Stephen White Professor of Politics at the University of Glasgow. His many published works include The Bolshevik Poster (Yale, 1988), After Gorbachev (Cambridge, 1994), Russia’s New Politics (Cambridge, 2000) and, with Evan Mawdsley, The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev (Oxford, 2000).

• Chapter 1 What was communism?; Chapter 2 The establishment of communist rule; Chapter 3 ‘National communism’ in Eastern Europe; Chapter 4 The limits of reform; Chapter 5 A system in decline; Chapter 6 Transition from below; Chapter 7 Transition from above; Chapter 8 Explaining communist collapse;

Stephen White Professor of Politics at the University of Glasgow. His many published works include The Bolshevik Poster (Yale, 1988), After Gorbachev (Cambridge, 1994), Russia’s New Politics (Cambridge, 2000) and, with Evan Mawdsley, The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev (Oxford, 2000).

• Chapter 1 What was communism?; Chapter 2 The establishment of communist rule; Chapter 3 ‘National communism’ in Eastern Europe; Chapter 4 The limits of reform; Chapter 5 A system in decline; Chapter 6 Transition from below; Chapter 7 Transition from above; Chapter 8 Explaining communist collapse;