From the internationally acclaimed Oxford authority on Communism comes a definitive history that examines the origins of the ideology, its development in different nations, its collapse in many of those countries following perestroika, and its current incarnations around the globe. The Rise and Fall of Communism explores how and why Communists came to power; how they were able, in a variety of countries on different continents, to hold on to power for so long; and what brought about the downfall of so many Communist systems.

For this comprehensive and illuminating work, Brown draws on more than forty years of research and on a wealth of new sources. Tracing the story of Communism from its nineteenth-century roots, Brown explains both its expansion and its decline in the twentieth century. Even today, although Communism has been widely discredited in the West, more than a fifth of humanity still lives under its rule.

A Note on Names
Glossary and Abbreviations
 
Introduction

PART ONE:
Origins and Development
1. The Idea of Communism
2. Communism and Socialism - the Early Years
3. The Russian Revolutions and Civil War
4. 'Building Socialism': Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917-40
5. International Communism between the Two World Wars
6. What Do We Mean by a Communist System?

PART TWO:
Communism Ascendant
7. The Appeals of Communism
8. Communism and the Second World War
9. The Communist Takeovers in Europe - Indigenous Paths
10. The Communist Takeovers in Europe - Soviet Impositions
11. The Communists Take Power in China
12. Post-War Stalinism and the Break with Yugoslavia

PART THREE:
Surviving without Stalin
13. Khrushchev and the Twentieth Party Congress
14. Zig-zags on the Road to 'communism'
15. Revisionism and Revolution in Eastern Europe
16. Cuba: A Caribbean Communist State
17. China: From the 'Hundred Flowers' to 'Cultural Revolution'
18. Communism in Asia and Africa
19. The 'Prague Spring'
20. 'The Era of Stagnation': The Soviet Union under Brezhnev

PART FOUR:
Pluralizing Pressures
21. The Challenge from Poland: John Paul II, Lech Walesa, and the Rise of Solidarity
22. Reform in China: Deng Xiaoping and After
23. The Challenge of the West

PART FIVE:
Interpreting the Fall of Communism
24. Gorbachev, Perestroika, and the Attempt to Reform Communism, 1985-87
25. The Dismantling of Soviet Communism, 1988-89
26. The End of Communism inEurope
27. The Break-up of the Soviet State
28. Why Did Communism Last so Long?
29. What Caused the Collapse of Communism?
30. What's Left of Communism?

Acknowledgements
Notes and Sources
Picture Credits
Index