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What Was The Role Of Communism In Australia In The 1950's

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What Was The Role Of Communism In Australia In The 1950's
Communism is a system where there is no private ownership of business or property and the country’s wealth gets shared among the population. Vladimir Lenin started the communist international which was an organisation with an aim of spreading communism throughout the world. Communism really was a threat to Australians in the 1950s, the events of the Korean War, different alliances being formed, the banning of the Communist party of Australia (CPA) and the Petrov affair all tell us that communism could spread to Australia.
Australia responded to the threat of communism by joining the Korean war in 1950, Australia joined the Korean war to prevent fighting communism in Australia, so they fought overseas. The war was between the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) backed North Korea and the United States (US) backed South Korea. The war started on the 25th of June 1950 and ended on the 27th of July 1953 when the US threatened a nuclear attack.
Another response to the threat of communism from the Australian Government was forming alliances …show more content…
Vladimir Petrov was a third secretary of the Soviet Embassy. Petrov stated that there was a communist spy-ring in Australia and their role was to stop Anti- Soviet activities. On the 3rd of April 1954 Petrov chose to defect from the USSR and gain asylum in Australia, it is believed he did this to protect himself from the USSR as he was scared of what would happen to him if he returned to Russia. Vladimir’s wife was forced by soviet officials to return to the USSR, they forced her on a plane but at a fuel stop she was offered asylum by Australian officials and she accepted. Menzies used this affair to help him win the election that year; due to Menzies saying the Labor party brought communist spies into Australia and this led to Australians believing the Labor party had a communist
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