Communism

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• SOURCE: Dissent
  5/1/2022
  

  The Xi Era Demands New Ways of Understanding China

  by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

  This is the introductory essay to a special issue on contemporary China. 

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• 3/27/2022
  

  Putin is Carrying on Stalin's War on Self-Determination

  by Uriel Abulof

  Before Woodrow Wilson, Lenin advanced the ideal of national self-determination as part of communist revolution. Stalin made the term a cynical tool of Russian imperialism, a move Putin's approach to Ukraine emulates. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/22/2022
  

  When Communism was Queer

  by Samuel Huneke

  American commentators have used the repression of gay life in states like Cuba to discredit socialism. The history of communist approaches to sexuality is more complex, as in the former East Germany. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  2/18/2022
  

  The Communist Takeover in China is the Better Parallel to the Ukraine Crisis

  Will American politicians repeat the error of asking who "lost China" instead of asking whether it was ours to lose? 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  1/18/2022
  

  Student Protests over COVID Policy (and Adults Ignoring Them) is Part of a Long Tradition

  by Jack Hodgson

  "Their message: Education needs to be delivered in cooperation with young people. They have a right to advocate for their own welfare, feel safe in school and receive teaching, not just supervision."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/7/2021
  

  To Hold Control in China's Present, Xi Seeks to Rewrite its Past

  The Chinese Communist Party's newest official history elevates Xi as a figure of historical significance alongside Mao and Deng Xiaoping, making the country's history an instrument of political power. 

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• 9/19/2021
  

  Psychologically Speaking, Who Were the Heads of the Chinese Communist Party?

  by David Shambaugh

  Sinologist David Shambaugh's new book examines the evolution of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic's role in the world through a psychological history of the CCP's leaders. Excerpted here, he offers a schematic overview of the work. 

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• SOURCE: The Baffler
  8/19/2021
  

  How Empires Fall

  by Matt Wehmeier

  "Decisive political moments are rarely expected, and even more rarely planned. Governments change all the time. But every once in a while, empires fall."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/25/2021
  

  Yu Ruxin is Rescuing China’s Muzzled Past, One Footnote at a Time

  “We won’t be able to truly absorb the lessons of history, and history may just repeat itself,” Mr. Yu said in an interview from Hong Kong. “It couldn’t possibly be exactly like the Cultural Revolution, but something similar can’t be ruled out.”

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  7/22/2021
  

  Cubans Took to the Streets in 1994, Too

  by Rozzmery Palenzuela Vicente

  Since the Clinton administration, decreased willingness by the US to accept Cuban migrants as political refugees has eliminated a significant safety valve against dissent on the island – encouraging Cuban dissidents to leave. This may make current protests more enduring and possibly more effective. 

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• SOURCE: Foreign Policy
  7/1/2021
  

  The Chinese Communist Party Has Followed Sun Yat-sen’s Road Map

  by Peter Zarrow

  The recent course of the Chinese Communist Party follows the vision of nationalist Sun Yat-sen more than that of Karl Marx. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  7/5/2021
  

  Unpacking The 100-Year History Of The Chinese Communist Party

  As the Chinese Communist Party turns 100 this month, NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with historian Andy B. Liu about the mark it's made on the country.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/1/2021
  

  At 100 Years Old, it's Time to Recognize the Chinese Communist Party is Here to Stay

  by Yi-Zheng Lian

  Unlike their Soviet predecessors, the Chinese Communist Party has figured out how to maintain a lasting hold on power. Western critics hoping for its demise will be disappointed. 

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• SOURCE: History.com
  4/28/2021
  

  How World War I Fueled the Russian Revolution

  Stephen Miner of Ohio University says that while the collapse of Czarist Russia was likely without the first world war, the conflict made it virtually inevitable. Lynne Hartnett of Villanova says war exposed the weaknesses of the regime. 

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• SOURCE: Woodrow Wilson Center and National History Center
  4/9/2021
  

  Washington History Seminar – Stalin: Passage to Revolution, Monday, April 12

  Ronald Grigor Suny of the University of Michigan joins the Washington History Seminar on Monday, April 12 to discuss "Stalin: Passage to Revolution" at 

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• 3/28/2021
  

  Red Flags on the Map: What Soviet Kids Learned about the United States

  by David Mould

  One of the author's souvenirs from a research trip to Asia – a Soviet-era classroom map – prompts reflection on the pervasiveness of ideological education. 

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• 2/28/2021
  

  History and Film: Reflections on Konchalovsky’s “Dear Comrades!”

  by Walter G. Moss

  Andrei Konchalovsky's film "Dear Comrades" examines the struggles of ordinary people in the Soviet Union to find truth amid ideology and fear. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/25/2021
  

  The Republican Party Is Now in Its End Stages

  by Tom Nichols

  "The Republican Party has become, in form if not in content, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of the late 1970s."

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  12/5/2020
  

  Stephen F. Cohen Helped Us Understand the Russian Revolution and Nikolai Bukharin

  by Kevin Murphy

  A fellow historian of Russia and the Soviet Union praises Stephen Cohen's scholarship and willingness to question orthodoxies in examining the internal diversity of revolutionary Communism. 

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• 10/11/2020
  

  The Lenin Plot: The Concealed History of The US-Led Effort to Overthrow the USSR

  by Barnes Carr

  "The Lenin Plot was a massive embarrassment for the Allies, and they tried to cover it up. The denial continued for years."