Communism

The Hollywood Blacklist, Screenwriters and Free Expression Under Attack

by Larry Ceplair

The current screenwriters' strike is occasion to look back at the targeting of writers by HUAC in the 1950s, the politics of moral panic, and the impact of political fear on the content of popular culture.

In Germany, Soviet Memorials Raise Painful Memories, But are Protected

Germany stands alone among European nations in protecting many Soviet-era monuments in the former East Germany. Honoring victims of Nazis has long been a reason, but this has been complicated by German support for Ukraine after its invasion by Russia. 

"Class War" is Back in the Headlines. But What is it, Really?

by Mark Steven

"The proclamation of class war is what linguists might describe as a speech act: a performative utterance that, when said, is also a kind of action," invoked in the hope of moving from class struggle to open conflict. 

The Victims of Communism Museum is a Propaganda Machine for Normalizing the Hard Right

by Billie Anania

The museum, which counts numerous Nazi sympathizers among its founders, peddles a spurious notion of "double genocide" that lets fascists off the hook by promoting the number of 100 million victims of communism. How do they get that tally? Including every German soldier killed on the eastern front and every victim of COVID-19. 

Whittaker Chambers's Odyssey from Communist Spy to Conservative Hero

by Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell

Praised by the right and loathed by the left, Whittaker Chambers entered the public eye when he accused State Department worker Alger Hiss of being a Communist. But his story before and after reveals much more about the political history of midcentury America. 

Cracking Stasi Puzzles is Key to Some Germans Finding the Truth

by Katja Hoyer

With an informant for every 90 citizens, the East German secret police left behind 16,000 sacks of shredded documents. Can information technology help reconstruct a record of what happens when a government commits to spying on its own citizens? 

Historians are Being Asked to Spin Simple Stories of Nationalism; The Past Won't Cooperate

by Joe Djordjevski

Nationalist forces in both Bulgaria and North Macedonia want to use historians to reach a definitive conclusion to debates over the territory's ethnic and national identity. But from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the fall of Communism, those questions have been complex, difficult, and ambiguous. 

A Portrait of Carlos Franqui

by Ken Weisbrode

The autodidact poet, journalist and propagandist Carlos Franqui was instrumental in making the Cuban revolution chic. He was also one of the first of the revolutionary generation to abandon it. 

How the Russian Jews Became Soviet

The novelist Gary Shteyngart, who emigrated from the USSR to the US as a child, reviews Sasha Senderovich's "How the Soviet Jew was Made," a work that gives short shrift to neither the "Soviet" nor "Jewish" sides of the question. 

The Legacy of Charlene Mitchell: The First Black Woman Presidential Candidate

by Alyssa Spinosa and Adam Arenson

Although Charlene Mitchell's candidacy with the Communist Party gained few votes, her campaign reflected an effort to advance a critique of capitalism that addressed the American context of racial inequality and oppression. 

From Solidarity to Shock Therapy: The AFL-CIO and the End of the Cold War

by Jeff Schuhrke

The AFL-CIO's leadership saw the emergence of the Polish Solidarity movement in 1980 as an opportunity to advance their anticommunist agenda. Did they also undermine the ability of a post-Soviet left to protect workers' interests against global capitalism? 

Two Books Highlight the Internal Flux and Politics of the Chinese Communist Party

Books by Frank Dikötter and Julian Gewirtz highlight the path taken by the Chinese Communist state leading to the recent 20th party conference, and the alternative paths untaken. 

Rana Mitter on Xi Jinping's Place in Chinese History and Politics Today

"All of the last 10 years has been about making sure, as you might put it, that it's Xi Jinping's China. It's Xi Jinping's party, everyone else is just living in it."

Russians' Disapproval of Gorbachev Shouldn't Dominate How He is Remembered

by Walter G. Moss

The combination of post-Soviet hardship, resurgent nationalism, and the destructiveness of the Ukraine war have led many Americans to embrace Russians' dim view of Mikhail Gorbachev. A historian of Russia says the leader had his faults, but his furtherance of humane values has been underrated. 

The Contradictory Legacy of Gorbachev and "Revolution From Above"

by Ronald Suny

"A great emancipator, Gorbachev left a mixed legacy. He expanded freedom for millions but at the same time unleashed roiling waves of nationalism and left the upturned soil for renewed authoritarianism."

Gorbachev Never Understood What He Set in Motion

by Anne Applebaum

Sometimes seen as a visionary reformer, Gorbachev may have started the USSR's economic death spiral by restricting the sale of vodka to increase worker productivity. 

Gorbachev's Greatness Was in His Failure

by Tom Nichols

Gorbachev's personal decency made him the wrong man for his chosen task of saving Soviet Communism from collapse; today his reputation is far higher in the west than in the former USSR. 

Gorbachev's Vacuum: His Legacy and Russia's Wars

by Michael Kimmage

The last Soviet leader failed to intuit the ultimate consequences of the changes he unleashed, from the collapse of the USSR to the revival of Russian imperialsm. 

How Poland's Solidarity Rejected the Temptation of Violence

by David Richards

The Polish Solidarity movement is an instructive study in how a coalition of workers, intellectuals and spiritual leaders maintained a commitment to nonviolence and dialogue in the face of repression. 

Review: Elizabeth Dore's Grassroots History of Socialism's Decline in Cuba

The loosening of state control over Cuba's economy has delivered most benefits to white Cubans with relatives sending remittances from the United States to start businesses in Cuba. Afro-Cubans and migrants from poorer provinces have suffered.