carlton. great ideas with. to read more, check out this week's edition at barrons.com and follow us on twitter. that's all for us. wash your hands, wear your masks. see you next week on bret: it was one of the most powerful political ideas in history, a new faith for a skeptical age. they promised a world of harmony and abundance, if only property were shared by all and distributed equally. the idea was called socialism. it spread farther and faster than any religion in history. then in almost the blink of an i come it all collapsed. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. [cheering and applause] bret: many proclaimed that socialism had failed so badly

that it was gone forever but they were wrong. today the british labour party which had moved to an embrace of market capitalism promises to nationalize great swaths of the british economy could in latin america a socialist dictator grabbed power in venezuela winging that country to the brink of ruin and igniting a regional crisis. china has grown prosperous by introducing private enterprise even while the communist party tightens its grip over the people creating a surveillance state that former authoritarians could only dream of. all in the name of socialism. here in the united states politicians who probably proclaim themselves socialists have scaled to the very heights of the democratic party reigniting the debate that many thought was over. we traced the trajectory of an

idea that came to war and whose appeal is once more on the rise. this is "the unauthorized history of socialism". ♪ bret: i knew my latest project for fox nation, three hour six part series about socialism would be timely it's a subject everyone is talking about with vermont senator bernie sanders remarkable presidential run. the history of socialism is also an epic tale with unforgettable characters, many villains, some heroes battling for the highest of stakes, the fate of mankind. this hour you'll meet some of those people and hear some of those stories. we start in the american heartland nearly two centuries ago. ♪ bret: indiana, 1825.

a great experiment was unfolding on the banks of the wabash riv river. it was called new harmony. it would be a community of equality heralding a new way of life and eventually a new kind of world. its founder was a british industrialist named robert owen. his followers would soon coined the name for his vision, socialism. >> he called this the second coming of the truth. i think he really did believe he was the second messiah that he had come, unlike jesus who could only tell the truth in parables, a win could actually say the literal truth because he had the science. bret: to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence owen issued what he saw as the next

step in the liberation of humankind, the declaration of mental independence. from here forward he proclaimed man was free from the trinity of evils responsible for all the world's misery and vice, traditional religion, conventional marriage and private property. the last of these was key, the quest to do away with private property would animate socialism for the next 150 years. ♪ bret: on april 27, 1825 robert owen welcomed 800 eagle riders to the town he had rechristened new harmony. one group in particular was attracted to new harmony, intellectuals. managing the community's economy without individual ownership proved highly inefficient.

one new harmony member wrote - that even salads were deposited in the store to be handed out making 10000 unnecessary steps and causing them to come to the tables and a wilted deadened state. before long many members were losing their enthusiasm for owen's experiment. >> in the end, i think, one of the problems of new harmony was that it was a big group of idealists in one place and in a very isolated place. they spent a lot of time thinking about the ideal of the perfect immunity. ultimately, you had a lot of thinkers and not enough doers. bret: after two years several reorganizations and seven different constitutions, owen's great experiment collapsed.

owen had a very hard time acknowledging that it was a failure at new harmony. through a time of many months when everyone around him, including his sons, was saying things are falling apart owen was saying things are going great here but eventually he couldn't keep up that pretense any longer because everyone was leaving and so, owen found an alibi, i think, and blaming the people who came to new harmony as being poor human material for his experiments. the ♪ ♪. bret: owen's son, robert, stayed at new harmony after its collapse. he had a different assessment of his father's experiment. he wrote - all cooperative schemes which provide equal renumeration to the skilled and industrious and the ignorant and idle must work their own downfall, provide this unjust

plan they must of necessity illuminate the valuable members. and they must retain the improvident unskilled and vicious. owen kept singing the praises of socialism. one man listening was reject angles, he teamed up with karl marx to argue that not only was socialism desirable but it was inevitable. the story behind the communist manifesto is recounted in my series on fox nation but next the world first socialist state and london's luddy terror. ♪

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♪ bret: welcome back to fox nation presents "the unauthorized history of socialism". it's based on my six part streaming series. world war i hit russia hard. millions of dead, nationwide to strikes, the abdication of the czar succeeded by a shaky provisional government. the chaos was an irresistible opportunity for the impatient marxist of vladimir lenin and his revolutionary party, the bolsheviks. on october 25, 1917 bolsheviks struck.

this is a soviet reenactment of london's men men storming the winter palace in st. petersburg. in reality the revolution was much less dramatic and the provisional government yielded with little bloodshed. >> many did not expect the new regime to hold on to power any longer from the provisional government. >> when lenin and the bolsheviks received power they really were a tiny minority and immediately the bolshevik regime found itself embroiled in a civil war which it won militarily but it also one because the bolsheviks had been very successful in their use of propaganda to win what we might, nowadays call the hearts and minds of the russian people. ♪

bret: two posters, leaflets and speakers lenin tried to convince russians of just who were the enemies of the people and who were their saviors. ♪ bret: lenin did not stop with propaganda. the enemies of the people were marked for retribution. this included priests, many peasants and his political opponents. lenin began with nicholas - the last czar to reign over russia. >> him, his wife, their five children, their doctor, their servants were all massacred and then their bodies were cut up and burned and then what is remained was buried in a shaft which was only discovered a few years ago. then in august of 1918 a

revolutionary who felt they betrayed the revolution took two shots of him and wounded him almost fatally. lenin and his henchmen agreed to carry out revenge. this was a terrible thing. the people taken out of prison, political prisoners, who never been tried and done nothing but they were summarily shot. this shooting went on with hundreds of people's shot at night. bret: many others found themselves banished to forced labor camps. later under joseph stalin system would become known as the gulag. >> a part of the red terror was a gathering of all opposition members into concentration camps outside of major cities. these were the very first camps and it was from these camps that the entire gulag system developed. they are very much a precursor to what came later in stalin's

time. bret: the czar had been reviled as a tyrant we are executing a handful of violent radicals. under lenin and his followers, millions would die at the hands of the state. >> it is difficult to h-uppercase-letter how many people came to die under lenin's system and stalin's system because there were so many different ways to die. there were people who died in camps, people who died because they were machine-gunned down in the woods, people who died because they were deported, people who died in artificial famines and when you begin to put the numbers together you get numbers and statistics in the tens of millions. ♪ bret: >> lenin, in general, had no subtheme for human beings. he believed, as did others, that through education, legislation you can make not want all things and you create human beings.

the existing human race was forgotten that killing them was progressive. ♪ bret: admits to terror and war, lenin was building a system of government unlike any seen before. along with the old regime russia's capitalist industries, the banks and the church were all completely destroyed. replacing them all was a single institution, the party. most of the bolsheviks had no experience in business or administration, yet they drew up a plan to manage a country with the world's fifth largest economy and third largest population. the results were a far cry from heaven on earth. >> by 1920, in some ways you can say, civil society and civilization had stopped.

there was massive famine. the industry had broken down, the railroads stopped working, the economy had fallen apart and people were really reverting to the most primitive kind of bartering. massive loss of life. it was a nightmare. bret: by now russia had conquered most surrounding nations and rechristened itself the union of soviet socialist republics. bolsheviks now call themselves communists. that turn had long been interchangeable with socialists but it took on a very new meaning as lenin broke all ties with the rest of the world socialist and formed a new international movement. ♪ bret: he had big plans for his revolution. >> lenin said more than once that the revolution could not be confined to russia. the revolution had to spread. first of all, germany, great britain and ultimately the

united states and so on. bret: socialism did not gain popularity in america. that is a fascinating story and you can watch it on fox nation. but socialism did spread elsewhere. and quickly and with tragic results. how and why? this is after the break.

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bret: returning to fox nation presents "the unauthorized history of socialism". following the russian revolution socialists rose to power in other countries too. they had different ideas but nowhere did the reality of socialism live up to its promises. vladimir lenin died of a brain hemorrhage in january 1924. he was only 53 years old. ♪ bret: is relatively short life he had laid out a path to power for revolutionaries around the world. >> what lenin did electrified, excited, inspired, terrified, different people all over the world. depending on their frame of mind and one of the more curious

things it did was it gave birth to fascism. lenin had shown that you could take marxist doctrine and twisted all around. there was mussolini in italy and he says he too is a revolutionary period for him, like for lenin, making the revolution is the main thing and he says well, if we could drop the proletarian input in the vanguard proletarian maybe we could throughout the proletarian input in the nation instead. all over europe there were groups of socialists who suddenly became nationalists. one, but not the only one, was hitler who came along and had this new ideology of nationalist

socialism which retains a lot of socialist principles but as on the implacable hatred of the jews. bret: mussolini joined forces with eight of hitler to launch a world war even more devastating than the last. the alliance between italy, germany and imperial japan placed mussolini and plenty to his old socialist comrades. in the end, the grandiose ambitions of fascism went up in smoke. the world last glimpse mussolini's body hanging upside down at an abandoned gas station in milan. the very next day hitler shot himself. with the defeat of the axis powers ideology of fascism collapsed.

but the death of the strange offshoot only cleared the way for other branches of socialism to flourish. ♪ bret: in the aftermath of world war ii communism spread like never before. the soviet union's military games set the stage for communist governments to take power in eastern europe. and in north korea. the communist against postwar conquest was yet to come. four years after the war's end in insurgent communist forces in china drove the pro-western nationalist government off the mainland. in january 1949 the communist marched into beijing to declare the birth of the people's republic of china.

their leader was a 55 -year-old intellectual named mao. >> mao was a true revolutionary who do not believe in normalcy and did not believe in - and disliked bureaucracy. what he did was to mobilize peasants to join the communist revolution. bret: mao gave the chinese people what came to be called the iron rice bowl. it's a promise of lifelong economic security at a minimum level. the price was submission. the party would come to control everything, the books people read, the clothes they wore, even whom they married and how many children they had. >> mao felt that when history would not wait for the changes of the socialist system but would change human beings as

they are but a means to educate them or cut them off from all previous culture. lenin allowed his people to read the classics and had access to the old literature but mao cut it all off and for a while all they could read was the humanities and the red book he had this idea that if you do that you completely cut them off from the past and create new human beings that way. bret: for nearly a decade china followed the soviet model of nationalized industry and collectivized agriculture but the results were disappointing and mao grew impatient. >> he became disillusioned with the soviet model and thought he could improve upon it and bring communism overnight but he was truly a utopian thinker. that is when the late 1957 he launched what has come to be called the great leap forward. ♪ bret: at the core of the great leap forward was a new chinese

institution. the people's communist. for the 23000 of them, comprising a more than half a billion people. by mobilizing the country's vast labor pool mao believed his experiment would catapult china ahead of the west, both agriculture and industry. ♪ bret: the country's frenzied commitment to the great leap forward lead only to impossibly high production quotas and inferior products. in one program the government tried to speed up steel production by encouraging peasants to build backyard steel mills on communes across china. for rowe materials the peasants donated iron goods from their own homes, including walks and other cooking utensils. the steel produced was worthle

worthless. >> mao also emphasized agricultural production in one way he thought that speeding up the agricultural growth was to plant more - [inaudible] and that is scientifically irrational and that did not increase the production. very soon and 9059 there was also somewhat drought and flood so the natural disaster plus this human policy became a killer combo. >> peasants were forced to work long hours every day. they were totally exhausted by this and they were not getting enough food to eat. they were literally, in some areas, starving. it is estimated that this utopian idea led to the death of 30-40 million chinese peasants. bret: again, go to fox nation to learn more about the spread of

socialism. from europe to africa to the israeli kibbutz but when we return the high drama of soviet communism's sudden collapse. communism's sudden collapse. in these uncertain times, look after yourself, your family, your friends. but know when it comes to your finances, we are here for you. what can i do for you today? we'll take a look at the portfolio and make adjustments. i'm free to chat if you have any more questions. our j.p.morgan advisors are working from home to help guide you through this. for more than 200 years, we've helped our clients navigate historic challenges. and we will get through this one... together. ♪ ♪ there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere.

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♪ bret: by the late 1970s 60% of the worlds population found itself under socialist governments of one kind or the other. communist ruled china, russia, eastern europe and much of asia. third world socialist governments controlled 30 nations in the middle east and africa. social-democratic parties held majorities in much of western europe. even with all its problems, socialism was still empowered.

♪ bret: welcome back to fox nation presents "the unauthorized history of socialism". in the mid- 1800s karl marx declared ward wide socialism inevitable, a century later a lot of experts thought he was right. an american president strongly disagreed and it was ronald reagan's words that proved prophetic. >> what i am discovering out the plan in the hope for the long-term, the march of freedom and democracy which will lead marxism, leninism on the edge as sheep of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifled the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people. bret: poland was the first domino to fall. solidarity an independent trade union had managed to survive underground through the 1980s. faced with rising discontent the polish communists finally gave in to demands for parliament early elections back there were

free elections held that there was a trick which was there were certain seeds that were supposed to be guaranteed for the government which the opposition was not allowed to run against. yet, may be the only time in history the candidates run unopposed and still lost. bret: voters simply crossed the communist names off the ballot. meanwhile, solidarity has captured 99 out of 100 seats in the new senate. all the while moscow stood by in silence. >> the polish events had a huge effect on the soviet union. to see people like us doing something completely different, just standing up and congress that was something people cannot believe but we cannot believe it was happening on our doorstep. in this respect the victory of solidarity led coalition and parliamentary elections june

1989 was something that started the final stage of the collapse of what was called the eastern bloc. next year there was [inaudible] [background noises] bret: many of the soviet republic us began to search their independence while gorbachev sought to transform the centralized ussr into a confederation called ian of sovereign states. but a group of hard-line communist aides had had enough.

in august 1991 they launched a coup. they placed gorbachev under house arrest. tanks and troops appeared on the streets of moscow. at the time constantine was a newspaper reporter in moscow. >> i rushed off to my editorial office in a city newspaper and it was this feeling of old yeah, here they come back. we know what they will do. bret: then something remarkable happened. hundreds of thousands of citizens poured into the streets to resist. many of the soldiers doing them. >> it was not [inaudible] all these mighty armies, kgb, all those people held sway over the

country. there was no one to defendant. it was a system without defendants. bret: in the middle of it all was boris yeltsin, the newly elected president of the russian federation his popularity had now eclipsed gorbachev's. after the coup collapsed it was boris who issued a decree that effectively outlawed the communist party. in the following months one by one the republics that made up the ussr declared their independence. on christmas day 1991 mikael gorbachev resigned as the leader of the disintegrating soviet union. the once fearsome communist power was no more.

>> when i think of the state of socialism i think of the fate of socialism in other countries. for example, china. i always remember this 1980s experiment in russia. you go to a small corner very quiet and whisper freedom and it echoes all over the place. if you can't stop it. that is my impression. bret: the collapse of soviet communism seemed to signal the end of socialism so how was such a dismal record did socialism keep its color? that is next. i'm your mother in law. and i like to question your every move. like this left turn. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me.

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♪ bret: the end of the cold war appeared to be the final chapter in the historic struggle between socialism and capitalism. people took back their freedom and free markets lifted a large swath of mankind out of poverty. there would be no returning to socialism, right? think again. >> we have had this tremendous debate and fight over socialism for a century and it is over.

and then suddenly just within a decade after 1998, hugo chavez gets himself elected president of venezuela essentially promising socialism. bret: hugo chavez vowed to redistribute the country's vast wealth. at first he brought social democrats and cuba supporting socialists together under a banner of nationalism to make what he called a "bolivarian revolution". he followed much of the democratic socialist playbook, spending on social programs grew to represent 40% of gdp, co-ops were created to replace corporations and chavez 14 national elections in a row. when oil prices fell the flaws of what was now called, chavismo, was starkly revealed.

>> what happened was concentrated power and coercion that was an necessary part of socialism will distort the economy and then breed the need for more power for the government in the future to try to correct the inefficiencies that they have created in the past. it's like socialism on the installment plan once the government starts to take over the economy and uses force and coercion to creates distortion, breeds future government interventions to correct past mistakes and that your down the road to serfdom and end up in the long run like venezuela. bret: chavez died of cancer in 2013 and his hand-picked successor, nicholas maduro, inherited an economy while on his way to collapse. in 2018 inflation reached an annual rate of 1000000%, 80% of the population now lived below the poverty line. >> there was a study one year ago in which found that the

average venezuelan had lost almost 20 pounds just from hunger. the country is a complete wreck. food is scarce, medicine is harder and impossible to come by as well as ordinary things like soap and toilet paper that you that people just can't get and the result is the country is disappearing. in the last three years 15% of the population of venezuela has fled venezuela. bret: when we return, bernie, aoc and socialism in 21st century america. ♪

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look at the primaries. could the united states be on the cusp of socialist transformation? it's always tricky to pin people down when they say they are socialists. they certainly don't want to be associated with the soviet unio union, and they will always deny they've anything to do with venezuela or for that matter, north korea. >> what is democratic socialism. let's talk about it. >> democratic socialism, to me, is creating a government and an economy and a society which works for all, rather than just the top 1%. it means ending the absurd inequalities that exist today. >> they say well we really mean sweden.

i often ask myself if they've ever been to sweden because if you go to sweden today you will see a vibrant dynamic with a fully functioning democracy. >> this is a society that guarantees healthcare to all people. >> on one point socialists have been consistent, however. the focus of their efforts is on the redistribution of wealth, not its creation. young, tech savvy democratic socialist like alexandria ostia cortez argue that we now live in a world of such abundance that all we have to do is get the sharing part right. >> because now we are approaching infinite sources and capitalism is based on scarcity and what happens when there is enough for everyone to eat and be clothed.

>> the democratic socialist are repackaging socialism to try to present it to the american people, especially young people as some kind of idea that might work if they just get the details correct or if they get the right central planners or bureaucrats or policy makers and politicians. [applause] we will make public colleges and universities free and cancel all student debt. [applause] socialism destroys nation and always remember freedom unifies the soul. [applause] and so a debate that many thought was over starts again. >> one of the greatest 20th century thinker on the subject

had a great answer to why does socialism keep on coming back. his answer was this, there are three things that allow socialism to make these comebacks. the first is there will always be people whose lives are disrupted as the process of economic innovation takes place and that will be a constituency for socialism. then he said academics will always be a factor to socialism because few institutions are more isolated from the market and economic reality than universities. there are people who want to increase the scope of the bureaucracy. even though socialism was bound to fail, wherever it was tried, i'm afraid that's what keeps coming back, just when you think like glenn close in fatal attraction, instead. >> that's our program. i hope you are now ready to check out all of the unauthorized history of socialism on fox nation. there, you can also stream

other programs i've done for fox news from politics to profiles to my three days history series about pivotal moments in the presidency of fdr, eisenhower and reagan.