SCOTT ALSWORTH foresees the coming of the smaller, leaner, and class conscious indie studio, with art as its guiding star
Latest editorial
Valuable insights into the demise of the Soviet Union
MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility
MIK SABIERS wallows in a night of political punk and funk that fires both barrels at Trump
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
The End of the Beginning
by Carlos Martinez
(LeftWord, £5.99)
I RECALL attending a congress of the Greek Communist Party 20 years ago at which its former leader Harilaos Florakis told delegates that the world communist movement would never advance again until it had come to terms with the collapse of the USSR.
It seems he was right. The Soviet Union expired more than 27 years ago, well over a third as long as its actual lifespan. But still there is no closure. Socialists and Communists continue to work to come to terms with the life and death of the first socialist state.
Thus this small book by Marxist writer and activist Carlos Martinez is a welcome contribution to that continuing discussion. It pulls together a range of explanations for the collapse of the USSR and subjects them to scrutiny. He examines ideological weaknesses in the Soviet Communist Party, destabilisation by the Western powers, mounting economic difficulties and the blunders of the Gorbachov leadership.
More from this author
Just as German Social Democrats joined the Nazis in singing Deutschland Uber Alles, ANDREW MURRAY observes how Starmer tries to out-Farage Farage with anti-migrant policies — but evidence shows Reform voters come from Tories, not Labour, making this ploy morally bankrupt and politically pointless
