The course of modern European History has been influenced greatly
by the challenge of Communism. In theory it promised equality and
freedom for all. In practice it spawned inegalitarian,
authoritarian and, in some instances, monstrous regimes in the
former Soviet Union and East Europe. This study re-examines the
history of European Communism from its theoretical origins in the
work of Marx and Engels in the mid-nineteenth century until the
dramatic collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Ronald Kowalski
reappraises Marx's thinking and points out that his intellectual
legacy was open to a variety of interpretations often at odds with
his own views. Kowalski also questions Lenin's professed Marxist
credentials and the extent to which his additions to Marxist theory
were central to the key issue in the history of Communism: why did
the egalitarian and libertarian dreams raised by the Russian
Revolution degenerate into Stalinist authoritarianism and terror?
Furthermore, why did Communism fail in West Europe while it was
able to come to power in East Europe? Concluding with an analysis
of the revolutions which swept away the Communist regimes in East
Europe and two years later in the Soviet Union itself, this is an
essential introduction to the history of a political force that
dominated parts of Europe until the end of the twentieth century.
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