Communism

After he was formally condemned to death in Moscow, the Mexican government offered Trotsky refuge and protection, on December 6th 1936.

Russel Tarr compares and contrasts the rise to power of two Communist leaders.

The author of the epic critique of the free market, Das Kapital, was born on May 5th, 1818. Here, Tristram Hunt highlights Friedrich Engels' important contribution to the work that has raced to the top of the German bestseller lists.

Josip Broz Tito died on May 4th, 1980. In this article from our 1980 archive, Basil Davidson reassesses the legacy of the Yugoslavian president and soldier.

Alex von Tunzelmann reassesses a two-part article on the troubled relationship between the United States and Cuba, published in History Today 50 years ago in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Michael Dunne marks the 50th anniversary of the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Castro's Cuba.

Frank Dikötter looks at how historians’ understanding of China has changed in recent years with the gradual opening of party archives that reveal the full horror of the Maoist era.

John Etty shows the vital importance of aviation in the Stalinist Soviet Union.

Richard Cavendish commemorates the traumatic but ultimately victorious march of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communists.

The ‘Milan Kundera affair’, in which the eponymous Czech novelist was recently accused of denouncing a ‘spy’ to the security services in 1950, illustrates how the Communist past has become a battlefield for Czech historians of different generations, writes Aviezer Tucker. 

Archie Brown discusses the contributions of historians to the understanding of Communism and why it failed.

In 1959 Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba after a masterly campaign of guerrilla warfare. Drawing on this success, Castro and his followers, including Che Guevara, sought to spread their revolution, as Clive Foss explains.

Catherine Merridale examines competing versions of Russia's troubled past in the light of present politics.