The Man Who Brought Pizza
Mikhail Gorbachev’s journey from Communist reformer to Pizza Hut salesman.
19148 Articles by: Yi San
Yi San is a freelance writer based in New York.
Straying From the Party Line
My last years in the USSR.
The Soviets Abroad
Throughout its existence, the Soviet Union played the role of both liberator and oppressor.
Red Diaper Babies
In America, school is preparation for “real” life. In the early Soviet Union, school was filled with life.
The Elvis of East Germany
How a young man from Colorado became the Eastern Bloc’s biggest pop star.
Seventeen Soviet Films
The October Revolution unleashed cinematic brilliance that even decades of political censorship couldn’t extinguish.
Our Favorite Dupe
Henry Wallace was a brilliant progressive with an open mind. That’s where the trouble began.
Yacht Party Men
Not everyone hated shock therapy.
Choose Your Own Adventure
When your God that fails is Pol Pot.
Our Road to Power
The twentieth century left socialists plenty of lessons. Will we heed them?
From Red Square to Square One
What’s left of the Left in the post-socialist world?
Become a Jacobin Comrade Today
Political action can’t end with reading a magazine, but resistance needs ideas.
Fascism’s Face-Lift
Anti-communist campaigns in Eastern Europe aren’t about building a more democratic society — they’re about rehabilitating the far right.
Brussels, Dec. 12, 1975
NATO leaders from across the political spectrum found common cause opposing Eurocommunism.
Appalachia’s Fickle Friend
Inside the coal lobby’s campaign to win the hearts and minds of central Appalachia.
When Did It Go Wrong?
A short century filled with long disagreements.
Workers’ Paradise Lost
As Stalin advanced his vision of “socialism in one country,” prisons sprouted like a thousand flowers across the USSR.
As Long as It Catches Mice
Central planning led to modernization in poor countries — and stagnation in rich ones.