The Russian revolution of 1917 was a turning point in the twentieth century. The revolutions that swept through the USSR and Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s marked another turning point. Communism and its Collapse surveys the course of communism and addresses the many intriguing questions that the experience of communism has raised. Focusing particularly on the USSR and Eastern Europe, this book examines the development of Communist rule in historical and analytical terms and includes discussion of:* communism as doctrine * the evolution of communist rule* the challenges to Soviet authority that came from Yugoslavia, Hungary and how communism worked in Czechoslovakia and Poland* the complex processes bringing an end to communist rule in the 1980s* rival historiographical interpretations of the whole mechanism of change. Communism and its Collapse is an essential introduction to the study of this crucial element of twentieth century history.