Beyond the binary: This book traces Maoist dissent in former Soviet bloc

By Harsh Thakor* 

Andrew Smith’s Which East is Red? The Maoist Presence in the Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc Europe, 1956–1980, is a rigorously researched study that challenges the popular belief in a uniform and monolithic Marxism across Eastern Europe during the Cold War. It explores how Maoist ideas, despite the obstacles of authoritarian control and heavy surveillance, penetrated the Soviet Union and its satellite states and offered an alternative revolutionary path to many disillusioned with Moscow’s direction after the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956.

The book situates Maoism within the larger global moment of the 1950s–1970s, when decolonization and youth radicalism swept across continents. Mao Zedong’s theories appealed to students, workers, and intellectuals not only in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, but also in parts of Eastern Europe where official communism was tightly policed. Smith carefully demonstrates that dissent in the region was not simply caught between pro-Soviet and pro-Western positions, but that a third pole, shaped by Maoism and anti-revisionist Marxism, existed—even if only on the margins.

The study’s strength lies in its meticulous use of sources, ranging from pamphlets, periodicals, and underground writings to the testimonies of activists and secondary works on the Sino-Soviet split and the Cultural Revolution. Given the restricted access to Soviet and East European archives, the author’s reliance on contacts within Maoist organizations and assistance from scholars and activists across Europe lends the book both authenticity and freshness. The research also draws on resources like the Marxist Internet Archive and rare publications, bringing into focus voices often silenced by official histories.

Smith traces how Maoism made inroads, sometimes through direct Chinese involvement such as the distribution of the Little Red Book and Peking Review in East Germany, and sometimes through transnational exchanges at youth festivals or clandestine networks in Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. Albania emerges as a special case, aligning with Beijing for a time but eventually diverging. The work also illustrates the limits of this influence, noting that countries like Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia hardly experienced any serious Maoist presence.

The book’s narrative captures episodes of resistance and unrest—whether the Stalinist-tinged protests in Georgia after Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin, or the defiant chants of “Mao, Mao, Mao!” by West German students at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Sofia. While many of these movements were small and suppressed, they reflected a broader intellectual and ideological ferment in which Maoism served as an alternative vocabulary of dissent.

At the same time, the study is careful not to exaggerate Maoism’s success in the Eastern Bloc. It recognizes that repression was severe, surveillance extensive, and the actual numbers of adherents limited. It also notes gaps, such as the omission of certain countries from its scope, leaving space for future scholarship.

Ultimately, Smith’s work is a significant contribution to Cold War studies and the history of international communism. It shifts attention away from a simplistic East–West binary and toward the complexity of ideological battles within socialism itself. For readers interested in the intersections of transnational movements, dissent, and revolutionary thought, this book offers both depth and originality, while also inviting further research into a little-explored dimension of Cold War history.

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*Freelance journalist