Hi everyone. I’m looking for some suggested reading (books or articles mainly. Although a video or podcast would be welcome as well) covering the following topics:
- fall of the USSR. Specifically the last few years of the USSR and the capitalist restoration period afterwards.
- History of Tibet leading up to the Chinese revolution. Also interested in US/CIA involvement in the decades after.
- History just of the CPC.
These don’t necessarily have to be Marxist analyses but it would be preferred. I just want to mainly avoid Western liberal bias.
Also I looked for some reading group communities on Lemmygrad. I found a couple but they weren’t very active. Does anyone have any active reading and discussion groups they recommend?
Thanks comrades!
The CPC is only present during the last part, but I’ve heard that the From Yao to Mao lecture series is good (you should be able to skip the earlier episodes)
Awesome. Thank you!
Red Star Over China* by Edgar Snow is good. Snow was a journalist. From the US, I think. He went to China in the 1930s. The book is the story of his time with the early CPC army. It’s good.
I’m listening to the podcast ‘A Peoples History of Ideas’ and they just mentioned this book. Definitely on my list.
This book isn’t exclusively about the CPC, but I highly recommend “Mao and the Chinese Revolution” by Jerome Ch’en. He was a good author, so his own bias is not at all noticable, he pretty much just lays down a history of china (mainly focussing on mao’s life)
History of Tibet
This Parenti article might just be what you’re looking for.
https://redsails.org/friendly-feudalism/
History of the CPC
People’s History of Ideas podcast. Its focus is the history of international Maoism, and it only reaches up to the early stages of the civil war, but its so well researched I cannot not reccomend it to you.
https://open.spotify.com/show/3IRm6HB8t5BgcDt0P7B6aD?si=0b8b6476c6954513
Fall of the USSR
Paul Cockshott has intersting stuff on the economic history of the Soviet Union right up till its collapse, but I can’t reccomend you more dedicated authors. Other people shared better resources.
Actually I am listening to that podcast right now! I’m up to like the 1920s right now. Love that podcast. I’ll go on long binges with it.
For the fall of the USSR there are two great books that I’ve found to be very insightful.
“Socialism Betrayed” by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny
And
“The Destruction of the Soviet Economic System” by Michael Ellman and Vladimir Kontorivich
The first one is often described as a pop history book, and I can see that criticism. It’s not necessarily a deep dive and it’s not super acedemic but it still has a lot of insightful information and gives a very detailed timeline of events. The second one is more of a deep dive into economics, a lot of acedemic jargon so be warned.
Awesome. I appreciate it!
If you need any more info and want to get books scanned or access to books for free Ismail on eregime.org scans them. Ismail is incredibly knowledgeable about the USSR too, so If you have any questions you can ask them on the dedicated /marx/USSR questions thread.
Awesome. Thanks!
Article you say? Tibet, China, and the Violent Reaction of a Wealthy Elite. It’s very well sourced!
I’m not sure about the other two specifically, but I do have an old soviet encyclopedia style website which has an entry about revisiting the notion that military spending killed the USSR. Here.
I believe it should auto translate the page.
Thank you!
You said history of just the CPC, so I’m unsure if this is pertinent, but The Socialist Program with Brian Becker has a wonderful 7 part series on China’s foreign policy implementations and ideals from 1949-2021, how it has changed so dramatically at times, etc. It’s eye opening stuff and gives more context into seemingly (to many westerners) random things like the invasion of Vietnam (still abhorrent with context) and border clashes with India.
Whole thing is here, 6 hours long. They’ve got it broken into pieces on the podcast channel.
I actually listen to that podcast regularly now. I was going through the backlog but I have tons of other podcasts I listen to now so I haven’t had the time to go back recently. I’ll add that to my queue ASAP.
