Stalin, Mao, Communism and their 21st-Century Aftermath in Russia and China—A Book Review by Regina Kirkland

Stalin, Mao, Communism and their 21st-Century Aftermath in Russia and China written by Dr. Miguel A. Faria is a historical and literary masterpiece!  It has a wealth of knowledge within its pages. It is a beautiful book with historical photos, charts, a detailed index as well as notes on each chapter. Dr. Faria shares his knowledge from his extensive review of books, thereby saving the reader valuable time to ascertain this information.

This book recounts past and present world and geopolitical events involving Russia, the West and China, the key players involved, including the traitors and heroes that changed the course of history. It includes information on the Cold War, World War II, espionage, the CIA, and many more topics of interest. It tells the truth about the evils of communism and the tyranny suffered by millions of people under Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung. The oppression, brutality, mass murders, starvations, purges, and terror served one purpose—to keep Stalin and Mao in power.  

He shares the story of Arthur Koestler (pages 54-55), a Hungarian communist journalist who fought in the Spanish Civil War. He was arrested by Franco’s forces. During his time in prison, he rejected communism. Later in his masterpiece book, Darkness at Noon, which is discussed by Dr. Faria, Koestler wrote, “I went to Communism as one goes to a spring of fresh water, and I left Communism as one clambers out of a poisoned river strewn with the wreckage of flooded cities and the corpses of the drowned.” Apart from the many villains discussed in the book, Koestler is one of the literary heroes that brightens the future along with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and George Orwell, and the other political and historical figures portrayed in Dr. Faria’s enthralling book.

In the Introduction to his book, Dr. Faria states, “Socialism is the theoretical and historical precursor to communism,” and then he went on to elucidate and enlighten us with the origins of communism:

And as much as the proponents of social democracy (SD) would like to forget, social democracy is also derived from Marxist ideology and grounded in the social revolutionary faith.[5] At the turn of the century, Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) and Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919) were the patron saints of Marxism and social democracy in Germany. Later, they participated in the Spartacus League and founded the Communist Party of Germany. Their counterpart in Russia was Georgi Plekhanov (1856–1918), the father of the Social Democratic Party of Russia to which both Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin initially belonged before the SD split into the more moderate, democratic Mensheviks and the conspiratorial, communist Bolsheviks.

And yet, socialism is becoming more prevalent in the United States, through the indoctrination of the masses via progressive (collectivist) propaganda and free government handouts of the welfare state. Dr. Faria further stated:

Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall, socialism in the Western democracies, including in the United States, has continued to grow either surreptitiously or openly and incrementally by the seduction of the masses rather than by a violent class struggle or radical revolution. In the United States, socialism is expanding in the form of increased dependence on government and the welfare state.

I pray that America will reject socialism. If we choose this path, we will lose our freedoms and will become enslaved to a totalitarian state. This book is instructive and enlightening. It should be read and shared so that we learn from the past and avoid a terrible future that seems to be in the making either because of ignorance of the past or by design of evil men.

Written by Regina Kirkland 

Regina Kirkland is a concerned American citizen. She is a retired administrator from Women’s Services at Atrium Health Navicent.

This article may be cited as: Kirkland, R. Stalin, Mao, Communism and their 21st-Century Aftermath in Russia and China—A Book Review. HaciendaPublishing.com, September 14, 2024. Available from: https://haciendapublishing.com/stalin-mao-communism-and-their-21st-century-aftermath-in-russia-and-chinaa-book-review-by-regina-kirkland/.

Stalin, Mao, Communism, and their 21st-Century Aftermath in Russia and China (January 2024) by Dr. Miguel A. Faria was published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. You can order the book directly from the Cambridge Scholars Publishing website. It is a beautiful hardback book, fully illustrated with over a hundred illustrations, including an insert with glossy color prints. For a 25% discount, enter code PROMO25 to redeem during your online purchase. Or email Cambridge Scholars Publishing at orders@cambridgescholars.com.

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