One hundred years ago on October 25, the Bolsheviks seized Russia’s Provisional Government under the guidance of Vladimir Lenin. As a result of Lenin’s Marxism, up to 100 million people were killed in the 20th century. Considering the corruption and devastation Communism wreaked upon Russia, it’s important to realize the foreshadowing signs of this ideology because many are flirting with Communism today.

In an article written for The Catholic World Report, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg explains just how damaging Lenin’s political program was for Russia. Lenin was a materialist, and “the true philosophical materialist doesn’t think there’s anything special about human beings,” says Gregg. “Expressions like “dignity,” “rights,” “responsibilities,” etc., are empty constructs in a materialist’s world.” Communism is characterized by a lack of morality, stemming from a misunderstanding of who man is.

Gregg goes on:

Communism authorizes and even celebrates the suspension and suppression of moral norms that absolutely prohibit certain actions like lying—or theft or killing or being envious. It’s one thing to be, for instance, dishonest but acknowledge you are doing evil. It’s altogether different to say that no such moral absolutes exist: that morality is in effect a fiction, a mere set of customs to be dispensed with, whenever convenient.

Read Gregg’s whole piece, When evil triumphed: The 100th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution.

(Featured Image:By Maximaximax (Own work) [GFDL CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons)