Book

The object of this book is to show how and why academic Marxism is essentially fundamentally flawed, and now virtually defunct. Communism has generally been seen to be in long and gradual retreat all over the world since the 1980’s. Unease against communism and its general principles has been known since at least 1968, when the Prague Spring unraveled itself. This was a period of liberalization in Eastern Europe, but was brutally suppressed by the former Soviet Union and its communist leaders, who feared its ripple and cascading effects in the rest of the communist world. The Soviet Union itself crumbled less than a quarter of a century later – this collapse was precipitated by Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, namely Glasnost or openness and Perestroika  or structural reform – Gorbachev needs no introduction to most people; he was born in 1931, and died in 2022. Gorbachev's began his political career in the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union, where gradually he rose through the ranks to assume leadership positions, becoming General Secretary in 1985. Gorbachev gradually moved away from orthodox Stalinism- Leninism, to embrace more democratic ideals. He therefore sought to modernize the USSR by saving its stagnant economy which was even being overtaken by newly emerging Asian powers, and counter nationalist sentiments in other Soviet Republics.  The Soviet Union was subsequently formally dissolved on the 26^th of December 1991, by a declaration known as 142-N. All the Soviet republics declared their independence effectively putting an end to the USSR which vanished into the annals of history. Many communist nations of Eastern Europe were dissolved even prior to this, with the Berlin wall falling in November 1989, and Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime in Romania being toppled a month later. Communism has generally been seen to be in long and gradual retreat all over the world since the 1980’s. Unease against communism and its general principles has been known since at least 1968, when the Prague Spring unraveled itself. This was a period of liberalization in Eastern Europe, but was brutally suppressed by the former Soviet Union.