The Cuban Missile Crisis
John Swift examines the events that led the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe.
Communism
Khrushchev’s ‘Secret Speech’
Fifty years after Khrushchev’s famous denunciation of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, John Etty examines what was at stake.
Lenin in Power
Russell Tarr explains how the Bolsheviks established their grip on Russia after the 1917 Revolution, and at what cost.
Zinoviev and Kamenev: from Lenin’s closest collaborators to Yagoda’s trophies
Chris Corin restores two Old Bolsheviks to their rightful places in Soviet History.
Stalin Denounced by Nikita Khrushchev
The Soviet leader gave his famous speech on ‘The Personality Cult and its Consequences’ in a closed session on 25 February 1956.
The Soviet Economy – an Experiment that was Bound to Fail?
Vincent Barnett contrasts Marxist idealism with the changing economic reality in the USSR.
Leon Trotsky and 1905
Ian Thatcher refuses to take Trotsky at his own valuation.
Animal Farm and Soviet Satire
George Orwell’s ‘fairy story’ on the USSR was politically inconvenient in 1945. Opinions on Animal Farm were soon revised, but its targets – and its author – are easily misunderstood.
The Warsaw Pact
A mutual defence treaty between Communist states was signed on 14 May 1955.
Could France Have Gone Communist?
Martin Evans and Emmanuel Godin ask how close was France to becoming a Communist country in the years after the Second World War.