1) Museum of Communism:  This website is created by GMU and it explains in detail the two sides of the origin of communism: Czarist and Marxist.

2) How Communism Works: Alia Hoyt takes a very systematic approach to explaining the ideology of communism, the oppression by the czar in Russia, the revolutions leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin’s ugly tools like the man-made famine and eventually to the end of the entire regime.

3) What Was Communism?: This article by Fred Halliday is more of a analysis on the communist system and the technique of governance and it creates a deep understanding of what the idea was and how some of the widely accepted facts are not facts at all but myths. For example, “It is common, and somewhat too easy, for defenders of Marxism in the contemporary world to argue that Marxist theory and communist practice were divergent, and that, hence, the theory bears no responsibility for the communist record.”

4) Discovering China: Under the Civil War section of this website, the author explains how China was falling into pieces and inflation of was sky-high. The Chinese Communist Party was uniting people and gathering people’s support for Land Reform. It was a small, well-organized group that was enthusiastic. However, later during 1949-1966, Great Leap Forward failed after Mao was unable to create good quality steel as he hoped to. From then on, the situation started to go downhill and led to the Cultural Revolution.

5) The History of Communism in China: This article by Barnaby Meins talks about the success of CCP because of the failure of Kuomintang after the attack of the Red Army on it. It also highlights the tyranny of communists as they were trying to come to power.

6) Poland under Communism—A Quick Overview by Scott Hegerty: Economic conditions in Poland: Poland was under attack by Stalin and he put pro-communist people in the elections to make sure that his plan works in yet another country, ensuring that the Polish remain loyal to him. He used prison camps, and execution to get his way. However, after Stalin’s death, Khrushchev helped to erase those memories.

7) The Economy under Communism: The economic situation of Poland is highlighted from this article obtained from the Library of Congress. Since there were a vast number of restrictions placed on consumption and incentives for workers were lowered, under investment and over investment was abundant. Technology used in factories was obsolete and the internal market was shielded from the world.

8) Communism in China: After Mao’s death: China started to rebuild its economy and adopted a slightly capitalist outlook. Deng Xiaoping is to credit for the changes that followed. Industrialization was welcomed and some private companies were setup. As a result of all this, China’s GDP under Deng increased to 9.7%.

9) Communism on the World Stage: This article, with an really cool animated map,  presents the fact that communism was a measure to avoid imperialistic expansion and oppression from foreign countries. Countries like Vietnam, China, and Cuba did not want to be exploited in their own country by foreigners.

10) The Chinese Communist Party: This article’s main point is the split between Khrushchev and Mao. This split isolated China from the rest of the world and also stopped all economic and military aid from Russia.

11) End of the Cold War and the Soviet Union: This article gives a detailed account of the economy of USSR. It says how the economy was once doing well but slowly started to deteriorate and go towards the worst it had ever seen.

12) Cold War: The wiki entry gives the entire story of the Cold War and post Cold War era and summarizes everything into one big article. This sketch is good for acquiring the entire picture of the War and the post War period.

13) Revolutions of 1989: This entry provides valid analytical information about the fall of communism and how one country after the other understood that communism was not going to help them in any way and it is best to quit on this system of governance.

14) Communism: The video is a documentary which talks about the entire story of communism in Russia. From the promises made to the fall and how the plans were not implemented as the leaders had thought.

15) Cold War at History.com: Short essay and links to a lot of relevant material. Very sueful site.

All materials on this site are copyright © 2011-12, C. T. Evans and A. Gupta
For information contact cevans@nvcc.edu