It is often said that the 'ifs of history' are fascinating but fruitless. Here, Rob Stradling shows that a counter-factual consideration of what might have happened allows us new insights into the significance of what did happen.
In reviewing the career of one of the key figures in modern Russian history, Michael Lynch rejects the notion that Trotsky would have been a more humane leader than Stalin.
Jim Broderick looks at the crisis management of two moments when the spectre of nuclear war shadowed relations between the superpowers.
Mikhail Gorbachev's period as President of the Soviet Union, 1985-91, was truly revolutionary. But Steven Morewood argues that he failed to understand or control the forces he unleashed.
Graham Darby argues that the Bolshevik success of 1917 was rooted in the failings of the Provisional Government and the aspiration of ordinary people.
Dan Leab looks at a classic Cold War movie and the shadowy figure who inspired it.
Maxim Gorky was revered over the lifetime of the Soviet Union as the leading artist and intellectual associated with the 1917 Revolution. But did he really approve of Lenin and the Bolshevik experiment?
Martin McCauley argues that our obsession with Stalin as a mass murderer evades the real question – how did his system work?
Laurie Johnston explores the significance of public education in Cuba's efforts to forge a national identity in a period of US intervention.
Brian Dooley assesses the incident which brought the world perilously close to nuclear war.
