The document outlines the rise and fall of communism globally in the 20th century. It discusses how communism gained control in Russia and China in the early 1900s by appealing to problems faced by workers and peasants. Both countries then tried to rapidly industrialize and reform society along communist ideals, though their methods differed. After World War 2, global tensions rose in the Cold War between communist nations and the capitalist West. By the 1970s, communist countries faced economic weaknesses. Communism then began falling in the 1980s, with China transitioning to a market economy under new leadership while internal issues led to the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.