Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Our series on Communism, for the inquisitive Comrade. Interviews range from Robert Service on Totalitarian Russia to Richard McGregor on the Chinese Communist Party. Each expert picks their favourite books and articles
Review of Archie Brown's "The Rise and Fall of Communism", a major new effort to figure out what happened in the failed 75-year experiment
Essay. "One of the best years in European history. Perhaps also the last occasion when world history was made in Europe"
Excellent piece ties together Orwell, Burnham and a new history of Communism. Capitalism in the 70s was as much in crisis as its arch-enemy, but in the end the suicide was in the East, not the West
Leading authority on Soviet Communism summarises some key arguments of his latest history book. 'What happened in the October 1917 revolution in Russia was an ideological bank robbery'. A good read
Delicious account of Khrushchev's visit to the States in 1959. Met Marilyn Monroe, who didn't know who he was, but was instructed to wear her tightest, sexiest dress. 'I guess there's not much sex in Russia'
Groan-worthy title, but a fascinating article. How Soviet jokes were both a form of resistance, and a pressure-valve invaluable to the communist regime. And some of the jokes aren't half bad
Suddenly, "Das Kapital" seems full of brilliant insights
Very thorough, if a little over-heavy, reading list on Communism courtesy of Foreign Affairs. Covers pretty much everyone, from Milosz to Solzhenitsyn, to George Kennan
Former cold warrior looks back and wonders how his generation over-estimated the threat of communism as an ideology. One upshot: it 'saddled the US with a neocon political class' as narrow-minded as the Soviets
Audio interview with Serge Schmemann, former correspondent in the GDR, on 1989. He didn't realize the wall was opened until his East Berlin-based assistant walked into his West Berlin hotel room in West
Author argues that the latest resurrection of Keynes, after the financial crisis, 'lives next door to Marx' - in his insistence on centralization of credit in the banks of the state
The private life of Marx's co-propagandist: gourmand, philanderer, with "an almost Rabelaisian belief in the capacity of socialism to fulfil human pleasure"
Entertaining review of biography focusing on Bolshevik leader's early life as exiled agitator. He was a "dogged little fellow, bald with a red beard, who fell off his bicycle and wrote Marxist articles"
Reprinted article from 1962 debunking myth of the time that oversimplified Communism as devil to Democracy's angel. Full of sweeping statements (Communism 'an absurd religio-political creed') but gripping
Long, compelling book review and profile of Arthur Koestler. Hungarian writer, disillusioned Communist and author of classic anti-totalitarian novel Darkness at Noon. One to read to the end
The Slovenian intellectual on Communism's fall and rise post 1989. 'The same rightists who, decades ago, were shouting "Better dead than red!" are now often heard mumbling "Better red than eating hamburgers"'
Readable account of post-1989 disillusionment in the eastern bloc. Greengrocer's sign has changed from 'Workers of the world, unite!' to 'The best fruit in town'. But his situation hasn't really improved
Author of 'What does China think?' sums up his bullet points in a magazine article. The main thing to take away: that intellectual and ideological debate is alive within the Chinese Communist Party
Foreign policy and Asia expert dissects scenarios of the communist nation's collapse. Says the country is now at phase three of a seven stage collapse, and even teetered on phase four in the nineties
Living post-morten of Fidel Castro's revolution fifty years on. 'Fifty years of sacrifice and misery' as one self-exile puts it. But the Castros have outlasted ten US presidents
Sensitive essay on competing narratives about Communism's collapse. The West won, but it doesn't know why
Written in 1847 - still a must-read, however sullied his ideas have since become. Comes in four parts, but not an exhaustively long read at all, and surprisingly gripping and clearly written
Author of recent and critically-acclaimed historical work asks the million rouble question, a quarter of a century after Gorbachev became Soviet leader. But was it really all Gorbachev?
Former Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year discusses books that tell the story of Russia in the last century — from Soviet science fiction set in capitalist wastelands to Khrushchev as raconteur
