Some people in our country, just like some in the world, are unaware of the things that they might be facing and are claiming that there is no longer any danger of communism in our day. They assume that communism was simply a scourge of the 20th Century and that it had been lived through and ended in that period, and that it is no longer a threat. They are very much invested in that idea and they are neither aware of the dangers they are facing, nor able to take precautions against them. On the contrary, by saying that there is no danger of communism, they are dragging people around them into a state of complacency and thus drag themselves into that scourge as well. With such an approach, they give way to the communist mentality to easily become stronger and find a door with which to gain entry. That is because communism gains strength and expands at times when people are lulled into complacency as they say "There is no communist threat anymore" and do not take any precautions against this scourge.
People who say that "The danger of communism ended in the 20th Century" are in a grave deception. Communism has never ceased to exist. So long as Darwinism continues to exist, communism will continue to exist as well. That is because fundamentally both of these rest on a shared philosophy: Dialectic Materialism. Darwin adapted this thought to nature and Marx adapted it to history and society. Consequently, just like in the 20th Century, Marxism continues to exist today as well and so long as Darwinism continues to exist, it would never disappear from the world politics.
Indeed, at the moment, the "Darwinist dictatorship" reigns in all the states, educational institutions and the press. This reign nourishes the communist thought system and the system of education continues to educate communist militants without slowing down. To say it in brief, Communism is only in ambush at the moment.
As we have stated before, the communists attribute the unsuccessful result of Russian communism in the 20th Century to the wrong application of Marxism. Now they think that they can resuscitate the communist system without making those same mistakes. This thought is being advocated by many organizations, think-tanks and non-governmental organizations all over the world who still believe in Marxism. Those modern communists have separated the communist regimes in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc from Marxist ideology even while they still existed. They used to call the current communist regimes "real socialism", meaning practiced socialism, and claimed that the socialist ideology is not bound to these regimes and would remain a viable ideology even if those regimes collapse.
Today they are voicing this claim even more effectively. Their claims are as follows; according to Marx, each society should go through some certain phases. They should first have feudalism, then capitalism, then socialism and then proceed to communism. However in Russia and in the other communist regimes of the 20th Century they had a sudden transition to socialism from more-or-less feudal agricultural societies. The capitalist phase in between has been skipped. Consequently, according to the Marxists, it is natural for these regimes to be unsuccessful. Now with these countries embracing capitalism, the "capitalist phase" mentioned by Marx will be experienced and after that socialism will return more permanently and strongly. All communists, in their hiding places, have waited for this moment since capitalism started to rule the world.
“One step forward, two steps back"
The scenario we have stressed in the previous section is Lenin's well known "one step forward, two steps back" tactic. According to this tactic, in order to reach their goals, communists take a few steps back whenever it is necessary and appear as if they have distanced themselves from their goals. However, they simply wait in ambush. This principle, that Lenin wrote a pamphlet about, is being executed at the moment.
Lenin explained this situation with the following words:
One step forward, two steps back. . . . It happens in the lives of individuals, and it happens in the history of nations and in the development of parties. It would be the most criminal cowardice to doubt even for a moment the inevitable and complete triumph of the principles of revolutionary Social-Democracy, of proletarian organisation and Party discipline. (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, 1904)
As it would be understood from these words of Lenin, it is not possible for a communist to give up communism or to carry doubts which state communism would be unsuccessful eventually. At the moment, they only have taken a step back and are waiting for an appropriate moment to switch to the communist system. That appropriate moment will be the period in which capitalism has become most widespread all over the world. Among the states that practice wild- capitalism, there will be a fight over capital, people will show an inclination to material things instead of spiritual values and thus will become remote from religion. Societies becoming irreligious would, of course, be most advantageous for the communists. The first condition necessary for the establishment of communist societies, which is to keep people far removed from religion, moral and spiritual values, would thus be ensured by the capitalist system. After this step, the duty on the communists waiting in ambush is to confiscate capital, neutralize the bourgeois and abolish the concepts of family and state. They believe that to realize this in an aimless society which has significantly lost its beliefs and moral values would be considerably easy.
The things going on in the world at the moment are developing just in the way that communists want and wait for. Countries are practicing a ruthless form of capitalism in the perfect sense of the word. The inclination to materials has genuinely caused people to keep away from spiritual and moral values and gave way to the establishment of aimless societies that are lost and far removed from the morality of religion. At the moment, the communists in Russia are making an arrangement in their own way because of the disruption in their historical order (transition to communism from capitalism). That is the reason why they have rendered the Russian public into the hands of oligarchs, plutocrats and organized criminals and prepared the way for a classical capitalism. Through the system they have established, they are having their people severely oppressed and thus they are trying to make them say; "There is no other solution, the only way out is communism".
The capitalist system of life creates an effect on people that is almost similar to hypnosis. Because people in these societies are generally after making money, living in comfort and consuming, they are not aware of the dangers waiting for them in ambush. They are not in an alert state of mind. Communists are keenly aware of this. They frequently state that people fail to realize that communist way of thinking is gaining strength because they are consumed in their ambitions for goods and income and thus are constantly defeated by communism. Even though they see that they will be swallowed by the communist thinking, the vast majority becomes blind because of their greed for possessions and earthly desires, and thus they lose their defensive reflexes. That environment is the most suitable environment for communists to take action.
Communism Covertly Continues Its Existence
As a result of the "one step forward, two steps back" strategy, communism still covertly maintains its existence. Especially in Russia, the entire leadership of the government and the bureaucracy consists of former communists. Those people who are trained with dialectic materialism have not given up their dreams about communism. On the contrary, those who believe that communism requires a passage through a capitalist stage, are remaining as guides for capitalism, in order to realize a necessity of becoming a "communist". Because they are real communists, they are practicing and advocating capitalism at the moment.
This is the situation today not only in Russia but in the whole world. In almost every country of Europe, communist parties maintain their existence and moreover some are getting considerably high votes. In almost every country of the former Eastern Bloc, there are socialist parties managed by the former communist staffs. Communist authors and artists silently continue their existence in a quiet corner and give covert messages that places a communist way of thinking into the subconscious minds of the people. In fact nothing has changed. They are only waiting patiently for capitalism to prepare the proper environment for them. Thus, they are only behaving in accordance with the recommendations of Marx.
However, perhaps the one thing that most serves the interests of communists is the economic crisis that engulfs the world at the moment. Even though until recently there was a belief that economic and democratic structures can never be harmed, the massive economic crisis plaguing the whole world, apart from people's political tendencies, has also changed people's way of looking into life considerably, and all of a sudden. And this is an important means of advantage for communists. As it would be remembered, this was previously experienced in history as well; as the result of the Great Depression beginning in 1929, a great economic crisis occurred in the whole world and the popularity of both communist and fascist parties in Europe increased exponentially. Communists who evaluated the Great Depression as the "collapse of the capitalist system" had thus gained the opportunity to influence the masses very easily. In their desperation, people were left obliged to accept that communism is the only way out.
Such a danger is also valid today. All the former communists waiting in ambush, the new communist groups trained by them and the communist youth are making use of the present economic crisis. Consequently the years that we are living in right now are highly suitable for the danger of communism to once more gain an effective place in the world politics. Most of the communist parties regard the economic crisis as an opportunity to drag their countries into the communist swamp.