The Enduring Power of Communism: The International Origins of Authoritarian Consolidation

The Enduring Power of Communism explores why communist dictatorships in Asia and Latin America have been so durable, despite being relatively weak when they came to power.The book encompasses a comparative historical analysis of all seven non-European communist regimes: China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, Laos, Cambodia, and Mongolia.Drawing on research in the East German archives, Heurlin argues the origins of communist durability lay in an extraordinary campaign by the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc to promote communism abroad.Moscow sent tens of thousands of advisors to fledgling communist regimes in the developing world, helping them to establish powerful state bureaucracies that could plan and direct economic development.Soviet economic aid financed the construction of scores of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that granted communist rulers tremendous control of the economy.SOEs channelled tax revenues to rulers, while also serving as sites of social domination, granting communist