For decades, Armando Simon has made a provocative comparison: Marxism, he argues, is like herpes — just when you think it’s eradicated, it flares up again. Writing in American Thinker, Simon, who says he lived under a communist regime, offers a sweeping historical indictment of the ideology, one that he insists is not merely theoretical but grounded in the grim record of 28 countries.
Simon’s central claim is straightforward: Marxism’s core proposition — that imposing it on society improves human life — has been tested repeatedly, and failed catastrophically every single time. He lists Russia, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam, Hungary, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, Germany, Lithuania, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Tibet, Kazakhstan, Grenada, Turkmenistan, Ethiopia, and Kyrgyzstan as the 28 case studies, each with its own customs, history, and geography — none of which, he notes, is supposed to matter according to the doctrine.
In every one of those instances, Simon contends, the standard of living plummeted at every level of society. The promised egalitarianism never materialized. Instead, a privileged aristocracy — what Yugoslav dissident Milovan Djilas called the “New Class” and the Russians called the Nomenklatura — emerged, composed entirely of Communist Party members. While Ukrainians, Chinese, Cambodians, and Ethiopians starved, Simon writes, the new class feasted on imported delicacies. “So much for equality,” he remarks dryly.
A Litany of Failures
The catalog of failures Simon presents is relentless. In every instance, he says, the economy was wrecked, and consumer goods became scarce and shoddy. People stood in lines stretching several blocks for a shirt or a pair of shoes, while the party elite shopped in exclusive stores. He specifically addresses Cuba, where the U.S. embargo is often blamed for shortages — an excuse he calls a convenient fiction, noting that only one country embargoes Cuba while the rest of the world trades freely.
Agriculture, too, was systematically destroyed, leading to rationing for the masses — but not the elite. In Russia, China, North Korea, and Cambodia, famines became so severe that some resorted to cannibalism. “Neither the cannibals nor his food thought that communism had improved his life,” Simon writes with grim irony.
The list continues across every case study: the rule of law vanished as party members murdered thousands, often on mere rumor. Citizens were forbidden to travel, a restriction previously imposed only on serfs. Militarism pervaded society, with children prepared as cannon fodder. A cult of personality deified dictators from Lenin and Stalin to Mao, Che, Tito, Castro, Hoxha, Kim, and Ceaușescu. Secret police forces suppressed dissent, and surveillance was constant.
History itself was falsified, Simon argues, and the arts were warped by “fanatical mediocrities” who dictated style and content — deviation could mean execution. Science was mutilated too, with “Marxist biology,” “Marxist psychology,” and other ideological perversions imposed, not unlike the “German physics” of the Nazi era. Workers were ordered to “volunteer” extra hours without pay. Theft and corruption became endemic as citizens learned the only way to survive was to steal from a state that owned everything. Prostitution skyrocketed — a particularly pointed irony, Simon notes, since Marxist orthodoxy insisted such ills existed only under capitalism.
Genocide and Uprisings
In several countries — Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Tibet, Lithuania, and Cambodia — Simon says horrific genocides were carried out at the party’s behest. In others, including East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Tibet, Cuba, and Czechoslovakia, popular uprisings were crushed by military force. East Germany and Romania even revived the practice of slavery, literally selling citizens to the West.
On basic human rights, Simon’s ledger is stark: freedom of speech, press, religion, property, travel, assembly, privacy, and free elections — all abolished. Workers lost the right to unionize, and families were broken apart. Education became indoctrination.
Perhaps the most telling evidence, Simon argues, is that every Marxist country restricted emigration. The Berlin Wall, he reminds readers, was built to stop a mass exodus — the “people voting with their feet.” Those caught trying to escape often paid with their lives.
The ‘Not Real Marxism’ Defense
Simon anticipates the familiar rejoinder: that true Marxism has never been properly implemented, and that a correct application would produce utopia. He dismisses this by pointing to the endless internal disputes among Marxist leaders themselves. Trotsky said Stalin was doing it wrong. Stalin said Tito was doing it wrong. Khrushchev said Stalin was doing it wrong. Mao said Khrushchev was doing it wrong. Hoxha said they were all wrong. Brezhnev, Pol Pot, and others joined the chorus. “They were all doing it wrong,” Simon summarizes — every single one.
His conclusion is unambiguous: historically, far from improving lives, Marxism has had a catastrophic effect on humanity. And he warns that the ideology has not disappeared — it has merely resurfaced under new labels. Simon notes that adherents now often call themselves Democratic Socialists of America, though the old hammer and sickle remains visible. He suspects many of these followers have never read a word of Marx, Trotsky, or Lenin — they simply know communism is destructive and find it useful in their hatred of their own country.
Simon’s essay is a polemic, to be sure, and critics would point to counterexamples or debate the nuances of each country’s history. But his central challenge is hard to ignore: 28 experiments, 28 failures — and a doctrine that, in his view, has never once delivered on its promise. As he sees it, the burden of proof lies with those who still believe this time will be different.
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/08/dissecting-communism/