Revolution Follow

‘But, Chris, didn’t Mao lead a genuine revolution in China in 1949?" This was a shout as well as a question, and it reverberated across the London School of Economics (LSE) student canteen.

Celebrated muralist Diego Rivera’s print of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and his horse forms the centrepiece of the British Museum’s new exhibition.

The events of autumn 1989, and the end of the East German state, can be traced back to the spring and summer before the Wall came down – and even further back in history as well.

1980 A strike movement sweeps Poland in response to an increase in food prices in July. The Solidarity trade union is formed as a result. It wins massive support and challenges the regime. Though it is suppressed through the 1980s it becomes the main opposition to the regime, which is fatally damaged by the growth...

In 1989 popular revolutions across Eastern Europe overthrew their Communist dictatorships. These countries had nothing to do with socialism. The state and party bureaucracy that ruled society acted as a collective capitalist that exploited the working class.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 were widely hailed as the triumph of free market capitalism.

Mass social movements swept across Eastern Europe 20 years ago, toppling repressive Stalinist regimes that had claimed to be socialist. Mark L Thomas introduces our coverage of the anniversary as he remembers the tumultuous events of 1989

What happened to the illusions that free market capitalism would bring democracy, social justice and equality to the societies of Eastern Europe? Mike Haynes reports

Post-revolutionary China needed rapid industrialisation to meet the demands of the middle class and compete with other capitalist states, but it was the workers and peasants who paid the price. Simon Gilbert continues our series on the revolution's sixtieth anniversary

Before the late 1960s Hollywood was pretty much a "whites only" business. Parts for black actors were largely confined to servants and maids – and as for directors and writers, forget it.

According to the gospel of Jeremy Clarkson (bear with me on this), if anyone calls him sexist he would, "grab you by the epiglottis and bash the back of your head repeatedly into the pavement".

The 60th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution will be marked by the customary orchestrated celebrations in Tiananmen Square. In the first of a short series on China, Charlie Hore looks at how the revolution came about and its impact on the world.