What is the origin and history of the use of the five pointed red star
by communists?  I am interested in its origins, up to and including
its adaption by the Soviet Union.  That China uses the red star
because Russia used it does not beg explanation.

The more precise and well-documented your answer, the happier a
customer I will be.  I want to know:

1:  In what context and by whom the star was used for communist purposes?
2:  What special meaning did the star have in its original context/ first use.
3:  When and how did it then become generally adapted (obviously
include any relevant or significant second and third
uses/transmutations)?
4:  What special meaning did was star meant to imply when when generally adapted?
5:  What special meaning did the star have for the Soviet Union, when
and how was it chosen as a Bolshevik symbol?

I am also curious if there is any relationship between the communist
red star and the pentagram of western esoterica.  Though a fully
sastifying answer need not address this question, it would be a nice
"bonus" if this matter was also addressed.

Perhaps this Wikipedia entry about the Red Star symbol will help somewhat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_star

In the 1950?s the British newspaper of the Communist Party was called
?The Daily Worker?, but when it was decided to move the party one
sidestep from the extreme left, the newspaper was renamed ?The Morning
Star?. Perhaps this had connotations of a new communist dawn and
certainly the ?star? theme was used to express these sentiments. I
don?t know if the original meaning was meant to convey such
sentiments.

Norman

Thank you both for your comments.

The Wikipedia, as you say, helps somewhat.  Though it does not give
any dates or history behind the meanings it suggests, nor does it cite
any references.

The idea of it being the five fingers of the working man, for some
reason, strikes me as implausible.  Though this is strikingly similar
to one of the interpretations of the pentagram star of esotericism,
that it represents the head and four ligaments of a human being.

The five continents idea is also somewhat plausible (though again
undocumented in Wilkipedia).  Communism certainly did intend to cover
the earth.  But this becomes sort of like the 12 tribes of Israel*. 
Maybe they're counting Eurasia as a single continent.

A star of a new dawn of course also a good possibility, though a bit
contradictory.  You see stars at night, dawn blots out the star.  The
morning star (Venus) is the last "star" seen before daylight.  Perhaps
this refers to the dictatorship of the prolitariate being the last
form of government before humanity learns to work in harmony, though
that's probably streching it.

*: Attentive readers of the bible will note that there are actually 13 tribes.

"... the star, adopted by the Bolshevik commissariat for military
affairs on April 19, 1918 ..."

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1369040,00.html

It seems that the red star was used spontaniously by bolsheviks even
in the first days of October revolution. At leest that one would think
while looking on G. Savitsky`s painting of that theme, painted in
1949.