The communist experience in Central and Eastern Europe has been one of the most extraordinary political experiments of the twentieth century. Its long-term effects, moreover, will continue to be felt within its countries for many years to come, as they struggle to return to democracy. In this book, George Schopflin provides an exceptional analysis of what communism sought to do, how it was first able to sustain itself in power against considerable popular opposition, and why it collapsed, after four decades, in exhaustion. George Schopflin's analysis of these processes offers a rare insight into the nature of revolutions, modernization, and the relationship between rulers and ruled in totalizing societies concluding with an assessment of the difficulties of post-communism.