Which Communist country was #2 in the Cold War (After the Soviet Union)

#2 most powerful communist country in the Cold War?

  • East Germany

    Votes: 17 12.7%
  • China

    Votes: 110 82.1%
  • Czechoslovakia

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yugoslavia

    Votes: 5 3.7%
  • Romania

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Poland

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 2 1.5%

  • Total voters
    134
China i think sixth to detonate a nuke?

No, China was the fifth nation to detonate a nuclear bomb following the United States (1945), the Soviet Union (1949), the United Kingdom (1952) and France (1960). No one is quite sure when Israel acquired nuclear weapons, but it probably occurred in the late sixties.
 
Voted China. But suggest Vietnam (north or unified) as an option for third. Seriously, at war almost constantly against far more powerful nations*, from the 1940s until (arguably) the 1980s. Their "Cold War" was seriously "Hot".

*Cambodia being the exception, although that one got them a war with China.
 
Last edited:
Yugoslavia, because they could arguably still honestly be called "communist" but their system actually, y'know, worked. Shame it was so singularly dependent on one particular elder statesman.
 
Chin Peng looks down with pride on Communist Malaya ;_;7 .

A communist Malaya, even if it ever becomes a reality, would be a country torn by ethnic strife and instability. Severe over-representation (around 90%?) of the Chinese Minority in the MCP would make the "Malayan People's Republic" a little red sampan floating in a raging green sea.

Over time, if the MCP is lucky enough to survive, gradual Malayrization of the party would create another political crisis in the county.

Meanwhile, a communist Indonesia is a serious contender for the third place or even second in Communism.
 
China of course. The relationship between the Warsaw Pact states and the USSR was much more complicated than what some posters have claimed (e.g. Romania) but they were all fundamentally politically and militarily dependent on the Soviets. None of them wielded much power on the global stage individually. China was a large country, eventually not aligned with the Soviets, and had its own model of communism that commanded a global following.
 
Yugoslavia, because they could arguably still honestly be called "communist" but their system actually, y'know, worked. Shame it was so singularly dependent on one particular elder statesman.

So did the others. Yugoslavia stands out mainly for running a debt inflated system with simmering ethnic tensions under the surface.
 
What do you mean by "#2 after the USSR?"

Second most powerful?

Second most important for teh Communist Cause?

Second best to live in?

Second most successful in establishing a socialist society.
 
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Albania, which left the Warsaw Pact in 1968, and then split with China over the Three Worlds and Suck-Up-To-Nixon policies in the 70s, scooping up a fair number of the formerly pro-China anti-revisionist parties around the world in the process.

That's mostly a joke, since Albania was for the most part poor and powerless, but it is true that they had a pretty devoted following in the "Marxist-Leninist" camp back in the day.
 
Top