One Hundred Years of Communist Experiments / / ed. by Vladimir Tismaneanu, Jordan Luber.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Central European University Press eBook-Package 2021
• MitwirkendeR: Aligica, Paul Dragos,; Aron, Leon,; Bernstam, Michael S.,; Bozóki, András,; Braguinsky, Serguey,; Ganev, Venelin I.,; Herf, Jeffrey,; Kosicki, Piotr H.,; Kramer, Mark,; Luber, Jordan,; Marin, Noemi,; Mihăieș, Mircea,; Pearson, Margaret M.,; Riabchuk, Mykola,; Rosefielde, Steven,; Rutland, Peter,; Shore, Marci,; Stan, Marius,; Tarko, Vlad,; Tismaneanu, Vladimir,
• HerausgeberIn: Luber, Jordan,; Tismaneanu, Vladimir,
• Place / Publishing House: Budapest ;, New York : : Central European University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (408 p.)

Why has communism’s humanist quest for freedom and social justice without exception resulted in the reign of terror and lies? The authors of this collective volume address this urgent question covering the one hundred years since Lenin’s coup brought the first communist regime to power in St. Petersburg, Russia in November 1917. The first part of the volume is dedicated to the varieties of communist fantasies of salvation, and the remaining three consider how communist experiments over many different times and regions attempted to manage economics, politics, as well as society and culture. Although each communist project was adapted to the situation of the country where it operated, the studies in this volume find that because of its ideological nature, communism had a consistent penchant for totalitarianism in all of its manifestations. This book is also concerned with the future. As the world witnesses a new wave of ideological authoritarianism and collectivistic projects, the authors of the nineteen essays suggest lessons from their analyses of communism’s past to help better resist totalitarian projects in the future.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION: Why a 20th Century Exercise in the 21st Century -- PART ONE: FANTASIES OF SALVATION -- German Communism, the Jews, and Israel -- Euphoria to Decay -- Getting off the Red Tram of Socialism -- The Rise, Demise, and Pernicious Long-Term Impact of Soviet Communist Ideology in Russia -- PART TWO: ECONOMICS -- The Comparative Assessment of Communist and Post-Communist System Performance and Human Wellbeing -- Communist Economy -- Looking Back at the Soviet Economic Experience -- Incentives, Coercion, and Redistribution -- The Rise and Fall of the Planned Economy and Its Long-Lasting Effects on Transition -- PART THREE: POLITICS -- Romancing a Millenarian State -- Stalin, Tito, Djilas, and the Dialectical Quarrels of Post-war Europe -- China’s Enduring Leninist Toolkit -- Reductio ad Reaganum -- Ideology and Violence in Communist Venezuela -- PART FOUR: SOCIETY AND CULTURE -- Communist Rhetoric as Official Practices of Discourse -- Selective Repression and Democratic Opposition in Post-Totalitarian Hungary -- Lost in Protochronia: Ideological Dada in Ceaușescu’s Romania -- The Road to Liberation Theology -- Philosophical Lessons from the Bolshevik Experiment -- List of Contributors -- Index