The first volume of The Cambridge History of Communism deals with the tumultuous events from 1917 to the Second World War, such as the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the revolutionary turmoil in post-World War I Europe, and the Spanish Civil War. Leading experts analyse the ideological roots of communism, historical personalities such as Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky and the development of the Communist movement on a world scale against this backdrop of conflict that defined the period. It addresses the making of Soviet institutions, economy, and society while also looking at mass violence and relations between the state, workers, and peasants. It introduces crucial communist experiences in Germany, China, and Central Asia. At the same time, it also explores international and transnational communist practices concerning key issues such as gender, subjectivity, generations, intellectuals, nationalism, and the cult of personality.
General introduction Silvio Pons; Volume introduction Silvio Pons and Stephen A. Smith; Part I. Origins: 1. Marxism and socialist revolution Geoff Eley; 2. The Russian Revolution and Civil War Rex Wade; 3. Revolution and counter revolution in Europe 1917–1923 John Paul Newman; 4. Lenin as historical personality Robert Service; 5. Bolshevik roots of international communism Lars Lih; 6. Stalin as a historical personality James Harris; 7. Trotsky and Trotskyism Bertrand Patenaude; 8. Communism and the crisis of the colonial system Sobhanlal Datta Gupta; 9. The Comintern as a world network Serge Wolikow; 10. The popular fronts and the civil war in Spain Tim Rees; Part II. Patterns and Extensions: 11. Communism, violence and terror Hiroaki Kuromiya; 12. The Soviet government 1917–1941 E. A. Rees; 13. Migration and social transformations in Soviet society 1917–1941 Lewis Siegelbaum; 14. Foundations of the Soviet command economy 1917–1941 Mark Harrison; 15. The Soviet state and workers Donal Filtzer; 16. The Soviet state and peasants Nicholas Werth; 17. Bolshevik feminism and gender agendas of communism Anna Krylova; 18. Communism, nations and nationalism Andrea Graziosi; 19. Communism, youth and generations Matthias Neumann; 20. Communism as existential choice Brigitte Studer; 21. Communism and intellectuals Michael David-Fox; 22. Cults of the individual Kevin Morgan; 23. German communism Eric Weitz; 24. The Chinese Communist Party movement 1919–1949 Alexander Pantsov; 25. Communism on the frontier: the Sovietization of Central Asia and Mongolia Adeeb Khalid; Index.
Silvio Pons is Professor of Contemporary History at the Università degli Studi di Roma 'Tor Vergata'. He is the President of the Gramsci Foundation in Rome and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cold War Studies. Recent publications include Stalin and the Inevitable War (2014); A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Communism (2010) and The Global Revolution. A History of International Communism (2014). He has extensively researched and written on the Cold War, the Soviet Union, European Communism, and global Communism. Stephen A. Smith is a historian of modern Russia and China, a Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and a Professor of History in Oxford University. Recent publications include Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890–1928 (2017). His current research focuses on 'supernatural politics', comparing the ways in which peasants in Soviet Russia (1917–41) and in China (1949–76) used the resources of popular religion and magic to make sense of the turbulent changes that overwhelmed their lives in the course of the Communist revolutions.
Reviews for The Cambridge History of Communism
'For those who have come to expect much of the Cambridge Histories, if the other two volumes in this three part series are anything like the volume under review, they will not be disappointed … it is comprehensive, detailed and easy to read and understand, both for the non-academic, non-professional readership, as well as for those who earn a living from examining and analyzing past, present and future.' Steven J. Main, Journal Of European Asia Studies
