People's Republic

'People's Republic' is a title used by some sovereign states with republican constitutions. The term was initially associated with populist movements in the 19th century such as the German Völkisch movement and the Narodniks in Russia. A number of the short-lived states created during World War I and its aftermath called themselves people's republics. Many of these were in the territory of the former Russian Empire which collapsed following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Additional people's republics were created following the Allied victory in World War II. The term has become associated with countries adhering to Marxism–Leninism, although its use is not unique to such states. A number of republics with liberal democratic political systems such as Algeria and Bangladesh adopted the title after popular wars of independence given its rather generic nature. 'People's Republic' is a title used by some sovereign states with republican constitutions. The term was initially associated with populist movements in the 19th century such as the German Völkisch movement and the Narodniks in Russia. A number of the short-lived states created during World War I and its aftermath called themselves people's republics. Many of these were in the territory of the former Russian Empire which collapsed following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Additional people's republics were created following the Allied victory in World War II. The term has become associated with countries adhering to Marxism–Leninism, although its use is not unique to such states. A number of republics with liberal democratic political systems such as Algeria and Bangladesh adopted the title after popular wars of independence given its rather generic nature. The first Marxist–Leninist people's republics that came into existence were those formed following the Russian Revolution. Ukraine was briefly declared a people's republic in 1917, and in 1920 the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara, both territories of the former Russian Empire, were declared people's republics. In 1921 the Russian protectorate of Tuva became a people's republic, followed in 1924 by neighbouring Mongolia. Following World War II, developments in Marxist–Leninist theory led to the appearance of people's democracy, a concept which potentially allowed for a route to socialism via multi-class, multi-party democracy. Countries which had reached this intermediate stage were called people's republics. The European states that became people's republics at this time were Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. In Asia, China became a people's republic following the Chinese Communist Revolution and North Korea also adopted Marxism–Leninism to become a people's republic. Many of these countries also called themselves socialist states in their constitutions. During the 1960s Romania and Yugoslavia ceased to use the term people's in their official name, replacing it with the term socialist as a mark of their ongoing political development. Czechoslovakia also added the term socialist into its name during this period; it had become a people's republic in 1948 but had not used that term in its official name. Albania used both terms in its official name from 1976 to 1991. In the West these countries are often referred to as communist states. However, none of them described themselves in that way; they regarded communism as a level of political development that they had not yet reached. The communist parties in these countries often governed in coalitions with other progressive parties. During the postcolonial period a number of former European colonies that had achieved independence and adopted Marxist-Leninist governments took the name people's republic. Angola, Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Laos, Mozambique and South Yemen followed this route. Following the Revolutions of 1989, the people's republics of Central and Eastern Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland) along with Mongolia dropped the term people's from their names as it was associated with their former communist governments. They became known simply as republics and adopted liberal democracy as their system of government. At around the same time most of the former European colonies that had taken the people's republic name began to replace it as part of their move away from Marxism-Leninism.