In the nineteenth century–the epoch of the bourgeoisie, a newborn power–communism gradually expanded in Europe. 《Manifesto of the Communist Party》 was sketched to declare Communists’ views and missions, the Manifesto expounds the theory of historical class conflicts and struggles, the characters and aims of Proletariat, the principles of Communist Party and it criticizes spurious socialism and literature at that time and devises the struggle tactics of Communists.

In the history, every epoch had class struggles. The modern bourgeois society simplified class antagonisms and divided the society into two great hostile camps— Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.

“The bourgeoisie set up an unconscionable freedom — Free Trade– for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions to substitute naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation in feudal society. The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.” The bourgeois epoch is distinguished by constant disturbance of all social conditions and the ceaseless expanding market. To establish connections and its “civilization”, bourgeoisie compels all nations to adopt the bourgeois mode of production, to become bourgeois themselves. Bourgeoisie develops with a corresponding political advance of that class, and it has conquered the exclusive political sway. Political centralization was hence the consequence of concentration of the means of production and property in a few hands.

In addition to the periodical commercial crises– the objective law of the bourgeoisie—which is an irreversible result of too much means of subsistence and productive forces, the proletariat is also the product of the epoch. The proletarian has no property or national character, its number and strength grow very fast with the development of industry. To realize every person’s independence and individuality, it is destined to struggle with the bourgeoisie. This struggle between classes is also a political struggle. As the lowest stratum of society, the proletariat is in the interest of the immense majority. Their mission is to destroy individual property and to abolish the bourgeois property to become masters of the productive forces of society and to establish the sway of the proletariat. That’s the first step in the revolution. Theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. As a revolutionary class, the proletarian political party’s organization and development did not go without any difficulties.

“When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character.” I doubt this argument, it’s a little idealistic, and I think the development and realization of communism will last long, there are distinguishing socialist systems conforming to different countries’ situations, it sounds a bit like “all men are equal”, not that easy to be attained.

“Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” This argument turns out to be incorrect, our society develops quite well under the bourgeoisie, and there is no indication of its fall or replacement by socialism and then communism.

Undeniably, as the symbol of the generation of Marxism, 《Manifesto of the Communist Party》 is one of the world’s most influential political manuscripts, it provides an important guiding ideology on the revolutionary road for many socialist states, like China, Viet Nam, the North Korea, Cuba and Mongolia, after socialist revolution and transformation, they have socialist market system, socialist democracy, socialist legal system and general line for socialist construction. Communists are atheists, they believe in science, not in God. I think this is a defect of communism, because religious beliefs are really important in our lives, faith impels us forward.

No matter socialist society or capitalist society, they all have their own mode of production and inherent laws of development. They can develop harmonious in this epoch, on the same globe.