Peter Leithart points out a book on Soviet history, noting that the communists opposed free association more than free markets. They wanted to crush individual will power, stop curiosity, and if possible, outlaw independent thinking.

“It was not enough that an individual be open to the new regime or hostile to the old. The person who did not make an outright, preemptive demonstration of his servility might cause you trouble later on,” Leithart quotes from a review of the book.

The People must be greater than the sum of its persons.