CLUMSY COMMUNISM LOSING BADLY IN BEIJING: 4/8: To the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism by Sean McMeekin (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Overthrow-World-Rise-Fall-Communism/dp/1541601963
When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the world was certain that Communism was dead. Today, three decades later, it is clear that it was not. While Russia may no longer be Communist, Communism and sympathy for Communist ideas have proliferated across the globe.
In To Overthrow the World, Sean McMeekin investigates the evolution of Communism from a seductive ideal of a classless society into the ruling doctrine of tyrannical regimes. Tracing Communism’s ascent from theory to practice, McMeekin ranges from Karl Marx’s writings to the rise and fall of the USSR under Stalin to Mao’s rise to power in China to the acceleration of Communist or Communist-inspired policies around the world in the twenty-first century. McMeekin argues, however, that despite the endurance of Communism, it remains deeply unpopular as a political form. Where it has arisen, it has always arisen by force.
Blending historical narrative with cutting-edge scholarship, To Overthrow the World revolutionizes our understanding of the evolution of Communism—an idea that seemingly cannot die.
1955 MAO
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchel with Professor Sean McMeekin to overthrow the world the rise and fall and rise of communism. |
| 0:06.0 | Lenin dies in 1924 after a series of strokes. |
| 0:10.0 | Joseph Stalin, real name Joshvili, he's a peasant family out of what is now Georgia, Barry, Georgia. |
| 0:18.0 | He comes to power because he's the man, the managing editor of the Politburo. |
| 0:24.0 | You go to him to get hired. |
| 0:26.1 | And once Lenin is gone, O'Yenoff is dead, he asserts control and eventually will take |
| 0:32.7 | complete command of the Soviet Union after 1928. |
| 0:37.4 | And he imposes a five-year plan that leads to starvation |
| 0:41.6 | and failure. However, he's a very strong voice in the world scale eventually. He sends out his spies |
| 0:50.3 | everywhere, including the United States. and Sean notes especially the intellectual property |
| 0:57.3 | theft that was part of the mission that Stalin sent his spies to the U.S. to steal every airplane |
| 1:03.7 | factory plan they can find. |
| 1:06.6 | That was the building of the Soviet Union. |
| 1:08.5 | It's surprising how we see the same complaint about the building of the People's Republic of China. |
| 1:13.6 | However, what we need to know about Stalin is what he made of Leninism and Leninism or Marxist Leninism. |
| 1:21.6 | They reversed back and forth. |
| 1:23.6 | And was there such a thing as Stalinism? |
| 1:25.6 | Because the other man that Sean writes about is men named, we call him Trotsky, who is much more involved early on, the revolution of 1905, revolution in 1917, and builds the Red Army that becomes the master of the Eurasian continent. |
| 1:44.7 | These two men were in tension from the first. |
| 1:47.8 | Was an ideological tension on or they just hate each other? |
| 1:53.0 | Well, I think it's a bit of both. |
| 1:55.0 | Although Trotsky was far more consistent in his ideological vision, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.