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[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|150px|right|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation .]]'''Communism''' is an ideology which seeks to create a classless, utopian society through the abolition of the [[capitalism|capitalist]] market system. In practice, however, its implemenation has been far from utopian, and Communist governments have cost over 100 million lives. One-fifth of the world's people are still under Communist rule, the vast majority of whom live in the [[People's Republic of China]].

[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|150px|right|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation .]]In less than the past 100 years, '''Communism''' has claimed more than 100 million lives. Today, it continues to enslave one-fifth of the world's people. <ref>[http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation], Documenting Communism's Crimes Against Humanity.</ref>

Communism advocates the establishment of a "classless society".  In actuality it is dominated by a self appointed ''[[Nomenklatura]]''.  It officially prohibits one person from employing another, which leads to massive restrictions on personal freedom and economic shortages of every sort of goods and services.  It does not allow for savings and investment, the ownership of private property, such as homes or cars, or even fair payment of wages and labor.  Communist governments have a strong tendency to restrict the economic and political rights of their citizenry.

Communism advocates the establishment of a "classless society".  In actuality it is dominated by a self appointed ''[[Nomenklatura]]''.  It officially prohibits one person from employing another, which leads to massive restrictions on personal freedom and economic shortages of every sort of goods and services.  It does not allow for savings and investment, the ownership of private property, such as homes or cars, or even fair payment of wages and labor.  Persons born in Communist countries have no citizenships rights.

== Communism and Atheism ==

== Communism and Atheism ==

Marx coined the saying "Religion is the opium of the people" expressing his view that religion, and in particular state-endorsed religion, has been used for centuries as a form of social control by promising the downtrodden a better life in a mythical hereafter to deter them from trying to build one here and now by removing the chains of their masters and overthrowing the capitalist system that oppressed them.  Karl Marx wrote: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction." <ref>http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm</ref>

Marx coined the saying "Religion is the opium of the people" expressing his view that religion, and in particular state-endorsed religion, has been used for centuries as a form of social control by promising the downtrodden a better life in a mythical hereafter to deter them from trying to build one here and now by removing the chains of their masters and overthrowing the capitalist system that oppressed them.  Karl Marx wrote: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."  

Vladimir Lenin similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm</ref>

Vladimir Lenin similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."

==Theory and horror==

==Theory and horror==