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Rewrite what was there to clarify that it was specifically about Marxism and the USSR. Note that USSR betrayed its principles. Leave out "no one has to work." Add section on Act and early Christians
Communism is government in which the state owns everything and the wealth is divided evenly among the citizens. Communists believe that if they share everything, no one will ever have to work. It is an atheist government not believing in God and only in the "state" as the supreme thing on the earth. The most famous communist government was the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was an official government starting in 1922 and ending in 1991.
The word '''Communism''' means government in which the state owns everything and the wealth is divided evenly among the citizens. It usually refers specifically to the doctrine developed by Marx and Lenin, which advocated the overthrow of capitalism by the revolution of the proletariat.
The most famous government to label itself "communist" was the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; communism was its official government starting in 1922 and ending in 1991. This government was officially atheist and attempted to suppress all religion. Like many authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion. (Left-wing critics of the USSR charged that it was communist in name only, and had betrayed the revolution which founded it. George Orwell expressed this viewpoint eloquently in his 1945 fable [[Animal Farm]]).
==Early Christians as described in ''Acts''==
As described in the Acts of the Apostles, early Christians practiced some form of sharing for the common good:
:And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)
:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
;And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
:And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
:Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)
Immediately following, we are told that Ananias and his wife cheated: they "sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet." When caught by Peter, Ananias "fell down, and gave up the ghost."
This voluntary communitarian sharing among the early Christians is sometimes called "communism" and meets some definitions of the word. Some small Utopian experiments and intentional communities, notably the Shakers<ref>officially: United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing</ref> have successfully practiced similar kinds of sharing, but rarely for long.
==Notes and references==
<references/>