"Unless we accept the claim that Lenin's coup d'etat gave birth to an
             entirely new state, and indeed to a new era in the history of mankind, we
             must recognize in today's Soviet Union the old empire of the Russians -- the
             only empire that survived into the mid 1980's" (Luttwak, 1). In their
             Communist Manifesto of 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels applied the term
             communism to a final stage of socialism in which all class differences would
             disappear and humankind would live in harmony. Marx and Engels claimed to
             have discovered a scientific approach to socialism based on the laws of
             history. They declared that the course of history was determined by the
             clash of opposing forces rooted in the economic system and the ownership of
             property. Just as the feudal system had given way to capitalism, so in time
             capitalism would give way to socialism. The class struggle of the future
             would bebetween the bourgeoisie, who were the capitalist employers, and the
             proletariat, who were the workers. The struggle would end, according to
             Marx, in the socialist revolution and the attainment of full communism
             (Groiler's Encyclopedia). Socialism, of which "Marxism-Leninism" is a
             takeoff, originated in the West. Designed in France and Germany, it was
             brought into Russia in the middle of the nineteenth century and promptly
             attracted support among the country's educated, public-minded elite, who at
             that time were called intelligentsia (Pipes, 21). After Revolution broke out
             over Europe in 1848 the modern working class appeared on the scene as a
             major historical force. However, Russia remained out of the changes that
             Europe was experiencing. As a socialist movement and inclination, the
             Russian Social-Democratic Party continued the traditions of all the Russian
             Revolutions of the past, with the goal of conquering political freedom
             (Daniels 7). As early as 1894, when he was...