Born in Bulgaria, Christian Rakovsky became a major leader of the Russian Revolution who wanted the Soviet Union to be a true partnership of nations. But when Rakovsky challenged Stalin’s dictatorship, he was tried and executed on a trumped-up charge.
Despite four decades of imperial interventions, the United States was defeated in Afghanistan. Tariq Ali explains the long history of meddling in Afghanistan — and why the US's defeat will set back the broader project of American military supremacy.
"We want a left that can learn from 1917 Russia and 1976 Sweden."
An exchange between two Jacobin writers on the question of military aid to Ukraine.
Turkey has toppled the Kurdish-held city of Afrîn. But Erdoğan’s drive to crush the Kurdish liberation movement could backfire.
The rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland has prompted a wave of troubled reactions in Germany. But authoritarianism isn’t just a far-right creation, and today, liberals are leading the charge against basic democratic freedoms.
David Riazanov was a brilliant scholar who pioneered the study of Marxism while playing an active part in Russia’s revolutionary movement. But Ryazanov and the Marx-Engels Institute he founded both fell victim to Stalin’s purges in the 1930s.
Cloaked in an impenetrable jargon, “decoloniality” dehistoricizes and culturalizes colonialism. It’s a political and intellectual dead end for socialists.
Critics of Marx have accused him of imposing a European model of historical development on the rest of the world. But the real Marx rejected Eurocentric thinking and developed a sophisticated view of world history in all its diversity and complexity.
Since taking power, Syriza hasn’t accepted what’s been imposed, but instead fought to create a new political landscape.
Gaza and the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh share a history marked by slaughter, displacement, and broken promises from the West. They also have in common the influence of Israeli weapons, which have driven violence and upheaval in both regions.
Ayn Rand believed that the path to social harmony ran through the inferior masses’ acceptance of brutal rule by their natural superiors. Her perspective was wrong, and its implications were just as grim and nasty as her atrocious personality.
You can't understand the North Korean conflict without understanding the history of US imperialism.
Here's what's behind the turbulence shaking US politics — and why it will likely only get worse.
Between 2010 and 2020, a wave of protests erupted around the world. In some cases, these movements strengthened socialist forces. In others, they opened the door to the Right. Vincent Bevins spoke to Jacobin to explain the causes of this divergence.
Joseph Stalin died 70 years ago today, having stamped his indelible mark upon the Soviet system. Stalin’s legacy continues to haunt the post-Soviet landscape, right up to the present war with Ukraine.
Syriza failed to stop austerity in Greece. What can Popular Unity do differently?
Keir Starmer has cynically used the Ukraine crisis to pick a fight with his left-wing opponents. The Labour leader’s denunciation of antiwar activists will reinforce McCarthyite attitudes toward dissent and make fresh disasters like Iraq and Afghanistan more likely.
As Slovakia heads toward a snap election, former prime minister Robert Fico is surging in polls. His Smer party has a record of defending welfare spending — but its scandals and nationalist rhetoric make it hard for many left-wingers to support.
Four decades ago, Poland’s communist system faced the challenge of a powerful independent workers’ movement and eventually drove it underground. Understanding Solidarity’s fate during and after communism is essential for making sense of Polish politics today.