Marxism was initially a philosophy, one that could be debated and refined
freely, but it soon became a movement, with organizations and
even governments adhering to it and coming into conflict with the contending
philosophy of capitalism. For some it became a religion, something
believed in implicitly, which they would die to defend. What is
most extraordinary, however, is that Marxist governments eventually
ruled the Soviet Union, much of Eastern and Central Europe, China and
other parts of Asia, and even bits of Africa and Latin America while being
advocated by numerous political parties and guerrilla movements.
This vast empire, initiated in 1917, rapidly subsided in the 1990s but
still includes the world’s most populous country, China.