¶ … social conditions that spurred Marx's writing of the Communist Manifesto shared several interesting similarities, as well as numerous differences, with the social conditions that appeared as a result of the influence of the Communist Manifesto in the 20th century. Germinal, a book by Emile Zola, shows the social conditions that existed as communism was beginning to spread across the world. In contrast, the movie The Inner Circle chronicles the social conditions that existed after communism had swept across Europe and the Soviet Union.
Emile Zola's book, Germinal, depicts a society that existed before and during the time that the influence of communism was felt in Europe and the Soviet Union. Germinal depicts labor problems among coal miners in late nineteenth century France. Told through the eyes of a newcomer to the mines, Etienne Lantier, Zola's book depicts the lead character's struggles to improve working conditions by organizing worker resistance. Etienne organizes a strike that has an unpredictable and tragic outcome (Zola).
Germinal is a great study of the social conditions and aspirations of the working class man of the late 18th century. The novel shows a mining team in an aptly named mine called "Le Voreux," that is consumed by circumstances beyond their control. They are often destroyed by their difficult and tragic circumstances. The brutality and harshness of life in the mines is clear in this passage from Germinal:
"everything was plunged back into darkness, the picks beating out their heavy, dull blows; and there was nothing but the sound of heavy breathing, groans of pain and fatigue beneath the weight...
Germinal shows that prior to the rise of communism, life for workers as capitalism first grew was often brutal and dangerous. As Marx often noted, workers were poorly rewarded for their efforts, while the owners of factories grew rich on the worker's efforts. In Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, Marx argues the "worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range."
In Germinal, Etienne is aware of Marx's thoughts, and it is often Marx's ideology that drives his attempts to reform the working conditions within the mines. Etienne comments as his dreams of a better life for the workers begin to crumble, "Karl Marx's idea remained standing: capital was the result of spoliation, it was the duty and the privilege of labour to reconquer that stolen wealth."
Andrei Konchalovsky's movie, The Inner Circle, gives great insight into the social conditions that existed after communism swept the Soviet Union. The Inner Circle shows the terror of Stalin's regime through the eyes of Stalin's movie projectionist. The film's main character, played by Tom Hulce, is an idealistic and innocent little man who believes that his great boss, Stalin, only has the interests of the little man at heart. The majority of the film chronicles his day-to-day life, his patient waiting to see the…
