that targeted intellectuals and party leaders from 1966 through 1976. Mao's goal was to purify communism by removing pro-capitalists and traditionalists by imposing Maoist orthodoxy within the Communist Party. The movement paralyzed China politically and weakened the country economically, culturally and intellectually for years. Millions of people were accused, humiliated, stripped of power and either imprisoned, killed or most often sent to work as farm laborers. Mao insisted that these "revisionists" be removed through violent class struggle. The two most prominent militants were Marshall Lin Biao of the army and Mao's wife Jiang Qing. China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials who were accused of taking a "capitalist road", most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period, Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions. After Mao's death in 1976, the survivors were rehabilitated and many returned to power.[71]

text: The Cuban Revolution[edit]

text: The Cuban Revolution was a successful armed revolt led by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. It ousted Batista on 1 January 1959, replacing his regime with Castro's revolutionary government. Castro's government later reformed along communist lines, becoming the present Communist Party of Cuba in October 1965.[72] The United States response was highly negative, leading to a failed invasion attempt in 1961. The Soviets decided to protect its ally by stationing nuclear weapons in Cuba in 1962. In the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States vehemently opposed the Soviet Union move. There was serious fear of nuclear war for a few days, but a compromise was reached by which Moscow publicly removed its weapons and the United States secretly removed its from bases in Turkey and promised never to invade.[73]

text: African Communism[edit]

text: During the Decolonization of Africa, the Soviet Union took a keen interest in that continent's independence movements and initially hoped that the cultivation of communist client states there would deny their economic and strategic resources to the West.[74] Soviet foreign policy with regards to Africa assumed that newly independent African governments would be receptive to Marxist ideology and that the Soviets would have the resources to make them attractive as development partners.[74] During the 1970s, the ruling parties of several sub-Saharan African states formally embraced communism, including Burkina Faso, the People's Republic of Benin, the People's Republic of Mozambique, the People's Republic of the Congo, the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the People's Republic of Angola.[75] Most of these regimes ensured the selective adoption and flexible application of Marxist theory set against a broad ideological commitment to Marxism or Leninism.[75] The adoption of communism was often seen as a means to an end and used to justify the extreme centralization of power.[75]

text: Angola was perhaps the only African state which made a longstanding commitment to orthodox Marxism,[76] but this was severely hampered by its own war-burdened economy, rampant corruption and practical realities which allowed a few foreign companies to wield considerable influence despite the elimination of the domestic Angolan private sector and a substantial degree of central economic planning.[77][78] Both Angola and Ethiopia built new social and political communist institutions modeled closely after those in the Soviet Union and Cuba.[5] However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union their regimes either dissolved due to civil conflict or voluntarily repudiated communism in favour of social democracy.[5]

text: Eurocommunism[edit]

text: An important trend in several countries in Western Europe from the late 1960s into the 1980s was "Eurocommunism". It was strongest in Spain's PCE, Finland's party and especially in Italy's PCI, where it drew on the ideas of Antonio Gramsci. It was developed by members of the Communist Party who were disillusioned with both the Soviet Union and China and sought an independent program. They accepted liberal parliamentary democracy and free speech, as well as with some conditions accepted a capitalist market economy. They did not speak of the destruction of capitalism, but sought to win the support of the masses and by a gradual transformation of the bureaucracies. In 1978, Spain's PCE replaced the historic "Marxist–Leninist" catchphrase with the new slogan, "Marxist, democratic and revolutionary". The movement faded in the 1980s and collapsed with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989.[79]

text: The Collapse of the Communist Powers (1980–1992)[edit]

text: Contemporary communism (1993–present)[edit]

text: With the fall of the communist governments in the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc, the power that the state-based Marxist ideologies held on the world was weakened, but there are still many communist movements of various types and sizes around the world. Three other communist nations, particularly those in eastern Asia, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam and Laos, all moved toward market economies, but without major privatization of the state sector during the 1980s and 1990s (see Socialism with Chinese characteristics and doi moi for more details).[citation needed] Spain, France, Portugal and Greece have very publicly strong communist movements that play an open and active leading role in the vast majority of their labor marches and strikes, as well as also anti-austerity protests, all of which are large, pronounced events with much visibility. Also, worldwide marches on International Workers Day sometimes give a clearer picture of the size and influence of current communist movements, particularly within Europe.

text: Cuba has recently emerged from the crisis sparked by the fall of the Soviet Union given the growth in its volume of trade with its new allies Venezuela and China (the former of whom has recently adopted a "socialism of the 21st century" according to Hugo Chavez). Various other countries throughout South and Latin America have also taken similar shifts to more clearly socialistic policies and rhetoric in a phenomenon academics are calling the "pink tide".

text: North Korea has had less success in coping with the collapse of the Soviet bloc than its counterparts, which led that government to "supersede" its original Marxism–Leninism with an ideology called Juche. However, Cuba does apparently have an ambassador to North Korea and China still protects North Korean territorial integrity even as it simultaneously refuses to supply the state with material goods or other significant assistance.

text: In Nepal, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) leader Man Mohan Adhikari briefly became Prime Minister and national leader from 1994 to 1995 and the Maoist guerrilla leader Prachanda was elected Prime Minister by the Constituent Assembly of Nepal in 2008. Prachanda has since been deposed as Prime Minister, leading the Maoists to abandon their legalistic approach and return to their typical street actions and militancy and to lead sporadic general strikes using their quite substantial influence on the Nepalese labor movement. These actions have oscillated between mild and intense, only the latter of which tends to make world news. They consider Prachanda's removal to be unjust.

text: The previous national government of India depended on the parliamentary support of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and CPI(M) leads the state governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. The armed wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) is fighting a war against the government of India and is active in half the country, but the Indian government has recently declared[when?] the Maoists its chief objective to eliminate.

text: In Cyprus, the veteran communist Dimitris Christofias of AKEL won the 2008 presidential election.

text: In Moldova, the communist party won the 2001, 2005 and 2009 parliamentary elections. However, the April 2009 Moldovan elections results, in which the communists supposedly won a third time, were massively protested (including an attack on the Parliament and Presidency buildings by angry crowds) and another round was held on July 29 in which three opposition parties (the Liberals, Liberal-Democrats and Democrats) won and formed the Alliance for European Integration. However, failing to elect the president, new parliamentary elections were held in November 2010 which resulted in roughly the same representation in the Parliament. According to Ion Marandici, a Moldovan political scientist, the Moldovan communists differ from those in other countries because they managed to appeal to the ethnic minorities and the anti-Romanian Moldovans. After tracing the adaptation strategy of the Party of Communists from Moldova, he finds confirming evidence for five of the factors contributing to the electoral success, already mentioned in the theoretical literature on former communist parties: the economic situation, the weakness of the opponents, the electoral laws, the fragmentation of the political spectrum and the legacy of the old regime. However, Marandici identified seven additional explanatory factors at work in the Moldovan case: the foreign support for certain political parties, separatism, the appeal to the ethnic minorities, the alliance-building capacity, the reliance on the Soviet notion of the Moldovan identity, the state-building process and the control over a significant portion of the media. It is due to these seven additional factors that the successor party in Moldova managed to consolidate and expand its constituency. According to Marandici, in the post-Soviet area the Moldovan communists are the only ones who have been in power for so long and did not change the name of the party.[80]

text: In Ukraine and Russia, the communists came second in the 2002 and 2003 elections, respectively. The party remains strong in Russia, but in Ukraine following the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation the Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2014 resulted in the loss of its 32 members and no parliamentary representation by the Communist Party of Ukraine.[81]

text: In the Czech Republic, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia came third in the 2002 elections, as did the Communist Party of Portugal in 2005.

text: In South Africa, the South African Communist Party (SACP) is a member of the Tripartite alliance alongside the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Sri Lanka has communist ministers in their national governments.

text: In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, the country's longstanding leader, is a professed Marxist.[82][83]

text: Colombia is in the midst of a civil war which has been waged since 1966 between the Colombian government and aligned rightwing paramilitaries against two communist guerrilla groups: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (FARC–EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

text: The Philippines is still experiencing a low scale guerrilla insurgency by the New People's Army.

text: Sources[edit]

text:
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Lansford, Thomas (2007). Communism. New York: Cavendish Square Publishing. pp. 9–24, 36–44. ISBN 978-0761426288.
^ Jump up to: a b c Leopold, David (2015). Freeden, Michael; Stears, Marc; Sargent, Lyman Tower, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 20–38. ISBN 978-0198744337.
^ Jump up to: a b c Schwarzmantle, John (2017). Breuilly, John, ed. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 643–651. ISBN 978-0198768203.
^ Jump up to: a b c MacFarlane, S. Neil (1990). Katz, Mark, ed. The USSR and Marxist Revolutions in the Third World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 6–11. ISBN 978-0812216202.
^ Jump up to: a b c Dunn, Dennis (2016). A History of Orthodox, Islamic, and Western Christian Political Values. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 126–131. ISBN 978-3319325668.
Jump up ^ Stephen Kotkin (November 3, 2017). "Communism's Bloody Century". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
Jump up ^ http://www.hupay.fr/pages/vie-d-hupay.html
Jump up ^ Cassely, 2016 : Aix insolite et secrète JonGlez p. 192-193 (références Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Jump up ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-01-31. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
Jump up ^ Service (2007:14-15)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:15)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:16)
Jump up ^ David Priestland (2010) The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World. Penguin: 5-7
Jump up ^ David Priestland (2010) The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World. Penguin: 18-19
Jump up ^ Service (2007:16-17)
Jump up ^ Private Property and Communism by Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Jump up ^ Service (2007:24-25)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:13)
Jump up ^ "101 Treasures of Chetham's". Chetham's Library. Archived from the original on 2011-11-10. Retrieved 2011-11-25. Philosophers Karl Marx and Frederich Engels met to research their Communist theory in Chetham's Library
Jump up ^ "War and cotton lent Chetham's its name in Manchester". BBC News. 2 March 2010. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
Jump up ^ Service (2007:27-28)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:28)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:29)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:36)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:39-41)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:36-37)
Jump up ^ Richard Pipes, Communism: A History (2003)
Jump up ^ David Priestland, The Red Flag: A History of Communism (2010)
Jump up ^ Robert Service, Comrades: Communism: A World History (2011)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:46)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:48-49)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:50-51)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:115-116)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:86)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:90-92)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:86-90)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:92-94)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:95-96)
Jump up ^ Service (2007:117-118)
Jump up ^ Ian Birchall, "Profintern: Die Rote Gewerkschaftsinternationale 1920–1937," Historical Materialism, 2009, Vol. 17 Issue 4, pp 164-176, review (in English) of a German language study by Reiner Tosstorff.
Jump up ^ Joan Urban, Moscow and the Italian Communist Party: from Togliatti to Berlinguer (1986) p. 157
Jump up ^ Julian Jackson, The Popular Front in France (1990) p. x
Jump up ^ Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, The Secret World of American Communism (1996) p 42
Jump up ^ Alexander Trapeznik, "'Agents of Moscow' at the Dawn of the Cold War: The Comintern and the Communist Party of New Zealand," Journal of Cold War Studies Volume 11, Number 1, Winter 2009 pp. 124-49 quote on p 144
Jump up ^ For listings of front organizations in East Asia see Malcolm Kennedy, History of Communism in East Asia (Praeger Publishers, 1957) pp 118, 127-8, 130, 277, 334, 355, 361-7, 374, 415, 421, 424, 429, 439, 444, 457-8, 470, 482
Jump up ^ Stephen S. Large, Organized Workers and Socialist Politics in Interwar Japan (2010) p. 85
Jump up ^ Robert A. Scalapino, The Japanese Communist Movement 1920-1967 (1967) p 117
Jump up ^ Archie Brown, The Rise & Fall of Communism (2010) pp62-77.
Jump up ^ Service (2007:167)
Jump up ^ Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism, pp 88-90
Jump up ^ Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History. 2003. 736 pp. excerpt and text search
Jump up ^ The exact number of victims is unknown by a factor of 10, from several million upwards to 20 million. Service says 1.5 million were arrested and 200,000 were eventually released. Service ch 31 esp p.356. The lowest estimates by Getty give more than 300,000 executions in each of the years 1937 and 1938. J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning, eds., Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (1993)
Jump up ^ Malcolm Kennedy, History of Communism in East Asia (Praeger Publishers, 1957) p 126
Jump up ^ Anthony Carew, "The Schism within the World Federation of Trade Unions: Government and Trade-Union Diplomacy," International Review of Social History, Dec 1984, Vol. 29 Issue 3, pp 297-335
Jump up ^ Yoram Gorlizki and Oleg Khlevniuk, Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945-1953 (2004) pp 3ff
Jump up ^ John Gaddis, A New History of the Cold War (2006)
Jump up ^ Yoram Gorlizki, and Oleg Khlevniuk. Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945-1953 (2004) online edition
Jump up ^ Erwin Schmidl, et al. The Hungarian Revolution 1956 (2006)
Jump up ^ Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism pp 278-92
Jump up ^ Günter Bischof et al., eds. (2010). The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Rowman & Littlefield. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
Jump up ^ Maude Bracke, Which Socialism, Whose Détente? West European Communism and the Czechoslovak Crisis of 1968 (2009)
Jump up ^ Patrick Major, The Death of the KPD: Communism and Anti-Communism in West Germany, 1945-1956 (Oxford University Press, 1997) p. 215
Jump up ^ Major, The Death of the KPD: Communism and Anti-Communism in West Germany, 1945-1956 pp 217–18
Jump up ^ Vojtech Mastny, The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years (Oxford U.P., 1998) p. 162
Jump up ^ Brown. The Rise and Fall of Communism. pp. 179–93.
Jump up ^ John Gittings (2006). The Changing Face of China:From Mao to Market. Oxford U.P. p. 40.
Jump up ^ Lorenz M. Luthi (2010). The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World. Princeton U.P.
Jump up ^ Brown. The Rise and Fall of Communism. pp. 316–32.
Jump up ^ Dwight Heald Perkins (1984). China's economic policy and performance during the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. Harvard Institute for International Development,. p. 12.
Jump up ^ Ezra F. Vogel (2011). Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China. Harvard University Press. pp. 40–42.
Jump up ^ Brown, The Rise & Fall of Communism, pp 324-32
Jump up ^ Marifeli Perez-Stable, The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy (3rd ed. 2011)
Jump up ^ Brown, The Rise and fall of Communism, pp 293-312
^ Jump up to: a b Magyar, Karl; Danopoulos, Constantine (2002) [1994]. Prolonged Wars: A Post Nuclear Challenge. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific. pp. 260–271. ISBN 978-0898758344.
^ Jump up to: a b c Markakis, John; Waller, Michael (1986). Military Marxist Regimes in Africa. New York: Routledge Books. pp. 131–134. ISBN 978-0714632957.
Jump up ^ Johnson, Elliott; Walker, David; Gray, Daniel (2014). Historical Dictionary of Marxism. Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements (2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 294. ISBN 978-1-4422-3798-8.
Jump up ^ Ferreira, Manuel (2002). Brauer, Jurgen; Dunne, J. Paul, eds. Arming the South: The Economics of Military Expenditure, Arms Production and Arms Trade in Developing Countries. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 251–255. ISBN 978-0-230-50125-6.
Jump up ^ Akongdit, Addis Ababa Othow (2013). Impact of Political Stability on Economic Development: Case of South Sudan. Bloomington: AuthorHouse Ltd, Publishers. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-1491876442.
Jump up ^ David Priestland (2009). The Red Flag: A History of Communism. Grove Press. pp. 497–99.
Jump up ^ Marandici, Ion, The Factors Leading to the Electoral Success, Consolidation and Decline of the Moldovan Communists' Party During the Transition Period (23 April 2010). Presented at the Midwestern Political Science Association Convention from April 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1809029
Jump up ^ People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections - CEC Archived 12 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine., Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
Jump up ^ Lunch with the Mugabes
Jump up ^ From Liberator to Tyrant: Recollections of Mugabe

tag: ol

text: Further reading[edit]

text:
Brown, Archie. The Rise & Fall of Communism. Vintage, London, 2010. ISBN 978-1-84595-067-5
Davin, Delia (2013). Mao: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP.
Pathak, Rakesh, and Yvonne Berliner. Communism in Crisis 1976-89 (2012), textbook
Pipes, Richard. Communism: A History (2003)
Pons, Silvio and Robert Service, eds. A Dictionary of 20th-Century Communism (Princeton University Press, 2010). 944 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-13585-4 online review
Priestland, David. The Red Flag: A History of Communism (2010)
Service, Robert. Comrades: Communism: A World History (Pan MacMillan, 2008) 571 pages; ISBN 0-330-43968-5
Sandle, Mark. Communism (2nd ed. 2011), short introduction
Service, Robert. Lenin: A Biography (2000) excerpt and text search
Taubman, William. Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (2004) excerpt and text search
Tucker, Robert C. Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929 (1973); Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929-1941. (1990) online edition a standard biography; online at ACLS e-books

text: These

text: Primary sources[edit]

text: Daniels, Robert V., ed. A Documentary History of Communism in Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev (1993)


document_title: Forbes' list of world's highest-paid athletes

question_text: who is the highest paid athlete in the world currently

root

text: 2017 list[edit]

text: The 2017 list:[1]

tag: p

text:
Rank
Name
Sport
Nation
Total
Salary/Winnings
Endorsements

1
Cristiano Ronaldo
Football
 Portugal
$93 million
$58 million
$35 million

2
LeBron James
Basketball
 United States
$86.2 million
$31.2 million
$55 million

3
Lionel Messi
Football
 Argentina
$80 million
$53 million
$27 million

4
Roger Federer
Tennis
 Switzerland
$64 million
$6 million
$58 million

5
Kevin Durant
Basketball
 United States
$60.6 million
$26.6 million
$34 million

6
Andrew Luck
American football
 United States
$50 million
$47 million
$3 million

6
Rory McIlroy
Golf
 Northern Ireland
$50 million
$16 million
$34 million

8
Stephen Curry
Basketball
 United States
$47.3 million
$12.3 million
$35 million

9
James Harden
Basketball
 United States
$46.6 million
$26.6 million
$20 million

10
Lewis Hamilton
Auto racing
 England
$46 million
$38 million
$8 million

tag: table

text: 2016 list[edit]

text: The 2016 list:[2]

text:
Rank
Name
Sport
Nation
Total
Salary/Winnings
Endorsements

1
Cristiano Ronaldo
Football
 Portugal
$88 million
$56 million
$32 million

2
Lionel Messi
Football
 Argentina
$81.4 million
$53.4 million
$28 million

3
LeBron James
Basketball
 United States
$77.2 million
$23.2 million
$54 million

4
Roger Federer
Tennis
 Switzerland
$67.8 million
$7.8 million
$60 million

5
Kevin Durant
Basketball
 United States
$56.2 million
$20.2 million
$36 million

6
Novak Djokovic
Tennis
 Serbia
$55.8 million
$21.8 million
$34 million

7
Cam Newton
American football
 United States
$53.1 million
$41.1 million
$12 million

8
Phil Mickelson
Golf
 United States
$52.9 million
$2.9 million
$50 million

9
Jordan Spieth
Golf
 United States
$52.8 million
$20.8 million
$32 million

10
Kobe Bryant
Basketball
 United States
$50 million
$25 million
$25 million

text: 2015 list[edit]

text: The 2015 list was released on 10 June 2015.[3]

text:
Rank
Name
Sport
Nation
Total
Salary/Winnings
Endorsements

1
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Boxing
 United States
$300 million
$285 million
$15 million

2
Manny Pacquiao
Boxing
 Philippines
$160 million
$148 million
$12 million

3
Cristiano Ronaldo
Football
 Portugal
$79.6 million
$52.6 million
$27 million

4
Lionel Messi
Football
 Argentina
$73.8 million
$51.8 million
$22 million

5
Roger Federer
Tennis
 Switzerland
$67 million
$9 million
$58 million

6
LeBron James
Basketball
 United States
$64.8 million
$20.8 million
$44 million

7
Kevin Durant
Basketball
 United States
$54.1 million
$19.1 million
$35 million

8
Phil Mickelson
Golf
 United States
$50.8 million
$2.8 million
$48 million

9
Tiger Woods
Golf
 United States
$50.6 million
$0.6 million
$50 million

10
Kobe Bryant
Basketball
 United States
$49.5 million
$23.5 million
$26 million

text: 2014 list[edit]

text: The 2014 list was released on 11 June 2014.[4]

text:
Rank
Name
Sport
Nation
Total
Salary/Winnings
Endorsements

1
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Boxing
 United States
$105 million
$105 million
$0

2
Cristiano Ronaldo
Football
 Portugal
$80 million
$52 million
$28 million

3
LeBron James
Basketball
 United States
$72.3 million
$19.3 million
$53 million

4
Lionel Messi
Football
 Argentina
$64.7 million
$41.7 million
$23 million

5
Kobe Bryant
Basketball
 United States
$61.5 million
$30.5 million
$31 million

6
Tiger Woods
Golf
 United States
$61.2 million
$6.2 million
$55 million

7
Roger Federer
Tennis
 Switzerland
$56.2 million
$4.2 million
$52 million

8
Phil Mickelson
Golf
 United States
$53.2 million
$5.2 million
$48 million

9
Rafael Nadal
Tennis
 Spain
$44.5 million
$14.5 million
$30 million

10
Matt Ryan
American football
 United States
$43.8 million
$42 million
$1.8 million

text: 2013 list[edit]

text: The 2013 list was released on 5 June 2013.[5]

text:
Rank
Name
Sport
Nation
Total
Salary/Winnings
Endorsements

1
Tiger Woods
Golf
 United States
$78.1 million
$13.1 million
$65 million

2
Roger Federer
Tennis
 Switzerland
$71.5 million
$6.5 million
$65 million

3
Kobe Bryant
Basketball
 United States
$61.9 million
$27.9 million
$34 million

4
LeBron James
Basketball
 United States
$59.8 million
$17.8 million
$42 million

5
Drew Brees
American football
 United States
$51 million
$40 million
$11 million

6
Aaron Rodgers
American football
 United States
$49 million
$43 million
$6 million

7
Phil Mickelson
Golf
 United States
$48.7 million
$4.7 million
$44 million

8
David Beckham
Football
 England
$47.2 million
$5.2 million
$42 million

9
Cristiano Ronaldo
Football
 Portugal
$44 million
$23 million
$21 million

10
Lionel Messi
Football
 Argentina
$41.3 million
$20.3 million
$21 million

text: 2012 list[edit]

text: The 2012 list was released on 18 June 2012.[6]

text:
Rank
Name
Sport
Nationality
Total earnings
Salary/winnings
Endorsements

1
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Boxing
 United States
$85 million
$85 million
$0

2
Manny Pacquiao
Boxing
 Philippines
$62 million
$56 million
$6 million

3
Tiger Woods
Golf
 United States
$59.4 million
$4.4 million
$55 million

4
LeBron James
Basketball
 United States
$53 million
$13 million
$40 million

5
Roger Federer
Tennis
 Switzerland
$52.7 million
$7.7 million
$45 million

6
Kobe Bryant
Basketball
 United States
$52.3 million
$20.3 million
$32 million

7
Phil Mickelson
Golf
 United States
$47.8 million
$4.8 million
$43 million

8
David Beckham
Football
 England
$46 million
$9 million
$37 million

9
Cristiano Ronaldo
Football
 Portugal
$42.5 million
$20.5 million
$22 million

10
Peyton Manning
American football
 United States
$42.4 million
$32.4 million
$10 million


document_title: The Faerie Queene

question_text: which character of spenser represents queen mary of scots

text: The Faerie Queene

text: Summary[edit]

text: Book I is centered on the virtue of Holiness as embodied in the Redcross Knight. He and his lady Una travel together as he fights the dragon Errour, then separate as the wizard Archimago tricks the Redcross Knight in a dream to think that Una is unchaste. After he leaves, the Redcross Knight meets Duessa, who feigns distress in order to entrap him. Duessa leads the Redcross Knight to captivity by the giant Orgoglio. Meanwhile, Una overcomes peril, meets Arthur, and finally finds the Redcross Knight and rescues him from his capture, from Duessa, and from Despair. Una and Arthur help the Redcross Knight recover in the House of Holiness, with the House's ruler Caelia and her three daughters joining them; there the Redcross Knight sees a vision of his future. He then returns Una to her parents' castle and rescues them from a dragon, and the two are betrothed after resisting Archimago one last time.

text: Book II is centred on the virtue of Temperance as embodied in Sir Guyon, who is tempted by the fleeing Archimago into nearly attacking the Redcross Knight. Guyon discovers a woman killing herself out of grief for having her lover tempted and bewitched by the witch Acrasia and killed. Guyon swears a vow to avenge them and protect their child. Guyon on his quest starts and stops fighting several evil, rash, or tricked knights and meets Arthur. Finally, they come to Acrasia's Island and the Bower of Bliss, where Guyon resists temptations to violence, idleness, and lust. Guyon captures Acrasia in a net, destroys the Bower, and rescues those imprisoned there.

text: Book III is centred on the virtue of Chastity as embodied in Britomart, a lady knight. Resting after the events of Book II, Guyon and Arthur meet Britomart, who wins a joust with Guyon. They separate as Arthur and Guyon leave to rescue Florimell, while Britomart rescues the Redcross Knight. Britomart reveals to the Redcrosse Knight that she is pursuing Sir Artegal because she is destined to marry him. The Redcross Knight defends Artegal and they meet Merlin, who explains more carefully Britomart's destiny to found the English monarchy. Britomart leaves and fights Sir Marinell. Arthur looks for Florimell, joined later by Sir Satyrane and Britomart, and they witness and resist sexual temptation. Britomart separates from them and meets Sir Scudamore, looking for his captured lady Amoret. Britomart alone is able to rescue Amoret from the wizard Busirane. Unfortunately, when they emerge from the castle Scudamore is gone. (The 1590 version with Books I-III depicts the lovers' happy reunion, but this was changed in the 1596 version which contained all six books)

text: Book IV, despite its title “The Legend of Cambell and Telamond or Of Friendship”, Cambell’s companion in Book IV is actually named Triamond, and the plot does not center on their friendship; the two men appear only briefly in the story. The book is largely a continuation of events begun in Book III. First, Scudamore is convinced by the hag Ate (discord) that Britomart has run off with Amoret and becomes jealous. A three-day tournament is then held by Satyrane, where Britomart beats Arthegal (both in disguise). Scudamore and Arthegal unite against Britomart, but when her helmet comes off in battle Arthegal falls in love with her. He surrenders, removes his helmet, and Britomart recognizes him as the man in the enchanted mirror. Arthegal pledges his love to her but must first leave and complete his quest. Scudamore, upon discovering Britomart’s gender, realizes his mistake and asks after his lady, but by this time Britomart has lost Amoret, and she and Scudamore embark together on a search for her. The reader discovers that Amoret was abducted by a savage man and is imprisoned in his cave. One day Amoret darts out past the savage and is rescued from him by the squire Timias and Belphoebe. Arthur then appears, offering to his service as a knight to the lost woman. She accepts, and after a couple of trials on the way, Arthur and Amoret finally happen across Scudamore and Britomart. The two lovers are reunited. Wrapping up a different plotline from Book III, the recently recovered Marinel discovers Florimell suffering in Proteus’ dungeon. He returns home and becomes sick with love and pity. Eventually he confesses his feelings to his mother, and she pleads with Neptune to have the girl released, which the god grants.

text: Book V is centred on the virtue of Justice as embodied in Sir Artegal.

text: Book VI is centred on the virtue of Courtesy as embodied in Sir Calidore.

text: Major characters[edit]

text:
Acrasia, seductress of knights. Guyon destroys her Bower of Bliss at the end of Book 2. Similar characters in other epics: Circe (Homer's Odyssey), Alcina (Ariosto), Armida (Tasso), or the fairy woman from Keats's poem "La Belle Dame sans Merci".
Amoret(ta), the betrothed of Scudamour, kidnapped by Busirane on her wedding night, saved by Britomart. She represents the virtue of married love, and her marriage to Scudamour serves as the example that Britomart and Artegal seek to copy. Amoret and Scudamor are separated for a time by circumstances, but remain loyal to each other until they (presumably) are reunited.
Archimago, an evil sorcerer who is sent to stop the knights in the service of the Faerie Queene. Of the knights, Archimago hates Redcross most of all, hence he is symbolically the nemesis of England.
Artegal (or Arthegall), a knight who is the embodiment and champion of Justice. He meets Britomart after defeating her in a sword fight (she had been dressed as a knight) and removing her helmet, revealing her beauty. Artegal quickly falls in love with Britomart. Artegal has a companion in Talus, a metal man who wields a flail and never sleeps or tires but will mercilessly pursue and kill any number of villains. Talus obeys Artegal's command, and serves to represent justice without mercy (hence, Artegal is the more human face of justice). Later, Talus does not rescue Artegal from enslavement by the wicked slave-mistress Radigund, because Artegal is bound by a legal contract to serve her. Only her death, at Britomart's hands, liberates him. Chrysaor was the golden sword of Sir Artegal. This sword was also the favorite weapon of Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest. Because it was "Tempred with Adamant", it could cleave through anything.
Arthur of the Round Table, but playing a different role here. He is madly in love with the Faerie Queene and spends his time in pursuit of her when not helping the other knights out of their sundry predicaments. Prince Arthur is the Knight of Magnificence, the perfection of all virtues.
Ate, a fiend from Hell disguised as a beautiful maiden. Ate opposes Book IV's virtue of friendship through spreading discord. She is aided in her task by Duessa, the female deceiver of Book I, whom Ate summoned from Hell. Ate and Duessa have fooled the false knights Blandamour and Paridell into taking them as lovers. Her name is possibly inspired by the Greek goddess of misfortune Atë, said to have been thrown from Heaven by Zeus, similar to the fallen angels.
Belphoebe, the beautiful sister of Amoret who spends her time in the woods hunting and avoiding the numerous amorous men who chase her. Timias, the squire of Arthur, eventually wins her love after she tends to the injuries he sustained in battle; however, Timias must endure much suffering to prove his love when Belphoebe sees him tending to a wounded woman and, misinterpreting his actions, flies off hastily. She is only drawn back to him after seeing how he has wasted away without her.

tag: ul

text:
Britomart, a female knight, the embodiment and champion of Chastity. She is young and beautiful, and falls in love with Artegal upon first seeing his face in her father's magic mirror. Though there is no interaction between them, she travels to find him again, dressed as a knight and accompanied by her nurse, Glauce. Britomart carries an enchanted spear that allows her to defeat every knight she encounters, until she loses to a knight who turns out to be her beloved Artegal. (Parallel figure in Ariosto: Bradamante.) Britomart is one of the most important knights in the story. She searches the world, including a pilgrimage to the shrine of Isis, and a visit with Merlin the magician. She rescues Artegal and several other knights, from the evil slave-mistress Radigund. Furthermore, Britomart accepts Amoret at a tournament, refusing the false Florimell.
Busirane, the evil sorcerer who captures Amoret on her wedding night. When Britomart enters his castle to defeat him, she finds him holding Amoret captive. She is bound to a pillar and Busirane is torturing her. The clever Britomart handily defeats him and returns Amoret to her husband.
Caelia, the ruler of the House of Holiness.
Calidore, the Knight of Courtesy, hero of Book VI. He is on a quest from the Faerie Queene to slay the Blatant Beast.
Cambell, one of the Knights of Friendship, hero of Book IV. Brother of Canacee and friend of Triamond.
Cambina, daughter of Agape and sister to Priamond, Diamond, and Triamond. Cambina is depicted holding a caduceus and a cup of nepenthe, signifying her role as a figure of concord. She marries Cambell after bringing an end to his fight with Triamond.
Colin Clout, a shepherd noted for his songs and bagpipe playing, briefly appearing in Book VI. He is the same Colin Clout as in Spenser's pastoral poetry, which is fitting because Calidore is taking a sojourn into a world of pastoral delight, ignoring his duty to hunt the Blatant Beast, which is why he set out to Ireland to begin with. Colin Clout may also be said to be Spenser himself.
Cymochles, a knight in Book II who is defined by indecision and fluctuations of the will. He and his fiery brother Pyrochles represent emotional maladies that threaten temperance. The two brothers are both slain by Prince Arthur in Canto VIII.
Chrysogonee, mother of Belphoebe and her twin Amoretta. She hides in the forest and, becoming tired, falls asleep on a bank, where she is impregnated by sunbeams and gives birth to twins. The goddesses Venus and Diana find the newborn twins and take them: Venus takes Amoretta and raises her in the Garden of Adonis, and Diana takes Belphoebe.
Duessa, a lady who personifies Falsehood in Book I, known to Redcross as "Fidessa". As the opposite of Una, she represents the "false" religion of the Roman Catholic Church. She is also initially an assistant, or at least a servant, to Archimago.

text:
Florimell, a lady in love with the knight Marinell, who initially rejects her. Hearing that he has been wounded, she sets out to find him and faces various perils, culminating in her capture by the sea god Proteus. She is reunited with Marinell at the end of Book IV, and is married to him in Book V.
Guyon, the Knight of Temperance, the hero of Book II. He is the leader of the Knights of Maidenhead and carries the image of Gloriana on his shield. According to the Golden Legend, St. George's name shares etymology with Guyon, which specifically means "the holy wrestler".

text:
Marinell, "the knight of the sea"; son of a water nymph, he avoided all love because his mother had learnt that a maiden was destined to do him harm; this prophecy was fulfilled when he was stricken down in battle by Britomart, though he was not mortally wounded.
Orgoglio, an evil giant. His name means "pride" in Italian.
The Redcross Knight, hero of Book I. Introduced in the first canto of the poem, he bears the emblem of Saint George, patron saint of England; a red cross on a white background is still the flag of England. The Redcross Knight is declared the real Saint George in Canto X. He also learns that he is of English ancestry, having been stolen by a Fay and raised in Faerieland. In the climactic battle of Book I, Redcross slays the dragon that has laid waste to Eden. He marries Una at the end of Book I, but brief appearances in Books II and III show him still questing through the world.
Satyrane, a wild half-satyr man raised in the wild and the epitome of natural human potential. Tamed by Una, he protects her, but ends up locked in a battle against the chaotic Sansloy, which remains unconcluded. Satyrane finds Florimell's girdle, which she drops while flying from a beast. He holds a three-day tournament for the right to possess the girdle. His Knights of Maidenhead win the day with Britomart's help.
Scudamour, the lover of Amoret. His name means "shield of love". This character is based on Sir James Scudamore, a jousting champion and courtier to Queen Elizabeth I. Scudamour loses his love Amoret to the sorcerer Busirane. Though the 1590 edition of The Faerie Queene has Scudamour united with Amoret through Britomart's assistance, the continuation in Book IV has them separated, never to be reunited.
Talus, an "iron man" who helps Arthegall to dispense justice in Book V. The name is likely from Latin "talus" (ankle) with reference to that which justice "stands on," and perhaps also to the ankle of Achilles, who was otherwise invincible, or the mythological bronze man Talos.
Triamond, one of the Knights of Friendship, a hero of Book IV. Friend of Cambell. One of three brothers; when Priamond and Diamond died, their souls joined with his body. After battling Cambell, Triamond marries Cambell's sister, Canacee.
Una, the personification of the "True Church". She travels with the Redcross Knight (who represents England), whom she has recruited to save her parents' castle from a dragon. She also defeats Duessa, who represents the "false" (Catholic) church and the person of Mary, Queen of Scots, in a trial reminiscent of that which ended in Mary's beheading. Una is also representative of Truth.

text: Themes[edit]

text: Allegory of virtue[edit]

text: A letter written by Spenser to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1590[4] contains a preface for The Faerie Queene, in which Spenser describes the allegorical presentation of virtues through Arthurian knights in the mythical "Faerieland". Presented as a preface to the epic in most published editions, this letter outlines plans for twenty-four books: twelve based each on a different knight who exemplified one of twelve "private virtues", and a possible twelve more centred on King Arthur displaying twelve "public virtues". Spenser names Aristotle as his source for these virtues, though the influences of Thomas Aquinas and the traditions of medieval allegory can be observed as well.[5] It is impossible to predict how the work would have looked had Spenser lived to complete it, since the reliability of the predictions made in his letter to Raleigh is not absolute, as numerous divergences from that scheme emerged as early as 1590 in the first Faerie Queene publication.

text: In addition to the six virtues Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy, the Letter to Raleigh suggests that Arthur represents the virtue of Magnificence, which ("according to Aristotle and the rest") is "the perfection of all the rest, and containeth in it them all"; and that the Faerie Queene herself represents Glory (hence her name, Gloriana). The unfinished seventh book (the Cantos of Mutability) appears to have represented the virtue of "constancy."

text: Religion[edit]

text: The Faerie Queene was written during the Reformation, a time of religious and political controversy. After taking the throne following the death of her half-sister Mary, Elizabeth changed the official religion of the nation to Protestantism.[6] The plot of book one is similar to Foxe's Book of Martyrs, which was about the persecution of the Protestants and how Catholic rule was unjust.[7] Spenser includes the controversy of Elizabethan church reform within the epic. Gloriana has godly English knights destroy Catholic continental power in Books I and V.[8] Spenser also endows many of his villains with "the worst of what Protestants considered a superstitious Catholic reliance on deceptive images".[9]

text: Politics[edit]

text: The poem celebrates, memorializes, and critiques the House of Tudor (of which Elizabeth was a part), much as Virgil's Aeneid celebrates Augustus' Rome. The Aeneid states that Augustus descended from the noble sons of Troy; similarly, The Faerie Queene suggests that the Tudor lineage can be connected to King Arthur. The poem is deeply allegorical and allusive; many prominent Elizabethans could have found themselves partially represented by one or more of Spenser's figures. Elizabeth herself is the most prominent example. She appears in the guise of Gloriana, the Faerie Queen, but also in Books III and IV as the virgin Belphoebe, daughter of Chrysogonee and twin to Amoret, the embodiment of womanly married love. Perhaps also, more critically, Elizabeth is seen in Book I as Lucifera, the "maiden queen" whose brightly lit Court of Pride masks a dungeon full of prisoners.[citation needed]

text: The poem also displays Spenser's thorough familiarity with literary history. The world of The Faerie Queene is based on English Arthurian legend, but much of the language, spirit, and style of the piece draw more on Italian epic, particularly Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered.[10] Book V of The Faerie Queene, the Book of Justice, is Spenser's most direct discussion of political theory. In it, Spenser attempts to tackle the problem of policy toward Ireland and recreates the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots.[citation needed]

text: Archetypes[edit]

text: Some literary works sacrifice historical context to archetypal myth, reducing poetry to Biblical quests, whereas Spenser reinforces the actuality of his story by adhering to archetypal patterns.[11] Throughout The Faerie Queene, Spenser does not concentrate on a pattern "which transcends time" but "uses such a pattern to focus the meaning of the past on the present".[11] By reflecting on the past, Spenser achieves ways of stressing the importance of Elizabeth's reign. In turn, he does not "convert event into myth" but "myth into event".[11] Within The Faerie Queene, Spenser blurs the distinction between archetypal and historical elements deliberately. For example, Spenser probably does not believe in the complete truth of the British Chronicle, which Arthur reads in the House of Alma.[11] In this instance, the Chronicle serves as a poetical equivalent for factual history. Even so, poetical history of this kind is not myth; rather, it "consists of unique, if partially imaginary, events recorded in chronological order".[11] The same distinction resurfaces in the political allegory of Books I and V. However, the reality to interpreted events becomes more apparent when the events occurred nearer to the time when the poem was written.[11]

text: Symbolism and allusion[edit]

text: Throughout The Faerie Queene, Spenser creates "a network of allusions to events, issues, and particular persons in England and Ireland" including Mary, Queen of Scots, the Spanish Armada, the English Reformation, and even the Queen herself.[12] It is also known that James VI of Scotland read the poem, and was very insulted by Duessa – a very negative depiction of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots.[13] The Faerie Queene was then banned in Scotland. This led to a significant decrease in Elizabeth's support for the poem.[13] Within the text, both the Faerie Queene and Belphoebe serve as two of the many personifications of Queen Elizabeth, some of which are "far from complimentary".[12]

text: Though it praises her in some ways, The Faerie Queene questions Elizabeth's ability to rule so effectively because of her gender, and also inscribes the "shortcomings" of her rule.[14] There is a character named Britomart who represents married chastity. This character is told that her destiny is to be an "immortal womb" – to have children.[14] Here, Spenser is referring to Elizabeth's unmarried state and is touching on anxieties of the 1590s about what would happen after her death since the kingdom had no heir.[14]

text: The Faerie Queene's original audience would have been able to identify many of the poem's characters by analyzing the symbols and attributes that spot Spenser's text. For example, readers would immediately know that "a woman who wears scarlet clothes and resides along the Tiber River represents the Roman Catholic Church".[12] However, marginal notes jotted in early copies of The Faerie Queene suggest that Spenser's contemporaries were unable to come to a consensus about the precise historical referents of the poem's "myriad figures".[12] In fact, Sir Walter Raleigh's wife identified many of the poem's female characters as "allegorical representations of herself".[12] Other symbols prevalent in The Faerie Queene are the numerous animal characters present in the novel. They take the role of "visual figures in the allegory and in illustrative similes and metaphors".[15] Specific examples include the swine present in Lucifera's castle who embodied gluttony, and Duessa, the deceitful crocodile who may represent Mary, Queen of Scots, in a negative light.[citation needed]

text: The House of Busirane episode in Book III in The Faerie Queene is partially based on an early modern English folktale called "Mr. Fox's Mottos." In the tale, a young woman named Lady Mary has been enticed by Mr. Fox, who resembles Bluebeard in his manner of killing his wives. She defeats Mr. Fox and tells about his deeds. Notably, Spenser quotes the story as Britomart makes her way through the House, with warning mottos above each doorway "Be bold, be bold, but not too bold." [16]

text: Composition[edit]

text: Spenser's intentions[edit]

text: While writing his poem, Spenser strove to avoid 'gealous opinions and misconstructions" because he thought it would place his story in a "better light" for his readers.[17] Spencer stated in his letter to Raleigh, published with the first three books,[14] that "the general end of the book is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".[17] Spenser considered his work "a historical fiction" which men should read for "delight" rather than "the profit of the ensample".[17] The Faerie Queene was written for Elizabeth to read and was dedicated to her. However, there are dedicatory sonnets in the first edition to many powerful Elizabethan figures.[18]

text: Spenser addresses "lodwick" in Amoretti 33, when talking about The Faerie Queene still being incomplete. This could be either his friend Lodowick Bryskett or his long deceased Italian model Ludovico Ariosto, whom he praises in "Letter to Raleigh".[19]

text: Dedication[edit]

text: The poem is dedicated to Elizabeth I who is represented in the poem as the Faerie Queene Gloriana, as well as the character Belphoebe.[20] Spenser prefaces the poem with sonnets additionally dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Burleigh, the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Cumberland, the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Ormond and Ossory, High Admiral Charles Howard, Lord Hunsdon, Lord Grey of Wilton, Lord Buckhurst, Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir John Norris, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Countess of Pembroke (on the subject of her brother Sir Philip Sidney), and Lady Carew.

text: Social commentary[edit]

text: In October 1589, Spenser voyaged to England and saw the Queen. It is possible that he read to her from his manuscript at this time. On 25 February 1591, the Queen gave him a pension of fifty pounds per year.[21] He was paid in four instalments on 25 March, 24 June, 29 September, and 25 December.[22] After the first three books of The Faerie Queene were published in 1590, Spenser found himself disappointed in the monarchy; among other things, "his annual pension from the Queen was smaller than he would have liked" and his humanist perception of Elizabeth's court "was shattered by what he saw there".[23] Despite these frustrations, however, Spenser "kept his aristocratic prejudices and predispositions".[23] Book VI stresses that there is "almost no correlation between noble deeds and low birth" and reveals that to be a "noble person," one must be a "gentleman of choice stock".[23]

text: Throughout The Faerie Queene, virtue is seen as "a feature for the nobly born" and within Book VI, readers encounter worthy deeds that indicate aristocratic lineage.[23] An example of this is the hermit to whom Arthur brings Timias and Serena. Initially, the man is considered a "goodly knight of a gentle race" who "withdrew from public service to religious life when he grew too old to fight".[23] Here, we note the hermit's noble blood seems to have influenced his gentle, selfless behaviour. Likewise, audiences acknowledge that young Tristram "speaks so well and acts so heroically" that Calidore "frequently contributes him with noble birth" even before learning his background; in fact, it is no surprise that Tristram turns out to be the son of a king, explaining his profound intellect.[24] However, Spenser's most peculiar example of noble birth is demonstrated through the characterization of the Salvage Man. Using the Salvage Man as an example, Spenser demonstrated that "ungainly appearances do not disqualify one from noble birth".[24] By giving the Salvage Man a "frightening exterior," Spenser stresses that "virtuous deeds are a more accurate indication of gentle blood than physical appearance.[24]

text: On the opposite side of the spectrum, The Faerie Queene indicates qualities such as cowardice and discourtesy that signify low birth. During his initial encounter with Arthur, Turpine "hides behind his retainers, chooses ambush from behind instead of direct combat, and cowers to his wife, who covers him with her voluminous skirt".[25] These actions demonstrate that Turpine is "morally emasculated by fear" and furthermore, "the usual social roles are reversed as the lady protects the knight from danger.[25] Scholars believe that this characterization serves as "a negative example of knighthood" and strives to teach Elizabethan aristocrats how to "identify a commoner with political ambitions inappropriate to his rank".[25]

text: Poetic structure[edit]

text: The Faerie Queene was written in Spenserian stanza, which was created specifically for The Faerie Queene. In this style, there are nine iambic lines – the first eight of them five footed and the ninth a hexameter – which form "interlocking quatrains and a final couplet".[26] The rhyme pattern is ABABBCBCC. Over two thousand stanzas were written for the 1590 Faerie Queene.[26] Many see Spenser's purposeful use of archaic language as an intentional means of aligning himself with Chaucer and placing himself within a trajectory of building English national literary history.

text: Theological structure[edit]

text: In Elizabethan England, no subject was more familiar to writers than theology. Elizabethans learned to embrace religious studies in petty school, where they "read from selections from the Book of Common Prayer and memorized Catechisms from the Scriptures".[27] This influence is evident in Spenser's text, as demonstrated in the moral allegory of Book I. Here, allegory is organized in the traditional arrangement of Renaissance theological treatises and confessionals. While reading Book I, audiences first encounter original sin, justification and the nature of sin before analysing the church and the sacraments.[28] Despite this pattern, Book I is not a theological treatise; within the text, "moral and historical allegories intermingle" and the reader encounters elements of romance.[29] However, Spenser's method is not "a rigorous and unyielding allegory," but "a compromise among conflicting elements".[29] In Book I of The Faerie Queene the discussion of the path to salvation begins with original sin and justification, skipping past initial matters of God, the Creeds, and Adam's fall from grace.[29] This literary decision is pivotal because these doctrines "center the fundamental theological controversies of the Reformation".[29]

text: Sources[edit]

text: Myth and history[edit]

text: During The Faerie Queene's inception, Spenser worked as a civil servant, in "relative seclusion from the political and literary events of his day".[30] As Spenser laboured in solitude, The Faerie Queene manifested within his mind, blending his experiences into the content of his craft. Within his poem, Spenser explores human consciousness and conflict, relating to a variety of genres including sixteenth century Arthurian literature.[31] The Faerie Queene was influenced strongly by Italian works, as were many other works in England at that time. The Faerie Queene draws heavily on Ariosto and Tasso.[32]

text: The first three books of The Faerie Queene operate as a unit, representing the entire cycle from the fall of Troy to the reign of Elizabeth.[31] Using in medias res, Spenser introduces his historical narrative at three different intervals, using chronicle, civil conversation, and prophecy as its occasions.[31]

text: Despite the historical elements of his text, Spenser is careful to label himself a historical poet as opposed to a historiographer. Spenser notes this differentiation in his letter to Raleigh, noting "a Historiographer discourseth of affairs orderly as they were done…but a Poet thrusteth into the midst…and maketh a pleasing Analysis of all".[33]

text: Spenser's characters embody Elizabethan values, highlighting political and aesthetic associations of Tudor Arthurian tradition in order to bring his work to life. While Spenser respected British history and "contemporary culture confirmed his attitude",[33] his literary freedom demonstrates that he was "working in the realm of mythopoeic imagination rather than that of historical fact".[33] In fact, Spenser's Arthurian material serves as a subject of debate, intermediate between "legendary history and historical myth" offering him a range of "evocative tradition and freedom that historian's responsibilities preclude".[34] Concurrently, Spenser adopts the role of a sceptic, reflected in the way in which he handles the British history, which "extends to the verge of self-satire".[35]

text: Medieval subject matter[edit]

text: The Faerie Queene owes, in part, its central figure, Arthur, to a medieval writer, Geoffrey of Monmouth. In his Prophetiae Merlini ("Prophecies of Merlin"), Geoffrey's Merlin proclaims that the Saxons will rule over the Britons until the "Boar of Cornwall" (Arthur) again restores them to their rightful place as rulers.[36] The prophecy was adopted by the Welsh and eventually used by the Tudors. Through their ancestor, Owen Tudor, the Tudors had Welsh blood, through which they claimed to be descendants of Arthur and rightful rulers of Britain.[37] The tradition begun by Geoffrey of Monmouth set the perfect atmosphere for Spenser's choice of Arthur as the central figure and natural bridegroom of Gloriana.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Diction[edit]

text: Since its inception four centuries ago, Spenser's diction has been scrutinized by scholars. Despite the enthusiasm the poet and his work received, Spenser's experimental diction was "largely condemned" before it received the acclaim it has today.[38] Seventeenth century philologists such as Davenant considered Spenser's use of "obsolete language" "the most vulgar accusation that is laid to his charge".[39] Scholars have recently observed that the classical tradition tucked within The Faerie Queene is related to the problem of his diction because it "involves the principles of imitation and decorum".[40] Despite these initial criticisms, Spenser is "now recognized as a conscious literary artist" and his language is deemed "the only fitting vehicle for his tone of thought and feelings".[40] Spenser's use of language was widely contrasted to that of "free and unregulated" sixteenth century Shakespearian grammar.[41] Spenser's style is standardized, lyrically sophisticated, and full of archaisms that give the poem an original taste. Sugden argues in The grammar of Spenser's Faerie Queene that the archaisms reside "chiefly in vocabulary, to a high degree in spelling, to some extent in the inflexions, and only slightly in the syntax".[41]

text: Samuel Johnson also commented critically on Spenser's diction, with which he became intimately acquainted during his work on A Dictionary of the English Language, and "found it a useful source for obsolete and archaic words"; Johnson, however, mainly considered Spenser's (early) pastoral poems, a genre of which he was not particularly fond.[42]

text: The diction and atmosphere of The Faerie Queene relied on much more than just Middle English; for instance, classical allusions and classical proper names abound—especially in the later books—and he coined some names based on Greek, such as "Poris" and "Phao lilly white."[43] Classical material is also alluded to or reworked by Spenser, such as the rape of Lucretia, which was reworked into the story of the character Amavia in Book Two.[44]

text: Language[edit]

text: Spenser's language in The Faerie Queene, as in The Shepheardes Calender, is deliberately archaic, though the extent of this has been exaggerated by critics who follow Ben Jonson's dictum, that "in affecting the ancients Spenser writ no language."[45] Allowing that Jonson's remark may only apply to the Calendar, Bruce Robert McElderry, Jr., states, after a detailed investigation of the FQ's diction, that Jonson's statement "is a skillful epigram; but it seriously misrepresents the truth if taken at anything like its face value."[46] The number of archaisms used in the poem is not overwhelming—one source reports thirty-four in Canto I of Book I, that is, thirty-four words out of a total forty-two hundred words, less than one percent.[47] According to McElderry, language does not account for the poem's archaic tone: "The subject-matter of The Faerie Queene is itself the most powerful factor in creating the impression of archaism."[48]

text: Examples of medieval archaisms (in morphology and diction) include:

text:
Infinitive in –en: "Vewen," 1. 201, 'to view.'
Prefix y- retained in participle: "Yclad", 1. 58, 254, "clad", "clothed".
Adjective: "Combrous", 1. 203, "harassing", "troublesome".
Verb: "Keepe", 1. 360, "heed", "give attention to".[47]


document_title: The Story of My Life (biography)

question_text: who wrote the book the story of my life

question_tokens: who wrote the book the story of my life

text: The Story of My Life (biography)

text: This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
The Story of My Life

Front Cover

Author
Helen Keller

Language
English

Genre
Classic, Memoir

Published
1903

text: The Story of My Life, first published in 1903, is Helen Keller's autobiography detailing her early life, especially her experiences with Anne Sullivan.[1] Portions of it were adapted by William Gibson for a 1957 Playhouse 90 production, a 1959 Broadway play, a 1962 Hollywood feature film, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black featuring Amitabh Bachchan in the role of Anne Sullivan.[2] The book is dedicated to inventor Alexander Graham Bell. The dedication reads, "TO ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL; Who has taught the deaf to speak and enabled the listening ear to hear speech from the Atlantic to the Rockies, I DEDICATE This Story of My Life."

text: The novel is prescribed as long reading text for CBSE Class 10 subject English Communicative code 101