Author Archives
Presenter and contributor on TV history and science documentaries, award shortlisted author, blogger, YouTuber, former BBC News producer. Topics of interest: Knights Templar, royal scandals, LGBT history, true crime, news and current affairs.
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Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire – from a Marxist perspective
How did one of the greatest civilisations in history – the Roman Empire – rise and fall? It’s a question that has vexed historians for centuries. The majestic ruins of ancient Rome can be found across Europe and the Middle… Read More ›
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Marxist theory of Historical Materialism
How has society moved on from the slave states of the ancient world to medieval feudalism and then on to industrial capitalism and where we are today? Well, Karl Marx described the process through his theory of historical materialism. Don’t… Read More ›
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How was the Paris Commune crushed?
The simple answer to the headline is – brutally. For barely two months in 1871, a radical socialist government took control of Paris determined to set up a working-class republic. Hardly surprising, the French ruling class decided that was a… Read More ›
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East Germany – how communism ended
How did communism collapse in East Germany at the end of the 1980s? For anybody growing up in the post-war era, the division of Germany into capitalist West Germany and communist East Germany seemed set in stone. But the Soviet-backed… Read More ›
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Stalinist purges – the top ten liquidations!
Stalin liked a good purge! Between 1929 and 1953, 777,975 people were executed after rigged show trials – and that’s just the official figure. Add to that number another half a million who received a bullet to the back of… Read More ›
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Why was Stalin anti-semitic?
What lay behind the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s increasingly hostile attitude towards Jews? Was he always anti-semitic or did his anti-Jewish policies result from increasing paranoia? Let’s investigate why the head of the USSR victimised and murdered Jewish communists and… Read More ›
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British communist hostility to Polish migrants
If you think the far Right is tough on migrants today, it’s worth looking back at how British communists talked about Polish exiles at the end of the Second World War. The language was hostile and uncompromising. But why were… Read More ›
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Why the Prague Spring of 1968 was crushed
In the 1960s, Czechoslovakia attempted to create a more humane version of communism but ended up provoking a massive Soviet invasion. The Prague Spring began with hope and optimism and ended with arrests and foreign troops on the streets. What… Read More ›
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Life and Death of Nicolae Ceaușescu – Romanian dictator
When communism collapsed, most of the former communist leaders from East Germany to Bulgaria slid into disgraced retirement or short spells in prison. Some went into the private sector, using their detailed knowledge to get rich. But one leader faced… Read More ›
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The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 – what happened?
At the height of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and United States, in the 1950s, a communist state tried to throw off the Soviet yoke. Workers and students in Hungary began a revolution, hoping that the Kremlin would… Read More ›
Marxism Explained 