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this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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Asklemmy
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@Cowbee has a great reading list here that goes over many of these. Any anti-imperialist historical account is going to give you a better view
Here's a few documentaries about different leaders:
And I keep a study guide here.
FYI it seems about half of these have been taken down
Got memory-holed by google, not much we can do about that (apologies for the orwellism)
Note to others. The quality of the links isn't great. And there seems to be an authoritarian communist et al. bias. Cross-reference stuff, and consider biases.
that's right, authoritarian just like your bedtime
Well they did want a different light
I'm not arguing against that, just drawing attention to what kind of 'light' they are given. It's not like there are only two perspectives.
You are on a site maintained and developed by communists, so there are a lot of us here. We all have biases, of course, and I'd argue that presenting an anti-western, pro-communist bias on some of the most unjustly demonized figures in the world both today and historically is exactly what OP asked for.
As for the bit on "authoritarianism," communists support the use of the state in protecting socialism and uplifting the well-being of the vast majority of society. This is often framed as "authoritarian" by western countries, stripping property owners of their spoils and focusing on collectivized production and distribition, but we communists would argue that this creates a freer society overall.
Marx was called an "authoritarian" in his time as well, yet his work has helped lead to the liberation of billions of people. The communists who gave their blood, sweat, and tears to gain the power to feed, house, and clothe the people are the ones actually fighting for freedom, even if the west calls them authoritarian.