Factually.co/fact-checks/politics/how-many-times-has-communism-succeeded-cb5755.
Executive summary
The available sources do not directly address the specific Factually.co article you asked about; instead, they offer competing narratives about communism’s historical outcomes: official U.S. messaging frames communism as a century of “ruin” and cites “more than 100 million” victims [1], while some reviewers and commentators cite lower but still large death tallies (for example, “94 million” is cited by one reviewer) and argue that communist movements also achieved concrete state-building and strategic successes [2]. Reporting and commentary in these sources emphasize both human-rights atrocities under many communist regimes and the continued political influence or adaptation of communist parties in several countries [3] [2].
1. How Washington frames communism: moral catastrophe and casualty figures
The White House’s 2025 Anti‑Communism Week proclamation states that “for more than a century, communism has brought nothing but ruin,” explicitly claims “more than 100 million lives have been taken” by regimes tied to communist movements, and calls communism a system that “silences dissent” and “demands that generations kneel before the power of the state” [1]. That framing is authoritative coming from the Presidency and presents a moral and numerical condemnation; the proclamation is political as well as memorial in intent, designed to honor victims and to mobilize civic opposition to communist ideology [1].
2. Scholarly and journalistic takes: large death tolls, but also strategic successes
Independent commentators cited in the available results underscore high death-toll estimates while adding historical nuance. A reviewer argues communism “claimed 94 million lives in the twentieth century” and describes the crimes of Stalin, Mao and the Khmer Rouge as “well-established in the historical record,” while also noting that communist movements were often “extremely successful at reaching specific identified goals” such as defeating Nazi Germany, building military capacity, and achieving sporting and industrial milestones [2]. This source thus places atrocity figures alongside recognition of concrete state accomplishments.
3. Which countries still identify as communist — and what “success” means today
WorldPopulationReview lists five contemporary states—China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam—as remaining Communist countries in 2025, each with “unique adaptations of communist governance” [3]. That points to a distinction between ideological purity and practical governance: “success” can mean surviving in power, adapting to market mechanisms, or maintaining single‑party rule rather than realizing Marx’s theoretical end‑state. The Conversation and other outlets in the results also emphasize that communist, Marxist and socialist ideas differ and that the legacy of communism remains contested in current politics and scholarship [4].
4. Competing agendas and why numbers vary
Different sources carry clear agendas. The White House proclamation has a political and commemorative purpose and uses a rounded “more than 100 million” figure to condemn the ideology [1]. Other commentators and reviewers present slightly different tallies (e.g., 94 million) and frame communism’s history as a mix of atrocities and geopolitical or developmental accomplishments [2]. Activist and party sources such as Communist Party USA or Revolutionary Communists of America are campaigning for continued organizing or reinterpretation of communist ideas and do not foreground mass‑atrocity tallies in the same way [5] [6] [7]. Each source’s purpose—memorialization, scholarly review, advocacy—shapes which facts and framings are emphasized.
5. What the available sources do not answer about “how many times has communism succeeded”
None of the provided search results directly define a consistent metric of “success” (e.g., longevity in power, socioeconomic outcomes, equality achieved, human-rights records) nor do they tally “number of successful communist projects” in the sense your original Factually.co query suggests; available sources do not mention the Factually.co article itself (original query link) or a systematic fact-check counting “successes” vs. “failures.” They do, however, show that some modern states governed by communist parties persist and that assessments vary sharply by author and institutional perspective [3] [2] [1].
6. Takeaway and how to read future claims
When you encounter claims about “how many times communism succeeded,” demand clarity on the metric: survival of regimes, material outcomes, human‑rights records, or ideological realization. Use multiple kinds of sources—official statements (which have political aims), academic reviews (which try to contextualize and quantify), and primary historical studies—to triangulate. The materials here illustrate sharp disagreement on emphasis: the White House emphasizes victim counts and moral condemnation [1], while reviewers document both large atrocity estimates and functional successes in state capacity [2], and databases note which states still identify as communist [3]. Available sources do not provide the precise count or fact‑check you originally referenced; for that, targeted reporting or the Factually.co article itself would need to be supplied.