This magisterial study of international Communism presents the whole mighty drama of global socialism and Marxism: from its pre-Bolshevik origins through the establishment of a Communist empire over one third the world population to the shattering defeat of the Soviet state in 1991. A landmark work of history, exhaustively documented and narrated in a compelling style.

• Table of Contents 
• List of Maps
• Note on Dates and Transliterations
• Preface
• Chapter One: 
• The Ultimate Revolution (1789-1917)
• 1 
• Apocalypse Now
• 2 
• Karl Marx: The Revolution as Idol
• 3 
• The Paris Commune of 1871
• 4 
• Russian Terror
• 5 
• The Crucible of War
• 6 
• Lenin's Revolution
• Chapter Two: 
• Lenin Rules (1917-1924)
• 1 
• The One-Party State
• 2 
• The World Revolutionary
• 3 
• Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
• 4 
• Duel unto Death
• Chapter Three: 
• Stalin Takes Over (1924-1929)
• 1 
• Stalin Emergent
• 2 
• China: The Revolution Fails, Mao Survives
• 3 
• Stalin Supreme
• Chapter Four: 
• The Time of Stalin's Famine (1929-1934)
• 1 
• Farmers' Holocaust
• 2 
• Genocide in Ukraine
• 3 
• The Gulag Takes Form
• Chapter Five: 
• The Time of Stalin's Purge (1934-1939)
• 1 
• The Purge with Yagoda
• 2 
• China: The Long March
• 3 
• Spain: The Rescue
• 4 
• The Purge with Yezhov
• Chapter Six: 
• Communism in World War II (1939-1945)
• 1 
• Stalin's Pact with Hitler
• 2 
• Monsters Grapple
• 3 
• Positioning for Conquest
• Chapter Seven: 
• The Great Communist Conquests (1945-1950)
• 1 
• Atomic Bomb Secrets Betrayed
• 2 
• The Conquest of Eastern Europe
• 3 
• The Gulag at its Worst
• 4 
• The Conquest of China
• 5 
• The Defense of Korea
• Chapter Eight: 
• The Time of Stalin's Death (1950-1956)
• 1 
• Wolves around the Tiger
• 2 
• The Release and the Trap
• 3 
• The Despot Unveiled
• 4 
• A Rumor of Freedom
• Chapter Nine: 
• Mao, Khrushchev, and Castro (1956-1962)
• 1 
• Communism Was Real in China
• 2 
• Gambler in the Kremlin
• 3 
• The Upstart
• Chapter Ten: 
• The Time of Ho Chi Minh (1963-1969)
• 1 
• The Destruction of Ngo Dinh Diem
• 2 
• The Fall of Khrushchev
• 3 
• Mao's Last Revolution
• 4 
• America's Defeat in Vietnam
• Chapter Eleven: 
• The Last Communist Surge (1969-1979)
• 1 
• Completion of the Conquest of Indo-China
• 2 
• The Rise and Fall of Allende in Chile
• 3 
• Communist Advance in Portugal and Africa
• 4 
• The Illusion of “Détente”
• Chapter Twelve: 
• The Victims Strike Back (1979-1987)
• 1 
• War to the Last Man in Afghanistan
• 2 
• The Freedom Fighters of Nicaragua
• 3 
• Solidarity in Poland and the Polish Pope
• 4 
• From Brezhnev to Gorbachev
• Chapter Thirteen: 
• The Fall of the Soviet Union (1987-1991)
• 1 
• Gorbachev Breaks the Chains
• 2 
• Blood on Tiananmen Square
• 3 
• Catholic Poland Shows the Way
• 4 
• The Red Rag Comes Down
• Epilogue: Remnants and the Reason Why
• Annotated Bibliography
• Index
• Photo and Map Credits