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Archie Brown

The Rise and Fall of Communism Paperback – 1 April 2010

by Archie Brown (Author)

140 ratings

Winner of the 2010 W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize for Best Political Science Book of the Year 2010

The relentless rise of Communism was the most momentous political development of the first half of the twentieth century. No political change has been more fundamental than its demise in Europe and its decline elsewhere. In this hugely acclaimed book Archie Brown provides an indispensable history that examines the origins of the ideology, its development in different countries, its collapse in many states following the Soviet perestroika, and its current incarnations around the globe.

The Rise and Fall of Communism explains how and why Communists came to power; how they were able, in a variety of countries on different continents to hold on to power for so long; and what brought about the downfall of so many Communist systems. A groundbreaking work from an internationally renowned specialist, this is the definitive study of the most remarkable political and human story of our times.

Print length

736 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

1 April 2010
Dimensions

12.9 x 3.8 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10

9781845950675
ISBN-13

978-1845950675
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1845950674
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (1 April 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 736 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781845950675
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1845950675
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 3.8 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 149,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 44 in History of Ukraine
- 199 in Communism & Marxism
- 205 in History of India

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Product description

Review

Superb...a hugely readable book -- Simon Heffer ― Daily Telegraph

At its peak, communism controlled one third of the human race...Brown's scholarly, well-paced and critical overview contributes brilliantly to a reasoned reassessment ― Sunday Times

To understand one of the central stories of the 20th century - read Brown's book ― Independent

The breadth of his scholarship and research is hugely impressive... Brown offers clever insights, as well as some fascinating new revelations ― Evening Standard

This book is the crowning achievement of Archie Brown's career... This volume will remain a definitive study of communism... Thank you, Archie Brown -- Oleg Gordievsky ― Literary Review

About the Author

Archie Brown is a British political scientist and historian. He is Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University and Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. A Fellow of the British Academy since 1991, Professor Brown was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. He has written widely on Soviet and Communist politics, the Cold War, and political leadership.

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Customer reviews

5 star		72%
4 star		12%
3 star		9%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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sol

Fixated on the Soviet state. Sidelines international communist movements, theory and futures

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2020

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This book spends the vast majority of its pages fixated on the Soviet Union.
Less than one chapter looks at communist movements in the third world.
Already feels outdated.
Disappointing and dry read.

4 people found this helpful

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NURGLERS

It’s added to my knowledge.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2021

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A very well written book.

2 people found this helpful

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Carys

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2016

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Great.

One person found this helpful

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Barry O'D

Interesting and in depth account

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 May 2016

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An interesting and in depth account of communism - it's history, it's characters and it's collapse.
Enjoy reading this book

3 people found this helpful

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Lord Franklin

Tutto OK

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 January 2017

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Tutto OK

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F Henwood

10 Marx out of Ten!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 July 2011

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Archie Brown offers a lifetime's reflections on the rise and fall of Communism in this excellent survey. It is not the survey of an idea, communism with a small `c', but of a political movement, with a capital `C'. The idea still persists of course but the regimes that went under this designation have mostly vanished or been transfigured, such as China, or ossified like North Korea.

The book starts with a brief survey of the utopian antecedents of Communism before moving to cover the Bolshevik revolution, Stalin's forced industrialisation of the Soviet Union, the Chinese revolution, through to the gradual fracturing and ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union and its protégé regimes in Eastern Europe in the late 80s/early 90s. It treats developments in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe the best, China satisfactorily but is less comprehensive about Communism in the developing world. Vietnam, Cuba and Laos are barely covered. However I think that this emphasis is valid as a book that charts the decline of Communism as a political movement should devote space to the very places where it started and where it ended.

Communism was not monolithic. There were substantial differences in the operations of the various Communist regimes. They even, as in the case of the case of Vietnam and Kampuchea, fought one another. Indeed, the Soviet Union and China fought fatal clashes on their border in the Far East in the late 1960s, which nearly came to all out war. However, all communist regimes were united by the following features:

1. The monopoly political power of the ruling party.
2. Democratic centralism. Decisions are theoretically debated democratically at the centre of power but once taken enforced with great discipline and rigidity within the party and throughout the society at large
3. Non-capitalist ownership of means of production.
4. Dominance of a command economy: decisions as to what should be produced and prices for goods and services were determined bureaucratically.
5. Ideological justification: the declared aim of `building Communism' in the sense of moving to an end-point of a non-hierarchical, classless society and the withering away of the state. Despite all the suffering and sacrifice, is to be found in the achievement of this end-state.

Once the last aim had been abandoned, Communist regimes were left to seek legitimacy in improving living standards. In this contest with the west, they were found wanting. Once they couldn't provide that, the game was up. In Eastern Europe, the game would have been up long before 1989.

Today arguably only North Korea and Cuba meet all five criteria (however it's doubtful whether the ruling elites in either country truly believe that the final withering away of the state will ever be attained). China meets the definition in respect of 1 and 2 but Brown does not count it as communist in this sense in that 3, 4 and 5 have all been long-abandoned. This can be debated but it is clear that China today is remote from the classical Communist model as described above.

Otherwise Brown's book is rich in insight into the mechanics of communist power. Communist regimes did not rule simply by coercion. They provided incentives. For instance Stalin's Great Terror in the 1930s (or `Great Purges' as some euphemistically call it) disproportionately targeted professionals, providing opportunities for those at the bottom of the social scale to move into the posts vacated by their former occupants. But the Soviet Union did not rely on terror alone (especially after Stalin) and for a while was able to sustain generous welfare benefits to reconcile its subjects to one-party rule.

Paradoxically then the party of the working-class legitimised itself partially by providing an opportunity for social advancement to the middle class. Mao's Cultural Revolution - intended to sweep away all forms of hierarchy and authority (except Mao's) - succeeded in weakening entrenched bureaucratic interests to the extent that they were too enfeebled to resist the reintroduction of capitalism in the 1980s and 1990s. This in contrast to Khrushchev, whose attempts at reform in the 1950s were stymied by a combined party-bureaucracy.

As far as the end of Communism is concerned, Brown credits the largely peaceful transition in Eastern Europe to Gorbachev - not Ronald Reagan, not Solidarity in Poland and not Pope John Paul II. Solidarity was truly a workers' movement (the same could not be said for the Bolsheviks) but despite overwhelming popular support, it was not able to prevail until the Soviet military guarantee to Poland was withdrawn. Arms spending produced huge strains on the Soviet economy, which sought military parity with the United States but with an economy a quarter of the size. But the system could have staggered on regardless, and reform was not inevitable. There were plenty of ideological stalwarts in the Soviet Union willing to swim against the tide but it doesn't follow that the tide was strong enough to sweep reactionary, recalcitrant elements away.

Brown rejects the economic determinist case that the decrepit, ossified state of the Soviet economy, and the scale of opposition to it in Eastern Europe in the mid-80s, necessitated reform. Gorbachev enjoyed solid popularity in the Soviet Union until 1989, when he lost control of the reform process. Political reform preceded economic reform: the fate of the Soviet Union was not lost on the Chinese who have proceeded in a fashion diametrically opposed to the Soviet approach in the 1980s.

The persistence of a Leninist-inspired form of political organisation in China and a renewed authoritarian creep in post-Soviet Russia may serve to caution those such as Brown who have pronounced Communism dead but I don't think so. Communism as a utopian movement is finished. Russia, where the transition to capitalism was a disaster, did not see a revival of a rump Communist party. What we see now in Russia and China are hybrid-authoritarian regimes that have long-abandoned any pretence that the state will wither away and will lead all humankind to a radiant future with no police, courts, prisons.

39 people found this helpful

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Alexander Sokol

A superb book: Exciting, informative and scholarly

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 September 2012

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In "The rise & Fall of Communism", Brown chronicles the history of communism from its ideological inception in the second half of the 19th century until the current times. As communism by now is present only in few states, the history feels very much as a "complete story" with a beginning (Marx and Engels writing the communist manifesto), middle (the revolutions in Russia and subsequent spread of communism) and end (Glasnost and Perestroika in Russia and the dismantling of the Soviet union).

The book feels uniformly well written, detailed and objective throughout its more than 600 pages. Brown does a good job of not only describing historical events, but also of putting them into context and taking a birds-eye view of his subject. In particular, he spends several chapters not on relaying any particular facts, but instead on "building understanding" by outlining for example what is meant by a communist system, the psychological appeals of communism, the reasons for the longevity of communism and so on.

The book is long, and I must admit that during the middle years (post-Stalin) where things were less dramatic, I occassionally found it to be not quite as engaging as in the beginning and the end. However, for the most part, the book literally is an exciting read. The history of communism is to a large extent both colorful and dramatic, and demonstrates both the heights and depths of human nature.

After reading the book, I definitely felt more informed about the history and origins of the society we live in today, how large a role communism has played in shaping the world of today and how different things were just thirty years ago. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the history of the 19th and 20th century, or with an interest in human nature and political ideology in general.

9 people found this helpful

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Mr. Adrian Mcmenamin

Excellent broad survey

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 December 2010

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This is a very good book, though it really does concentrate on Communism's "rise" and then "fall" - the (long) middle bits of Communists actually ruling get rather left out: so do not expect to see more than a cursory examination of the struggles in the Bolshevik party that led to Stalin's rise to power and on to the Five Year Plan, the Ukrainian famine and the Great Purge. Nor is there really an examination of Communism's economic performance against the west.
But as an examination of how the Communists came to power in Eastern Europe and how the system crumbled to dust in 1989 - 1991 (though Brown makes a good case that the Soviet Union had ceased to be Communist by the time it collapsed) the book is very good indeed.

5 people found this helpful

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