<P> The Cultural Revolution was an upheaval that targeted intellectuals and party leaders from 1966 through 1976 . Mao's goal was to purify communism by removing pro-capitalists and traditionalists by imposing Maoist orthodoxy within the Communist Party . The movement paralyzed China politically and weakened the country economically, culturally and intellectually for years . Millions of people were accused, humiliated, stripped of power and either imprisoned, killed or most often sent to work as farm laborers . Mao insisted that these "revisionists" be removed through violent class struggle . The two most prominent militants were Marshall Lin Biao of the army and Mao's wife Jiang Qing . China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country . The movement spread into the military, urban workers and the Communist Party leadership itself . It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life . In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials who were accused of taking a "capitalist road", most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping . During the same period, Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions . After Mao's death in 1976, the survivors were rehabilitated and many returned to power . </P> <P> The Cuban Revolution was a successful armed revolt led by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista . It ousted Batista on 1 January 1959, replacing his regime with Castro's revolutionary government . Castro's government later reformed along communist lines, becoming the present Communist Party of Cuba in October 1965 . The United States response was highly negative, leading to a failed invasion attempt in 1961 . The Soviets decided to protect its ally by stationing nuclear weapons in Cuba in 1962 . In the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States vehemently opposed the Soviet Union move . There was serious fear of nuclear war for a few days, but a compromise was reached by which Moscow publicly removed its weapons and the United States secretly removed its from bases in Turkey and promised never to invade . </P> <P> During the Decolonization of Africa, the Soviet Union took a keen interest in that continent's independence movements and initially hoped that the cultivation of communist client states there would deny their economic and strategic resources to the West . Soviet foreign policy with regards to Africa assumed that newly independent African governments would be receptive to Marxist ideology and that the Soviets would have the resources to make them attractive as development partners . During the 1970s, the ruling parties of several sub-Saharan African states formally embraced communism, including Burkina Faso, the People's Republic of Benin, the People's Republic of Mozambique, the People's Republic of the Congo, the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the People's Republic of Angola . Most of these regimes ensured the selective adoption and flexible application of Marxist theory set against a broad ideological commitment to Marxism or Leninism . The adoption of communism was often seen as a means to an end and used to justify the extreme centralization of power . </P> <P> Angola was perhaps the only African state which made a longstanding commitment to orthodox Marxism, but this was severely hampered by its own war - burdened economy, rampant corruption and practical realities which allowed a few foreign companies to wield considerable influence despite the elimination of the domestic Angolan private sector and a substantial degree of central economic planning . Both Angola and Ethiopia built new social and political communist institutions modeled closely after those in the Soviet Union and Cuba . However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union their regimes either dissolved due to civil conflict or voluntarily repudiated communism in favour of social democracy . </P>

Who began the world’s first communist state which came in russia