One hundred years ago, the Russian Revolution overthrew the Russian Empire, ending nearly two centuries of monarchical rule.
You may remember from history class that the upheaval came in two parts: the February Revolution (March on the Gregorian calendar) forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate his throne, then the October Revolution (November on the Gregorian calendar) led to the Russian Civil War, from which Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks emerged victorious.
Basically, it was the triumph of the Red Army in the Russian Civil War that laid the foundation for the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. And although the USSR dissolved in almost 70 years, the State and its citizens have produced many scientific and cultural activities. touchstones – the Sputnik 1 satellite, the novel Doctor Zhivagoand video game sensation Tetris, to name a few.
He was also engaged in a cold war with the democratic West that shaped world politics for half a century. The Soviet Union’s outsized impact during its brief life was so great that its downfall led to debate about what to expect in a world without it.
In 1989, political scientist Francis Fukuyama predicted that “the demise of Marxism-Leninism first from China and then from the Soviet Union will mean its death as a living ideology of world historical significance”.
Was he right? Did communism die with the Soviet Union? In a new book, The shadow of communism(Princeton University Press, 2017) New York University politics professor Joshua Tucker suggests that communist thought continues to have a real impact today.
Tucker recently spoke about the legacy of communism and how the Soviet Union changed the world: