This title examines communism in world history from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to creation of the Soviet Union after World War I, through World War II and the Cold War to its apex in the 1960s. Communist governments in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos, and Socialist Law are examined, as is daily life for people under this type of government. Other types of governments are compared and contrasted, as are the properties of the central economy. Influences in the movement such as François Marie Charles Fourier, George Ripley, François-Noël Babeuf, John Goodwin Barmby, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Kim Jong-il, Nguyen Minh Triet, and Choummaly Sayasone are examined. Critics of communism such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, Robert Conquest, and Stéphane Courtois are introduced. Important institutions such as the Fourier Movement, Brook Farm, Communist Propaganda Society, League of the Just, Communist Correspondence Committee of Bruxelles, and Communist League are explored. Important events such as the Cultural Revolution, Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs Invasion, The Helsinki Accords, House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall are highlighted, and important works such as The Communist Manifesto, and State and Revolution are included. Exploring World Governments is a series in Essential Library, an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.