HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STAFF ANALYSIS
BILL #: CS/HB 395 Victims of Communism Day
SPONSOR(S): Education & Employment Committee, Borrero, Rizo and others
TIED BILLS: None IDEN./SIM. BILLS: SB 268
REFERENCE ACTION ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR or
BUDGET/POLICY CHIEF
1) Secondary Education & Career Development 16 Y, 0 N Cohen Sanchez
Subcommittee
2) Government Operations Subcommittee 17 Y, 0 N Roth Toliver
3) Education & Employment Committee 18 Y, 0 N, As CS Cohen Hassell
SUMMARY ANALYSIS
Chapter 683, F.S., provides designations for legal holidays and special observances. Recognition of a legal
holiday or special observance may apply statewide or may be limited to a particular region. Depending on the
holiday or special observance, certain actions may be required to be performed for the commemoration or
observance of the day or month.
Communism is a political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based
economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production and the
natural resources of a society. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia on November 7, 1917, the first
communist state was formed under Vladimir Lenin.
The bill requires the Governor to annually issue a proclamation designating November 7 as “Victims of
Communism Day” and calls for public schools to suitably observe such day as a day honoring the 100 million
people who have fallen victim to communist regimes across the world. The bill also calls for the observance of
Victims of Communism Day by public exercise in the State Capitol and elsewhere as designated by the
Governor.
Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, the bill requires high school students enrolled in the U.S. Government
course, to receive at least 45 minutes of instruction on “Victims of Communism Day” on topics of communist
dictators and how the victims of communism suffered under these regimes. The State Board of Education must
adopt revised social studies standards for the required United States Government course that incorporate
educational standards for instruction on “Victims of Communism Day” by April 1, 2023.
The bill does not appear to have a fiscal impact on the state or local governments.
The bill takes effect upon becoming law.
This docum ent does not reflect the intent or official position of the bill sponsor or House of Representatives .
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 FULL ANALYSIS
I. SUBSTANTIVE ANALYSIS
A. EFFECT OF PROPOSED CHANGES:
Background
Legal Holidays and Observances
Chapter 683, F.S., provides designations for legal holidays and special observances.
Recognition of a legal holiday or special observance may apply statewide or may be limited to a
particular region. For example, “Gasparilla Day”1 is a legal holiday observed only in Hillsborough
County, while “Bill of Rights Day,”2 if issued by the Governor, applies throughout the state.
Depending on the holiday or special observance, certain actions may be required to be
performed for the commemoration or observance of the date, day, or month. For example, the
Governor may annually issue a proclamation designating April 2 as “Florida State Day” and may
designate the week of March 27 to April 2 as “Pascua Florida Week.” 3 Florida law recognizes
the month of September as “American Founders’ Month,” 4 urging all civic, fraternal, and
religious organizations and public and private educational institutions to recognize this occasion
through appropriate programs and celebrations, and the last full week of classes in September
as “Celebrate Freedom Week,”5 in which public schools are required to include at least three
hours of grade-appropriate instruction related to the meaning and importance of the Declaration
of Independence in social studies classes. 6
There are 21 legal holidays 7established in law and 34 special observances.8 The state
recognizes nine paid holidays that are observed by all state branches and agencies. 9
Background on Florida Educational Standards
The educational standards are student-centered expectations from which all curriculum, instruction, and
assessments are based. The goal of the standards is to provide concise, developmentally appropriate,
and historically accurate information to contribute to an informed citizenry. 10 In compliance with
Executive Order 19-32,11 from February 2019 through early April 2020,12 the Florida Department of
Education (DOE) reviewed and updated its standards on mathematics and English language arts. 13 The
process included extensive collection of public opinion, analysis by a committee of experts, and
collection of stakeholder input, prior to approval from the State Board of Education at its July 2021
meeting.14
1 Section 683.08, F.S.
2 Section 683.25, F.S.
3 Section 683.06, F.S.
4 Section 683.1455, F.S.
5 Section 1003.421, F.S.
6 See Florida Department of Education, American Founders’ Month, http://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/subject-areas/social-
studies/American-Founders-Month.stml (last visited February 10, 2022).
7 Section 683.01, F.S.
8 Sections 683.04 - 683.333, F.S.
9 Section 110.117(1), F.S. Paid state holidays include: New Year’s Day, the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Day,
Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day.
10 Florida Administrative Code and Florida Administrative Register, Next Generation Sunshine State Standards – Social Studies,
2021, available at https://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-13403 (lasted visited February 17, 2022).
11 State of Florida, Office of the Governor Executive Order Number 19-32(2019), available at https://www.flgov.com/wp-
content/uploads/orders/2019/EO_19-32.pdf.
12 Florida Department of Education, Florida Standards Review Timeline Mathematics and English Language Arts, available at
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/18736/urlt/StandardsReviewTimeline.pdf.
13 See CPLAMS, Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards English Language Arts (2020), available at
https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/best/la/elabeststa ndardsfinal.pdf; See also CPLAMS,
Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards Mathematics (2020), available at
https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/best/ma/mathbeststandardsfinal.pdf.
14 Florida Department of Education, State Board of Education July 14, 2021 Meeting Agenda, available at
https://www.fldoe.org/policy/state-board-of-edu/meetings/2021/2021-07-14/ (last visited February 17, 2022).
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 Social Studies Educational Standards
In July 2021, the State Board of Education adopted the updated Next Generation Sunshine State
Standards for Social Studies,15 incorporating revised civics and government standards 16 and new
standards for Holocaust education.17 These current standards incorporate lessons on communism,
including a Grade 7 standard requiring students to analyze the advantages of capitalism and the free
market in the United States over government-controlled economic systems, such as capitalization. 18
Victims of Communism Day
The first national day recognizing victims of communism was November 7, 2017. Currently, five states
have officially recognized November 7 as “Victims of Communism Memorial Day,” 19 and eight other
states have filed similar legislation, including Florida.20
History of Communism
Communism is a political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-
based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production
and the natural resources of a society.21 Vladimir Lenin is recognized as being the leader of the world’s
first communist state, following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia on November 7, 1917.22
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (Marx) was a German economist, philosopher, and historian who lived between 1818 and
1883. He was a prominent voice in the debate against capitalism, writing the famous books The
Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital and inspiring many global political communist movements
around the world.23
Vladimir Lenin
On November 6 and 7, 1917, leftist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin (Lenin)
launched a coup d’état against the existing provisional government. The provisional government had
been assembled by a group of leaders from Russia’s bourgeois capitalist class. Lenin instead called for
a Soviet government that would be ruled directly by councils of soldiers, peasants, and workers.24
The Bolsheviks and their allies occupied government buildings and other strategic locations in
Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) 25 and soon formed a new government with Lenin as its head.
Lenin became the dictator of the world’s first communist state. 26
15 FDOE, supra note 14.
16 Staff of the Florida House of Representatives , Legislative Bill Analysis for CS/HB 807 (2019). The bill required the Commissioner
of Education to review current state-adopted instructional and evaluation materials in civics education by December 31, 2019 and
recommend improvements, while the DOE reviewed civics education course standards by December 31, 2020.
17 Staff of the Florida House of Representatives, Legislative Bill Analysis for CS/CS/HB 1213 (2020).
18 Florida Administrative Code and Florida Administrative Register, supra note 10.
19 See Idaho Legislature, 2020 Legislation: Senate Concurrent Resolution 119, available at
https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2020/legislation/scr119/ (last visited February 14, 2022); See also Texas Legislature Online,
Bill” HB 1057, available at https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB1057 (last visited February 14,
2022).
20 Victimsofcommunis m.org, Victims of Communism Memorial Day, available at
https://victimsofcommunism.org/programs/memory/voc-day/ (last visited February 10, 2022). The states that officially recognize
“Victims of Communism Day” are Alabama, Utah, Texas, Idaho, and Virginia. The eight states with legislation filed to recognize the
victims of communism are Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.
21 Britannica.com, Communism, available at https://www.britannica.com/topic/communism (last visited February 10, 2022).
22 History.com, Communism Timeline, available at https://www.history.com/topics/russia/communism-timeline (last visited February
10, 2022).
23 Corporate Finance Institute, Karl Marx, available at https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/karl-
marx/ (last visited February 10, 2022).
24 History.com, Russian Revolution (updated February 28, 2020), available at https://www.history.com/topics/russia/russian-revolution
(last visited February 10, 2022).
25 Britannica.com, St. Petersburg, available at https://www.britannica.com/place/St-Petersburg-Russia (last visited February 10, 2022).
26 History.com, Russian Revolution supra, FN 24.
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 Joseph Stalin
In 1912, Lenin appointed Joseph Stalin (Stalin) to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik
Party. After the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in November 1917, Stalin climbed the party ladder,
and in 1922 he became secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. 27
After Lenin died in 1924, Stalin won the power struggle for control of the Communist Party. By the late
1920s, Stalin had become dictator of the Soviet Union and launched a series of five-year plans
intended to transform the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrial superpower. His
development plan was centered on government control of the economy and included the forced
collectivization of Soviet agriculture, in which the government took control of farms. Millions of farmers
refused to cooperate with Stalin’s orders and were shot or exiled as punishment. The forced
collectivization also led to widespread famine across the Soviet Union that killed millions. 28
During the second half of the 1930s, Stalin instituted the Great Purge, a series of campaigns designed
to rid the Communist Party, the military, and other parts of Soviet society from those he considered a
threat. It is estimated that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 20 million people during his rule. 29
Mao Zedong
In 1921, Mao Zedong (Zedong) became one of the inaugural members of the Chinese Communist
Party. Zedong later helped establish the Soviet Republic of China and was elected chairman of the
small republic. He developed a small but strong army of guerilla fighters, and directed the torture and
execution of any dissidents who defied party law. 30
In 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded China, forcing Chiang Kai-shek (Kai-shek) -the Chinese
leader– to flee the capital. Unable to fight a war on two fronts, Kai-shek reached out to the Communists
for a truce and support. During this time, Zedong established himself as a military leader and, with aid
from Allied forces, helped fight the Japanese. With the Japanese defeat in 1945, Zedong set his sights
on controlling all of China. China entered into a civil war, and on October 1, 1949, in Tiananmen
Square, Zedong announced the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Over the next few
years, Zedong instituted sweeping land reform, sometimes through persuasion and other times through
coercion, using violence and terror when he deemed it necessary. He seized warlord land, converting it
into people's communes. When faced with wide discontent with his policies, he labeled his dissenters
as “rightists” and imprisoned thousands of them.31
In January 1958, Zedong launched the "Great Leap Forward," attempting to increase agricultural and
industrial production. At first, reports were promising, with accounts of overwhelming advancement.
However, agricultural production did not come close to expectations, and reports of massive steel
production proved to be false. Within a year, a famine set in and entire villages died of starvation. An
estimated 40 million people died of hunger between 1959 and 1961.32
Fidel Castro
After graduating from law school in 1950, Fidel Castro (Castro) joined the Cuban People’s Party. When
former Cuban president, Fulgencio Batista, overthrew the government, Castro began to organize a
rebel force in 1953 with the purpose of ousting the Batista government. Eventually, Castro’s forces
defeated the Cuban government, and Castro became the commander in chief of Cuba’s new
provisional government. By 1959, Castro had taken effective political power into his own hands and
27 History.com, Joseph Stalin (updated April 27, 2021) available at https://www.history.com/topics/russia/joseph -stalin (last visited
February 10, 2022).
28 Id.
29 Id.
30 Biography.com, Mao Tse-tung Biography (April 27, 2017), available at https://www.biography.com/political-figure/mao-tse-tung
(last visited February 10, 2022).
31 Id.
32 Id.
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 began to nationalize private commerce and industry, expropriate American businesses and agricultural
estates, institute sweeping land reforms, and build a partnership with the Soviet Union. 33
In 1962, the Soviet Union began deploying nuclear missiles to Cuba that could reach American cities,
beginning the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis ended when the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its
missiles in exchange for the United States withdrawing its missiles from Turkey and no longer seeking
to overthrow Castro’s regime. Castro continued to expand his dictatorial control over Cuba, suppressing
all political dissent and opposition, inspiring many Cubans to immigrate to the United States. 34
Pol Pot
In 1949, Pol Pot (Pot) left Cambodia for Paris, joining the French Communist Party and joined a group
of young left-wing Cambodian nationalists, who later became his fellow leaders in the Khmer Rouge.
He returned to Cambodia, and spent 12 years building the Communist Party.35
In 1975, Pot led the Khmer Rouge guerrilla forces to overthrow the existing Cambodian regime. It is
estimated that from 1975 to 1979, under the leadership of Pol Pot, the government caused the deaths
of over one million people through forced labor, starvation, disease, torture, or execution while carrying
out a program of radical social and agricultural reforms.36
Nicolás Maduro
After the death of Hugo Cháves (Cháves) in 2013, Nicolás Maduro (Maduro) became the President of
Venezuela, a position he has had held ever since. Maduro is a strong supporter of chavismo, the
socialist political ideology championed by Cháves. After Maduro was first narrowly elected, protests
erupted, causing Maduro to imprison many prominent critics. Meanwhile, depressed world oil prices
and a lack of strong industrial