Comrades! A History of World Communism

Description

Almost two decades after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR, leading historian Robert Service examines the history of communism throughout the world. Comrades! moves from Marx and Lenin to Mao and Castro and beyond to trace communism from its beginnings to the present day. Offering vivid portraits of the protagonists and decisive events in communist history, Service looks not only at the high politics of communist regimes but also at the social conditions that led millions to support communism in so many countries. After outlining communism's origins with Marx and Engels and its first success with Lenin and the Russian Revolution in 1917, Service examines the Soviet bloc, long-lasting regimes like Yugoslavia and Cuba, the Chinese revolution, the spread of communism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and the international links among the hundreds of parties. He covers communism's organization and ideology as well as its general appeal. He looks at abortive communist revolutions and at the ineffectual parties in the United States and elsewhere. Service offers a human view of the story as well as a global analysis. His uncomfortable conclusion—and an important message for the twenty-first century—is that although communism in its original form is now dying or dead, the poverty and injustice that enabled its rise are still dangerously alive. Unsettling and compellingly written, Comrades! is the most comprehensive study of one of the most important movements of the modern world. Front Cover Front Flap Back Flap Title Page Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CONTENTS Preface Maps THE SOVIET UNION, 1924-36 EASTER EUROPE AND THE WESTERN USSR AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR CHINA AFTER 1949 CUBA SOUTH-EAST ASIA, 1975 INTRODUCTION PART ONE ORIGINS TO 1917 1 . COMMUNISM BEFORE MARXISM 2. MARX AND ENGELS 3 . COMMUNISM IN EUROPE 4. RUSSIAN VARIATIONS 5. THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION 6. THE FIRST COMMUNIST STATE PART TWO EXPERIMENT 1917 - 1929 7. EUROPEAN REVOLUTIONS 8. COMMUNISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS 9. THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL 10. PROBING AMERICA 11 . MAKING SENSE OF COMMUNISM 12 . THE USSR IN TORMENT 13 . THE SOVIET MODEL PART THREE DEVELOPMENT 1929 - 1947 14. WORLD STRATEGY 15. STALINIST IDEOLOGY 16. INSIDE THE PARTIES 17. FRIENDS AND FOES 18. COMMUNISM IN THE WORLD WAR 19. FORCING THE PEACE PART FOUR REPRODUCTION 1947 - 1957 20. THE COLD WAR AND THE SOVIET BLOC 21. THE YUGOSLAV ROAD 22. WESTERN EUROPE 23. WARRING PROPAGANDA 24. THE CHINESE REVOLUTION 25. ORGANISING COMMUNISM 26. AGAINST AND FOR REFORM PART FIVE MUTATION 1957 - 1979 27. DETENTE AND EXPANSION 28. CHINA CONVULSED 29. REVOLUTIONARY CUBA 30. COMMUNIST ORDER 31. RETHINKING COMMUNISM 32. EUROPE EAST AND WEST 33. REDUCED EXPECTATIONS 34. LAST OF THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTIONS PART SIX ENDINGS FROM 1980 35. ROADS FROM COMMUNISM 36. ANTI-COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE 37. CHINA'S CAPITALIST COMMUNISM 38. PERESTROIKA 39. THE COMRADES DEPART 40. ACCOUNTING FOR COMMUNISM NOTES SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX Back Cover