Alexander Riley is professor of sociology at Bucknell University.Alfred Kentigern Siewers is associate professor of English at Bucknell University.

These essays, by three of the most distinguished interpreters of communism in the Western world, are a timely reminder of the price millions of people around the globe paid when communist illusions and delusions resulted in the establishment of totalitarian societies. In an era when those lessons are being forgotten, it is essential that we never forget the lives lost and the societies deformed by the embrace of communism by many people who should have known better.

• Foreword: Challenging Bolshevik Myth and the Poetry of Totalitarianism, by Alexander RileyChapter 1: Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution: The Invention of Totalitarianism, by Stéphane CourtoisChapter 2: The Russian Revolution and the Soviet System: Significance, Impact and Western Perceptions, by Paul HollanderChapter 3: Soldiers for Stalin: Why American Communists Betrayed Their Own Country and Spied for the Soviet Union, by Ronald RadoshAfterword: The Valley of Dry Bones: Towards a Rhetoric of True Resistance, by Alfred Siewers

Alexander Riley is professor of sociology at Bucknell University.Alfred Kentigern Siewers is associate professor of English at Bucknell University.

These essays, by three of the most distinguished interpreters of communism in the Western world, are a timely reminder of the price millions of people around the globe paid when communist illusions and delusions resulted in the establishment of totalitarian societies. In an era when those lessons are being forgotten, it is essential that we never forget the lives lost and the societies deformed by the embrace of communism by many people who should have known better.

• Foreword: Challenging Bolshevik Myth and the Poetry of Totalitarianism, by Alexander RileyChapter 1: Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution: The Invention of Totalitarianism, by Stéphane CourtoisChapter 2: The Russian Revolution and the Soviet System: Significance, Impact and Western Perceptions, by Paul HollanderChapter 3: Soldiers for Stalin: Why American Communists Betrayed Their Own Country and Spied for the Soviet Union, by Ronald RadoshAfterword: The Valley of Dry Bones: Towards a Rhetoric of True Resistance, by Alfred Siewers

Alexander Riley is professor of sociology at Bucknell University.Alfred Kentigern Siewers is associate professor of English at Bucknell University.

These essays, by three of the most distinguished interpreters of communism in the Western world, are a timely reminder of the price millions of people around the globe paid when communist illusions and delusions resulted in the establishment of totalitarian societies. In an era when those lessons are being forgotten, it is essential that we never forget the lives lost and the societies deformed by the embrace of communism by many people who should have known better.

• Foreword: Challenging Bolshevik Myth and the Poetry of Totalitarianism, by Alexander RileyChapter 1: Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution: The Invention of Totalitarianism, by Stéphane CourtoisChapter 2: The Russian Revolution and the Soviet System: Significance, Impact and Western Perceptions, by Paul HollanderChapter 3: Soldiers for Stalin: Why American Communists Betrayed Their Own Country and Spied for the Soviet Union, by Ronald RadoshAfterword: The Valley of Dry Bones: Towards a Rhetoric of True Resistance, by Alfred Siewers