Final answer:
Many people expected communism to create a utopian society better than the pre-war era, inspired by leaders like Stalin and Mao. However, Marx's concepts faced challenges in implementation, and the eventual decline of communism in Eastern Europe came through peaceful transitions rather than violent upheavals. Although communism promised equality, peace, and justice, nations like the USSR faced economic and political realities that contradicted these ideals.
Step-by-step explanation:
Many people believed that communism was going to create a utopian society, better than the one that existed before the war. Post-World War II leaders such as Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Mao Zedong espoused communism as the beacon for humankind's prosperous future. In contrast, Western countries like the United States and the United Kingdom feared communism as a threat to freedom and championed capitalism and democracy instead.
Despite the high hopes, Karl Marx's vision of a wealthy and classless society encountered contradictions including the centralization of government power. The eventual decline of communism was decidedly peaceful, contrary to fears of bloody counterrevolutions, as it ceded to free elections across Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union's attempt to export communism resulted in both support and violent opposition globally as those disillusioned by the war saw it as a path to a new socialist utopia.
Marx's vision of a 'dictatorship of the proletariat' where workers would control the means of production held the promise of peace, justice, and equality. Yet historically, nations like the Soviet Union were marred by economic stagnation and authoritarian control, diverging significantly from the ideals of true communism. The pursuit of Marxist ideology in various countries failed to fulfill the economic or political equality that Marx had envisioned, instead resulting in different forms and outcomes of socialism.