Educational Media Reviews Online

This series undertakes the lofty goal of mapping and analyzing the evolution of socialism in theory and application from its inception to the present. It is sensibly arranged into three volumes to examine the “life cycle” of socialism. The documentary is filled with well edited, well chosen historical film clips and images. A group of elite scholars are interviewed throughout the series, providing excellent insights and extensive details. A common thread of the three volumes is their thorough examinations of key figures on a personal level. Elucidations on the relationship between Marx and Engels are explored by excerpts from their correspondences. Summaries of the three films follow.

From Harmony to Revolution: The Birth and Growth of Socialism

The idea that promised a “heaven here on earth” of shared wealth and labor found a wide appeal among those in the 19th century with faith in limitless human progress, based on science and rational thought. The first volume does an excellent job of examining how socialist theory came into being, and burgeoned into several social experiments, such as the community of New Harmony, Indiana in 1825. The communal society attracted intellectuals, but not enough workers to maintain the needs of the people. The community soon collapsed.

The viewer is then given an exceptionally substantial examination of Friedrich Engels, who in 1844 met Karl Marx and subsequently bankrolled him. With a less rapturous view on socialism, the two assessed history as defined by class struggle, inevitably leading to revolution. In the wake of Marx, Eduard Bernstein, a German banker turned social democrat, espoused the idea that the movement is everything, not the goal. The film takes a distinct turn for the grim in its discussion of Lenin, who read of Bernstein, and initiated revolution, the birth of the Soviet Union, and the Red Terror, an elimination of an estimated of millions of Soviet nonconformists. It is worth noting that the film spends a great deal of time examining Lenin’s formative years.

Unstable Utopias: The Global Spread of Socialism

While charting the spread of socialism to widespread areas, this film is more demonstrative and less analytical than the other programs in the series. In doing so, however, it sets the stage for the astute analyses of the third installment.

After a brief treatment of the perversion of “socialism” by the Nazis, the film quickly segues to the rise of socialism following World War II. In the aftermath, sixteen nations adopted socialism as a promise to quick prosperity. In 1949, socialists drove the nationalists out of China in favor of Mao Tse-Tung’s “iron rice bowl,” or assurance of economic stability. Maoist China followed the Soviet communist model of centralized industry and collectivized agriculture. The viewer beholds the flaws and misgivings of the Great Leap Forward. The film emphasizes the Leap’s inefficiencies and poorly planned initiatives, such as “backyard steel mills,” in which farmers produced their own steel. It is estimated that the Great Leap Forward lead to 30-40 million deaths.

Heaven on Earth proceeds to explore social democracy in Western Europe, with particular attention to Clement Attlee in Great Britain following World War II. Attlee saw the mobilization of industry for the war effort as hope for socialism. Gradually, the social democratic movement fused with the labor movement.

The film does a laudable job in detailing the phenomena of the Kibbutz—Jewish collectives in Israel—and the lengthy lifespan of communism in Tanzania. It is interesting to note that the West embraced socialist countries such as Tanzania in the 1970s and 1980s for having chosen a healthy alternative to Soviet communism.

Tearing Down the Wall: The Decline of Socialism

By the 1970s, the British economy had stagnated and social welfare could not overcome problems like inflation and inefficiency. Conservatives blames Attlee’s legacy for creating a “dependency culture” where initiatives were not rewarded. For many, the elections of conservatives such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan signified the beginning of the end for socialism. To Reagan, the survival of communism was not a given. With political and economic pressure, he actively sought the end of socialism.

The Soviet Union’s leadership, meanwhile, was experiencing rapid turnover. In the summer of 1980, workers in a Polish shipyard went on strike and formed “Solidarity,” soon to be joined by one quarter of the Polish populace. The film does an especially thorough breakdown of Gorbachev’s progressive initiatives and their consequences. Similarly, the viewer sees the reforms of Deng Xiaopeng in China and his gradual decollectivization of the communes.

Heaven on Earth concludes with something of a “post mortem” analysis, though several scholars cite the continuing evolution of socialism. The series is to be applauded for its superb level of detail, while showing linkages between events. This documentary is highly recommended to audiences, aged high school and above, who wish to obtain a summarily inclusive knowledge of the socialism movement.