Comrades! : a history of world communism

For an expert on Communism, Robert Service doesn't have many kind words to say for his subject which must make for a depressing speciality. In fact this is less a history of communism than a history of Russian Communism. Although Service feels obliged to add chapters on China, which feels somewhat

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outside his competence, and does include a sympathetic treatment of Cuba, other communist regimes globally are dismissed in a couple of pages. In fact Service is best on the growth of Communism before WWII - he is expert on the rise of the government in Russia, internal disagreements, the Second and Third International, Comintern, Communism in Europe etc. But after the war really all Service wants to do is rant about lack of freedoms, human rights abuses - and look these are things we know about already. The leaders of Eastern Europe are particularly scantily treated; we know they were under the thrall of Moscow but there must be something more to say about them than that? So a good half a book but it didn't add much to my knowledge of post war Communism

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Out of Service's books on Communism, this is both his broadest and unfortunately, his weakest. The scope is impressive, particularly in the particulars of communism in lesser-known situations such as in Chile or during the Spanish Civil War. However, it often feels like the author is merely rushing

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over facts without much time for further analysis or in-depth study.

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