Communism in Power
From Stalin to Mao
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Communism in Power
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Narrated by:
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Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
About this listen
Trace the growth of communism from Stalin’s consolidation of power to the establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere in Communism in Power: From Stalin to Mao. These 12 half-hour lessons shed intriguing light on a revolutionary movement that played an outsized role in the 20th century and continues to shape 21st-century geopolitics.
The period covered includes the Cold War, which saw the height of ideological conflict between communist and capitalist states. At the time, the true extent of internal repression imposed by communist governments was not widely known, notably the vast Gulag system organized under Stalin, Mao’s catastrophic Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, and the “Killing Fields” of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. These organized campaigns against mostly innocent citizens led to many tens of millions of deaths.
A specialist in modern European history, Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius is the Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he was awarded the university’s top two teaching awards. In Communism in Power: From Stalin to Mao, he masterfully untangles the rivalries, contradictions, and doctrinal heresies that plagued communism in different countries, undermining the dream of worldwide communist comradeship. The course also covers attempts by communists to get a foothold in the United States; the widespread admiration for Soviet achievements, fueled by official propaganda; the growing disillusionment with life under Marxism-Leninism; and the day-to-day adaptations of ordinary people, including the dark jokes they made about their plight.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 The Great Courses (P)2021 The Teaching Company, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Communism in Power
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 08-04-22
Exceptional lecturer
The second title of Prof Vejas I've listened to, again further demonstration he's an exceptionally talented story teller, on next to one of his other titles...
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sani Ibrahim Abdulai
- 29-04-22
Brief yet in-depth collection
Can’t say it’s all bias and anti communist narrative but one can tell the writer isn’t at all thrilled about communism. Very engaging nonetheless and for the most part true to what I read from other sources. Nice 👏🏽👍🏽
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bill Atkinson
- 03-07-22
A great overview in chunks
I found this set of lectures easy to listen to as it didn’t become to detailed and the overall package put the subject in context. I believe it is part of a series and will be looking for more
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 14-04-22
Seems very Americo centric
Good storytelling. The lecturer is very obviously pro American which I suppose is too be expected. His willingness to critisize everyone but the West becomes tiring to listen to after a while.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Patrick Kelly-Goss
- 13-08-23
Entertaining but superficial polemic
If you're unfamiliar with mid-20th century history this could be a reasonable introduction to the various powers and personalities of the Eastern bloc: who was doing what and where, with the vaguest of hints as to why and how. In any history this expansive and brief though, you need to expect the author to substitute simplistic moralising for scholarly exploration, and this is no different. While it is clear the author is knowledgeable, you can also see him awkwardly cutting the material to fit into a clear and simple narrative of cackling villainous Communists committing atrocities for no particular reason while failing to so much as tie their own shoelaces competently. The human cost of Communist mismanagement is certainly important to include, but the reader winds up learning not much else, nor given any indication that there *is* anything to learn about the topic; any necessary admission of this success or that Western intervention is quickly waved away with a reassurance that the Communists were evil and incompetent. This sort of polemicising is perhaps necessary to keep focus in a survey of this scope but I would have liked a slightly more evenhanded approach that would have even attempted to explain how these states maintained not just stability but oftentimes popularity despite their manifest failings and cruelties.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Thirsty hippo
- 09-03-24
Very one sided
A good listen if you want to know everything that was bad about communism, but that's all it does. If you wrote a similar book about capitalism and only focused on all that is bad about it, then capitalism would appear very undesirable as well. The speaker should balance out the discussion with what was good about the communist system and why some people in former communist countries thought they were better off before its collapse and many are disillusioned with what they have now. Overall I'm glad communism is dead but what is wrong with remarking on its merits? Such as full employment, governments that provided for healthcare, education and housing, that it aligned with some enlightenment ideals and so on.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- amazoncustomer
- 03-03-22
Fascinating and Horrifying.
I listened to this course at the beginning of March 2022 with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Nothing has changed. I think it was Churchill who said something like: "Capitalism is the worst economic system there is, apart from all the other systems that have been tried" . This course shows how true this is.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- JSM
- 09-07-23
Outstanding
This is a fantastic academic presentation of the history of communism in power. It will interest students of history or International Relations at university.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Grumpy_Bastard
- 23-07-23
Uniformative
I’m not sure what I really learned from this lecture series beyond the fact that the lecturer doesn’t like communism. What about it’s commitments to and successes in dealing with health, housing, and education … which were all significant? We all know communism was a failure, we all know the regimes were corrupt and cannibalistic, but it would be nice to dip into a series like this for a balanced take rather than the usual thinly veiled propaganda.
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