“A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.” When Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote those words in 1848 they were acknowledging that their newly minted social and economic philosophy was already seen as a threat to the capitalist world. They were right. Communism has incited revolutions, toppled regimes, started wars, and fallen itself. But in a 21st century world of populist politics, will it rise again?
HISTORY OF COMMUNISM • “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.” When Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote those words in 1848, they were acknowledging that their newly minted social and economic philosophy was already seen as a threat to the capitalist world. They were right. Communism has incited revolutions, toppled regimes, started wars, and fallen itself. But in a 21st-century world of populist politics, will it rise again?
All About History Book of Communism
CURRENT AND FORMER COMMUNIST STATES • Countries that are, or were formerly, governed by socialist or Marxist-Leninist governments
CRADLE OF COMMUNISM
EXPERIMENTS IN EARLY COMMUNISM • Communism did not originate with Marx; rather, he developed ideas that had existed for centuries
THE LIFE OF KARL MARX • Karl Marx, philosopher and revolutionary, was also a son, husband and father
FRIEDRICH ENGELS THE UNLIKELY REVOLUTIONARY • Karl Marx’s comrade-in-arms and patron of the socialist struggle
THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO • A key pillar of communist and socialist parties in the 19th century, the Communist Manifesto inspired revolutionaries across the globe
REVOLUTION
LENIN: THE UNCOMPROMISING REVOLUTIONARY • From modest beginnings, Lenin would change the course of the 20th Century
REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA • Two revolutions in Russia changed 20th-century history
THE KREMLIN • Heart of Moscow, the queen of the Russian Land, 1482-present, Russia
THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR • Lenin won his revolution but a civil war nearly cost him his new regime
DICTATORS
RUSSIA’S TYRANT STALIN • Despised by many but idolised by his adoring public, Stalin dyed the Soviet Union red with one of the most brutal regimes in history
THE HOLODOMOR • Beginning in 1932, a vast famine swept Ukraine. Millions died in the tragedy known as Holodomor, but the causes and Stalin’s role in exacerbating the crisis remain controversial
POL POT’S KHMER ROUGE • How a quiet, withdrawn, underachiever became responsible for one of the most devastating genocides of the 20th century
FIDEL CASTRO’S COMMUNIST CUBA • Fidel Castro’s extraordinary self-confidence allowed him to overcome debacles that would have ruined other leaders, becoming Cuba’s leader for half a century
MAO’S DISASTER PLAN • China’s disastrous bid to become the greatest country in the world
THE COMMUNIST WHO DEFIED STALIN JOSIP BROZ TITO • Meet the communist dictator who ruled behind the Iron Curtain but stood apart from the USSR
THE HOUSE OF KIM • In over 70 years of existence, the reclusive North Korea has had only three leaders — all from the same family
COLD WAR
LIFE IN THE SHADOW OF THE COLD WAR • For four decades, Cold War politics and the fear of the bomb infiltrated the lives of ordinary citizens at work and at home
VIETNAM • The machines, weapons, battles and heroes of this most iconic conflict
THE SINO-SOVIET SPLIT • While everyone focused on the power struggle between the United States and the USSR, an even more bitter conflict was playing out between the USSR and China…
THE BERLIN WALL • East Berlin, East Germany, 1961-1989
13 DAYS OF ARMAGEDDON • At the height of the Cold War, Cuba became the centre of a deadly face-off between the United States and the...
