Communism in Decline: From Sputnik to Gorbachev
Overview
Explore the unraveling of the Soviet experiment—from Cold War triumphs to systemic collapse—in this 12-lecture course on communism’s dramatic decline.
Course No. 30600
Professor Vejas Liulevicius reveals how internal contradictions, failed reforms, and popular dissent transformed the USSR from space race victor to a dissolved empire by 1991.
Course Content
Cold War Peak to Crisis
- Sputnik’s False Dawn (31 min)
- How 1957’s space victory masked systemic flaws
- Expansion & Overreach (35 min)
- Cuba, Prague Spring, and the Afghan quagmire
- Gorbachev’s Gamble (35 min)
- Perestroika and glasnost’s unintended consequences
Life Behind the Iron Curtain
- Daily Contradictions (34 min)
- Grocery queues vs. propaganda promises
- Dissent Underground (35 min)
- Samizdat literature to Solidarity protests
- Secret Police State (34 min)
- KGB surveillance and societal control
Collapse & Legacy
- 1989: Wall Falls, Empire Crumbles (31 min)
- Chain reaction from Berlin to Moscow
- China’s Different Path (33 min)
- Tiananmen crackdown vs. economic reform
- Communism’s Ghosts (32 min)
- Nostalgia, memorials, and surviving regimes

