Assessing Other Communist States

Communism was not limited to China and Russia. Dozens of other nations have experimented with communism. In fact, five nations still identify themselves as Marxist/Leninist today. Despite the similarity in ideology, each of these nations had very different experiences with this political structure.

Five communist regimes are included on the spider map example below. Students will analyze how and why different nations adopted communism. Students will also assess how well nations did under a communist regime.

See the example with Mozambique in the storyboard above!

• Research the nation's history during communism.
• Provide a storyboard graphic that depicts some part of the nation’s experience with communism.
• Provide a caption at the bottom of the cell that provides an assessment/overview of the nation’s experience with communism.

Extended Activity

• Add other communist regimes for assessment.
• Focus on a specific geographic region like the Caribbean
• Focus on a single nation, and using a six cell spider chart. This spider chart would analyze the impact of communism on politics, economics, religion, society, intellectual development, and the arts.

Student Instructions

Research nations that have experimented with communism or still consider themselves communist today and create a spider map detailing each nations's experience.

1. Click "Start Assignment".
2. In each cell, note the communist state in the title and provide an overview of the nation's experience with communism in the description.
3. Create illustrations using appropriate scenes, characters, and items that depict some part of that experience.