From the Soviet Magazine Socialism: Theory and Practice, January 1984. A moving look at the final months of Lenin's life. Sixty years have passed since the death of Lenin (January 21, 1924), a brilliant thinker and revolutionary, the founder and leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet state. The number of people left who knew him personally, who worked alongside him is diminishing with every passing year. However, quite a few reminiscences of his contemporaries have come

The youth subculture in the late GDR was largely anti-communist: East Berlin skinhead poses in his apartment (12.8.1990) -- image via Junge Welt Interview with Stefan Wellgraf, Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin. Junge Welt, 16 January 2026. Translation and notes by Helmut-Harry Loewen. Richard Malone: Your newly published book ”Staatsfeinde” ("Enemies of the State") deals with "right-wing subcultures in East Germany since the 1970s." A contributio

Via Granma and the Communist Party of Cuba, translated from the Spanish U.S. actions against Venezuela have been marked by a steady escalation of economic and diplomatic sanctions dating back to Obama and including the first Trump Administration and the Biden Administration, all of which laid the groundwork for US military aggression. 2015 March: Then-U.S. President Barack Obama declared a national emergency against Venezuela, after considering that the political situation in

CPI centenary rally in Chhattisgarh -- image via the CPI Facebook page By Pallab Sengupta The centenary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) is not only an occasion to commemorate a hundred years of struggle within the country, but also a moment to recall and reaffirm its consistent and principled engagement with the international communist and workers’ movement. From its formation in 1925 to the present day, the CPI has understood the Indian revolutionary struggle as insepa

First published in the Soviet magazine Socialism: Theory and Practice in September, 1985: The life of the fighter for the people's happiness, Ho Chi Minh, (''worldlywise" - in Vietnamese) was both colourful and eventful. His real name was Nguyen Tat Thanh (1890-1969). He was the son of a village teacher. He began his revolutionary activity in his early youth. At the age of 15 he was a liaison for the local patriotically-minded democrats fighting against the French colonialist

By Bisharat Abbasi Today we commemorate the birth of Comrade Chairman Mao Zedong (1893- 1976) one of the greatest revolutionary figures of the twentieth century and a giant of anti-imperialist history. Mao was not merely a Chinese leader; he was a world-historical figure who fundamentally altered the global balance of forces by smashing semi-colonial subjugation, defeating imperialism and feudalism, and founding the People’s Republic of China in 1949. For the oppressed nation

CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons By Dr Waseem Ahmad Bhat As the Indian Left completes a century of political existence, it finds itself at a moment that is both reflective and unsettled. Few political traditions have shaped the moral and institutional vocabulary of the Indian republic as deeply as the Left. From early interventions in debates on equality, labour rights, land reforms and federalism, the Left helped define the social ambitions of postcolonial democracy. Its f

The USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements, 1959 Part III Yakov Gumennik FOREIGN coal operators and mining engineers who visit the Machine-building Pavilion at the Exhibition invariably stop for a long look at a bright red machine, a high-speed coal-tunneling combine, and a talk with Yakov Gumennik, its designer. They tend to be a little skeptical that this light and compact caterpillar installation can burrow its way to a coal seam pressed down by a great wall of rock. But

From the original Soviet card (translated): GAZ-51 (1946-1955) The most widely produced Soviet truck. After its modernization in 1955, it was called the GAZ-51A. It was produced under license in the Polish People's Republic under the brand "Lublin" and in the DPRK as "Sunrig". Engine displacement - 3485 cc, power - 70 hp, length - 5.53 m, curb weight - 2710 kg, speed - 70 km/h, payload - 2500 kg. Additional research information: The GAZ-51 was a Soviet 2.5-ton light truck pro

Long before Christmas became a commercial spectacle, winter holidays carried a shared moral purpose: protecting the vulnerable, renewing social bonds, and reminding societies of their obligations to one another. Revisiting these ancient ethics may offer a surprising roadmap for civic repair in an age of division. Gathering Evergreens -- BPL, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Martina Moneke When we think of Christmas today, what comes first to mind? Twinkling lights alon

By Randolph Oechslein, People's World The final sequences of Kenneth Bowser’s moving 2011 documentary Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune are painful. Family members, artists who were friends of Ochs’, such as Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, and others, speak about the last phase of his life. He was only 35-years-old. It was a suicide with some warning. Beforehand, he revealed to the writer Bruce Pollock why it had become increasingly difficult for him to write songs. The reasons were h

Leslie Goonewardene as General Secretary of the LSSP in the early days of the party -- image via A S Goonewardene - Fair use, via Wikimedia Commons By Shiran Illanperuma Ninety years ago, on 18 December 1935, a handful of young people came together to establish the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). Leslie Goonewardena, General Secretary of the LSSP from 1935 to 1977, later wrote that the party was founded because “there was a void to be filled”. On th

Via the Communist Party of Cuba, translated from the Spanish The First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), which began December 17, 1975, marked a transcendent moment in Cuba's history, serving to solidify the Revolution's institutional framework and chart the country's political, economic, and social direction for the future. It was not only a very successful congress, it was a living embodiment of the continuity of the ideals of independence, sovereignty, and soc

From the Soviet Press, June 1960: THE DEPARTMENT store in Maryita Roshcha, which was once a run-down section in an outlying part of Moscow, has been growing with the neighborhood. Maryina Roshcha in the last few years has mushroomed with new houses, schools, clubs and shops. Look at the attractive window display of the department store and it is apparent that the Soviet purchaser has more goods to buy and more money to buy with than was true even a few months ago. The quantit

Revolutionary Monument at the Kaysone Phomvihane Museum in the city of Vientiane, the capital of the Lao People's Democratic Republic December 2 is Laos National Day commemorating the founding of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1975, marking the end of the monarchy and the beginning of modern socialist Laos. This event marked the beginning of the country's socialist transformation led by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and the great Marxist-Leninist revolu

Cosmonaut Gherman Titov and Hero of Socialist Labor Nikolai Mamai from the Donbas at the Twenty-Second Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1961 The whole world knows that socialism was the launching pad from which spaceships Vostok I and Vostok II were shot. Socialism created the necessary conditions for cosmic flight. My friends and fellow cosmonauts are getting ready for new ventures. The era of space exploration has only just begun. Yuri Gagarin and I are

Joint Statement on the 108th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, November 24, 2005 The Communist and Workers’ Parties signing this Joint Statement wish, among other means, to honour the October Revolution, which illuminated the strength of the revolutionary class struggle — the power of the exploited and oppressed — when they surge to the forefront and turn the wheel of history forward, towards social emancipation. It was a Revolution inseparably linked wit

Haitian monument honouring the battle By Guillermo Barreto This year marks the 222nd anniversary of the Battle of Vertières. It took place on November 18 south of Le Cap, in what was then known as Saint Domingue. In that battle, which lasted five hours, Napoleon Bonaparte’s elite troops were defeated by battalions of former slaves led by Jean Jacques Dessalines, who consolidated the independence of what would henceforth be called Ayti or Haiti. Haiti is always mentioned in th

Amid US threats of an attack on Venezuela, we look back at some of the most infamous chapters in the history of US military invasions in Latin America and the Caribbean. US Marines outside a destroyed Panamanian Defense Force building during the US invasion of Panama, 1989 By Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch The administration of US President Donald Trump began carrying out extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea under the auspices of waging a war on drug trafficking ove

Gagarin in 1961 From the Soviet Press, November 1961: Yuri Gagarin, known to people the world over as the first man to venture into space, was elected a delegate to the Party Congress from the Leningrad District of Moscow by acclamation. The 27-year old cosmonaut is a newcomer to the Party, having applied for membership a year ago when he was training for his pioneering flight. At that time he wrote, "I ask to be enrolled in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It is my w