This book seeks to discover the extent to which the claim—the provision of regular paid labour and a permanent occupation for all who are able to work—is true and whether there are any features of society in distinction from capitalism which lead to the provision of full employment.

First Published in 1988. Understanding Soviet Society has grown out of the authors’ experience as sociologists researching and teaching about the Soviet Union. Meant initially as an update to ‘Contemporary Soviet Society: Sociological Perspectives’ from 1980, this became a new volume because of the addition of six new authors, but also because of the major changes occurring in the USSR today that in many ways necessitated new approaches. It examines the fundamnetal institutions of Soviet society- from work and social welfare to politics and the Party- in order order to provide an objective understanding of the social underpinnigs of the Soviet System.

This book seeks to discover the extent to which the claim--the provision of regular paid labour and a permanent occupation for all who are able to work--is true and whether there are any features of society in distinction from capitalism which lead to the provision of full employment.

This international bestseller plumbs recently opened archives in the former Soviet bloc to reveal the accomplishments of communism around the world. The book is the first attempt to catalogue and analyse the crimes of communism over 70 years.

The impact of Communism on the twentieth century was massive, equal to that of the two world wars. Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians knew relatively little about the secretive world of communist states and parties. Since then, the opening of state, party, and diplomatic archives of the former Eastern Bloc has released a flood of new documentation. The thirty-five essays in this Handbook, written by an international team of scholars, draw on this new material to offer a global history of communism in the twentieth century. In contrast to many histories that concentrate on the Soviet Union, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism is genuinely global in its coverage, paying particular attention to the Chinese Revolution. It is 'global', too, in the sense that the essays seek to integrate history 'from above' and 'from below', to trace the complex mediations between state and society, and to explore the social and cultural as well as the political and economic realities that shaped the lives of citizens fated to live under communist rule. The essays reflect on the similarities and differences between communist states in order to situate them in their socio-political and cultural contexts and to capture their changing nature over time. Where appropriate, they also reflect on how the fortunes of international communism were shaped by the wider economic, political, and cultural forces of the capitalist world. The Handbook provides an informative introduction for those new to the field and a comprehensive overview of the current state of scholarship for those seeking to deepen their understanding.

The collapse of communism was one of the most defining moments of the twentieth century. This Very Short Introduction examines the history behind the political, economic, and social structures of communism as an ideology.