List of communist states
A communist state is a form of government that combines the state leadership of a communist party through the supreme state organ of power, Marxist–Leninist political philosophy, and an official commitment to the construction of a communist society. Communism in its modern form grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe and blamed capitalism for societal miseries. In the 20th century, several communist states were established, first in Russia with the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then in portions of Eastern Europe, Asia, and a few other regions after World War II. The institutions of these states were heavily influenced by the writings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and others. However, the political reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev known as Perestroika and socio-economic difficulties produced the revolutions of 1989, which brought down all the communist states of the Eastern Bloc bar the Soviet Union. The repercussions of the collapse of these states contributed to political transformations in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and several other non-European communist states. Presently, there are five communist states in the world: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam.
Overview
Socialist states
In applied communist practice, a socialist state is a communist state formation that is the product of a purported base and superstructural relation that is called the socialist mode of production, or simply socialism. Socialism acts as the base of the socialist state, while the superstructure is made up of two parts: the class character of the state and the organisational form of state power.- The class character of the state involves the dictatorship of the proletariat in which the proletariat acts as the ruling class; purportedly the most advanced elements of this class form a vanguard party to lead the state. The theoretical exception to this rule was the Soviet Union: from 1961 onwards the Communist Party of the Soviet Union argued that it had created a developed socialist society where the proletarian dictatorship had been replaced by a socialist state of the whole people since all the exploitative classes had been defeated. The Chinese Communist Party vehemently opposed this theory and argued that every state formation had to have a ruling class.
- The organisational form of state power, literally the form of government in Marxist–Leninist vocabulary, is centered on the unified power of the supreme state organ of power that operates under the guidance of the vanguard party.
| State | Established | Dissolved | Duration | Leading party | Supreme state organ of power | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Socialist Republic of Albania.png" />People's Socialist Republic of Albania|name=AlbaniaDts|format=dmy|1976|12|28Dts|format=dmy|1991|4|29Formatnum:efn|name=alpha|Named the Communist Party of Albania from 1941 until 1948.sfnm|1a1=Vucinich|1y=1951|1p=345|2a1=Prifti|2y=1978|2pp=45–47Age in years and days|1971|5|18|1991|7|12People's democratic statesA people's democratic state is a communist state formation. According to the Marxist–Leninist theory of people's democracy, it purportedly tries to transition society from a capitalist mode of production to a socialist mode of production after a successful people's democratic revolution. This process transforms the people's democratic state into a socialist state. According to Marxist–Leninist theorists, the people's democratic state is socialist-type state, but not a socialist state itself. The form of government of people's democratic states is unified state power of the supreme state organ of power, under the leadership of the ruling communist party. Despite this, forms of government have not always been identical in different states, with some slight institutional differences.
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Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|1922|name=ArmeniaDts|format=dmy|1920|11|29Dts|format=dmy|1922|12|30Formatnum:sfnm|1a1=Szajkowski|1y=1982|1p=35Age in years and days|1920|4|28|1922|3|12
Azerbaijan People's Government|name=AzerbaijanDts|format=dmy|1945|11|20Dts|format=dmy|1946|12|12Formatnum:sfnm|1a1=Szajkowski|1y=1982|1pp=49–50Age in years and days|1919|4|7|1919|5|2