Listen "The Rise of Communism: From Marx to Lenin"
Episode Synopsis
Communism has decisively shaped the modern world. After the Second World War, Marxist regimes ruled over one-third of the population of the globe. Even today, after the fall of the Soviet Union, communist ideas continue to steer current events in Eastern Europe and East Asia.
According to award-winning historian Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to understand the inner dynamics of communist thought and rule (and the reasons they linger in places like Cuba, North Korea, and China), you have to go back to the crucial beginnings of communism. How did it become such a pervasive economic and political philosophy? Why, of all places, did it first take root in early 20th-century Russia?
These and other questions all get addressed as part of a fascinating story that stretches from the intellectual partnership between Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the late 19th century to the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. It's a story whose drama, Professor Liulevicius notes, “has few equals in terms of sheer scale, scope, or suffering.”
According to award-winning historian Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to understand the inner dynamics of communist thought and rule (and the reasons they linger in places like Cuba, North Korea, and China), you have to go back to the crucial beginnings of communism. How did it become such a pervasive economic and political philosophy? Why, of all places, did it first take root in early 20th-century Russia?
These and other questions all get addressed as part of a fascinating story that stretches from the intellectual partnership between Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the late 19th century to the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. It's a story whose drama, Professor Liulevicius notes, “has few equals in terms of sheer scale, scope, or suffering.”
More episodes of the podcast Knowledge = Power
Overcoming Social Anxiety The Great Courses
28/06/2025
The Solution to Social Anxiety
28/06/2025
The Art of Extraordinary Confidence
28/06/2025
Introduction to Internal Family Systems
14/05/2025
No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model
14/05/2025
David M. Rubenstein - How to Invest
27/04/2025
Christopher Moore
30/03/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.