Communism in Power: From Stalin to Mao

by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius

5 hours and 50 minutes

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.

Genres: History, Audiobook, Politics, Nonfiction, Russia, Biography, China

6 pages, Audible Audio

Published September 9, 2021

About the author

Distinguished Professor in the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences
Biography
Professor Liulevicius specializes in modern German history, with a particular focus on German relations with Eastern Europe. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Peace, and Revolution from 1994-95. He has taught at the University of Tennessee since 1995. From 2008 to 2021, he served as the director of the Center for the Study of War and Society.

Reviews

[Andrew “The Weirdling” Glos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent survey of Communist governments in the 20th Century, although I found the author somewhat unsympathetic to his subject matter. It is a good overview. It suffers from trying to cover a vast array of information in a relatively short space, but I think that is to be expected with any presentation of this kind.

[Cav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Communism in Power: From Stalin to Mao was another excellent offering from The Great Courses.

Course Professor Dr. Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius is Lindsay Young Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, according to his bio page on The Great Courses website.

Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius :


Professor Liulevicius has a great teaching style. I've been following him for a few years, and have taken 3 other of his previous courses. He presents in an easy, and engaging manner, which is a welcome change from some of his contemporaries over at The Great Courses; who can tend to drone on monotonously for the duration.

The formatting of this course is fairly typical of offerings by The Great Courses. The content is split into 12 lectures in this case; each ~30 mins long.
This course is the second part of a 3-part series on Communism. It is the follow-up course to 2019's The Rise of Communism: From Marx to Lenin, which was excellent, as well.

The lectures presented here are:
1. Joseph Stalin: The Soviet Man of Steel
2. The Stalinist Gulag State
3. Pilgrims to Utopia: Foreigners in the USSR
4. World War II: Steel Tempered in the Furnace
5. American Communists: Beyond the Red Scare
6. The Soviet Elephant and the Secret Speech
7. Building East Germany, Albania, and Romania
8. Mao Zedong and Communist China
9. China’s Cultural Revolution
10. Dynastic Communism in North Korea
11. Ho Chi Minh and Vietnamese Nationalism
12. Pol Pot and Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge


*************************

As mentioned at the start of this review, I really enjoyed this course. I would recommend it to anyone interested.
5 stars.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If power corrupts, it also provokes."

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but highly informative, this 12-part course packs a lot of material into its overview of Communist regimes throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. Liulevicius clearly knows his stuff and is an engaging speaker, making his lectures very worthwhile.

[Kirsti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this is going to sound bizarre and maybe even disrespectful, but what I enjoyed most about this lecture series was the jokes. Here's one:
__________________
A rabbit defects from the Soviet Union. His interrogators ask him, "Why did you risk your life to leave?"
The rabbit answers, "I had to. They've killed all the camels."
The interrogators say, "But you aren't a camel. You're a rabbit."
"Yes," says the rabbit, "but how can I prove that?"
__________________

The lecturer says the jokes aren't necessarily funny in translation, but they give an idea of people's fears and concerns at the time. This lecture series also includes poems, slogans, and song lyrics. For example, children in the USSR were once taught to say, "Thank Comrade Stalin for this happy life."

My favorite quotation from the lecturer rather than from a primary source: "To Mao, the answer to every problem was more revolution."

In hindsight, it seems hard to believe that at one point a third of humanity lived under Marxist government.

To me, the most interesting lecture was the last one, about the Khmer Rouge, because it was the subject I knew the least about.

This lecture series taught me far more than I expected to learn about:
• mummification
• public self-criticism by ordinary people as a form of punishment
• the seemingly absurd reasons that some people were exiled or executed as enemies of the people—because they wore glasses, collected stamps, or spoke Esperanto
• children and teenagers being hailed as heroes for informing on their own parents

[Saravanan Mani · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it shows an interesting historical view of the problems with 20th century communist powers, it doesn't look at the global context which precipitated some of the worst atrocities. Especially facts about how the Polpot regime had strong Western backing was glossed over. This is an interesting take but clearly a winner's version of history. What I found appalling was the gaps in considering successful iterations of communist rule, from kerala and west bengal to Cuba. While very informative, the listener must be attentive to the problems with an American version of communist history.
Having said this, the lectures did a great job summarising the essential contradiction of a revolutionary party. It needs to appear anti establishment while having near totalitarian control to ensure compliance from the citizens. And not many leaders who accomplish the revolution are that keen on creating a decentralised and egalitarian society. So you end up with cults of personality and brutal oppression.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Communism in Power: From Stalin to Mao by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius is a mildly irritating course. While a good survey, it is all surface with little depth. The course could have been twice as long and you could still argue that far too much information would be left out. I'm also not sure how I feel about this course being a part 2 to a relatively recent course on Marx to Lenin. Will a third come out in a year or two about "The Fall of Communism"? If you're going to make a trilogy course, do it in the style of Philip Daileader's Middle Ages. His work was extensive and thorough. This was neither.

That's not to say there's not good information here, there is. But I would have preferred that this was either packaged as a single course with its predecessor and any potential successors, or that there was more room given to the narrative to do its subject justice.

85/100

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

The professor hits all the highlights summarizing the utter failure of Communism. (I suppose that would be called true socialism.) Millions upon millions dead due to a failed human experiment. Frightening.

This course is only a summary, but amazingly well done.

FYI, the professor has a strange name but his American English is flawless. No accent.

I'd be glad to listen to the audio course again.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good basic overview of what Communist states have actually been like in practice, focusing on practical life vs. theory. Does a reasonable job of distinguishing between communism and authoritarianism generally, although those have been inherently linked. Not really in-depth or unexpected content, but this isn't an area a lot of people have studied, so the basic overview is good.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This batch of talks ought to be required reading for any idiot that is thinking about voting into office the New Your mayoral candidate Mamdani. I pray that New Yorkers may be convinced of this prior to putting this nut job in office. Of course, I fear it may be too late.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow!

[Abdul Alhazred · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good ultra short overview of communism.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually very interesting and informative.

[Sydney Austad · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I’m not watching love island I do this

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is why the study of history is important.

[David Urquhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid introductory lectures.
Would want more detail for a person with a background in this topic, but for me it was exactly the intro I was looking for.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, everyone knows about the 60 million who died during WWII but not everyone knows about the 94 million who died under communist regimes. This is essential listening.

[Enrico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, short, interesting overview of the history of Communist governments in the 20th century.

[J.D. Kessey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good starting point for each of the key topics. Recommend grabbing said key points and conducting your own research from there.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's OK to learn a bit about communism, but the book doesn't have much sustenance.