The History of Communism

The history of Communism is complicated and filled with fascinating "footnotes." The Main Hall presents the bare skeleton of this rich story. Other levels focus in on topics of note and the experiences of particular countries.

The Main Hall is set up so that one can follow the history of Communism chronologically; alternately, you may go directly to the topics of interest to you.
Lenin and the First Communist Revolutions

  1. The Czarist Origins of Communism

  2. The Marxist Origins of Communism

  3. Lenin and the First Communist Revolutions

  4. The Foundation of the Comintern

  5. Stalin and Trotsky; Chiang and Mao

  6. "Revolution from Above": Stalin's Terror-Famine and Great Terror

  7. Stalin and the World Communist Movement

  8. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Stalin and Hitler Divide Europe

    Ideology - that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination... Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions.
    Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

  9. World War II: The War to Make the World Safe for Communism

  10. Post-War Communist Victories

  11. Khrushchev Splits the World Communist Movement

  12. Mao: the Stalin of China

  13. Minor Communist Victories, Major Human Tragedies

  14. The Decline of Communism in the Soviet Bloc

  15. Deng: the Khrushchev of China

  16. The Fall of Communism in the Soviet Bloc

  17. Transition to Freedom: Success and Failure to Try