A collection · 8 stories · 1917 to 1978
Communist revolutions and coups
How communist parties came to power around the world: in mass uprisings, after long civil wars, and in quiet coups backed by the army.
Communists promised to end rich and poor by putting farms, factories and land in the hands of the state. Turning that promise into power took very different roads. In Russia and Cuba it came through revolution, in China after decades of civil war, and in Prague and Kabul through a coup planned in a few rooms.
Follow these stories around the globe to see where the idea spread, who helped it along, and what happened to the people who stood in the way. Many of the states founded this way did not survive, but each changed the country it took over for generations.
The stories
- 1917
The Russian Revolution
Petrograd, Russian Empire
The first communist state was born when the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd. Every later takeover in this collection looked back to it, and many were helped by the Soviet Union it created.
- 1919
The Hungarian Soviet Republic
Budapest, Hungary
For 133 days after the First World War, Béla Kun's communists ruled Hungary. It was the first attempt to copy the Russian model abroad, and it ended when Romanian troops marched into Budapest.
- 1948
The Prague coup
Prague, Czechoslovakia
With police and workers' militias on their side, Czechoslovakia's communists forced out their partners in government without a shot. The coup shocked the West and sped up the start of the Cold War.
- 1949
The People's Republic is proclaimed
Beijing, China
After more than twenty years of civil war, Mao Zedong's army won China. The world's most populous country became communist almost overnight.
- 1959
The Cuban Revolution
Havana, Cuba
Fidel Castro's guerrillas came down from the mountains and drove the dictator Batista out of Havana. Within two years Castro declared the revolution socialist, ninety miles from the United States.
- 1974
The Derg overthrows Haile Selassie
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
A committee of army officers removed Ethiopia's last emperor during famine and unrest, then turned the country into a Marxist state ruled by fear.
- 1975
The Khmer Rouge take Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The Khmer Rouge emptied the capital within days and tried to rebuild Cambodia as a nation of farm labourers. Close to two million people died under their rule.
- 1978
The Saur Revolution
Kabul, Afghanistan
Communist army officers stormed the palace in Kabul and killed the president. The revolt against their rule drew in Soviet troops a year later and began decades of war.
More collections
- Revolutions in the name of faith. Prophets, rebel armies and clerics who tried to remake whole countries around their faith, from Qing China to the Iranian Revolution.
- When nature struck. Volcanoes, earthquakes, storms and droughts that destroyed cities, moved whole populations and changed how people build and plan.