his ideas were considered radical. Friedrich Engels was the cofounder with Karl Marx of modern socialism. According to Saul K. Padover "Engels had a brilliant mind and was quick, sharp, and unerring in his judgements" (580). Engels and Marx met in the 1840's and decided to collaborate in their writings because they had the same opinion on almost everything (Padover 580). Both agreed heavily on one very important thing; they predicted that the workers would unite, along with a few capitalists, and fight for better wages. Then there would be a revolution that would replace the capitalist revolution with communism (Wilkinson 72). Later, after the rise of communism, it was corrupted and turned against by many anticommunists and communists. "The first communist revolution happened in Russia in 1917, which then became the Soviet Union. Other eastern and central European countries also adopted a communist system of government" (Padover 72). After the revolution in 1917 in Russia many socialist parties quickly turned to communism. After a long time in political limbo communism was swept away in the late 1980's and early 1990's when many political changes took place in formerly communist countries. Democratic elections and capitalist values overthrew many Marxists' ideals. In 1990, Germany was reunified from their previous division of communist East Germany and democratic West Germany (Padover 72). Contrary to popular believe, communism was not always an irrational-seeming corrupted movement. Communists have always believed that a political party must work for the good of the people as a whole. Communism promotes economic equality. In the beginning, a communist was one not known to be competitive, like the capitalist. Friedrich Engels believed we should "abolish competition and replace it with association." As long as people are willing to produce more than is needed, a ruling class will always exist. This willingness ...
