Rise and Fall of Communism

One in every three people on Earth once woke up under a government that called itself communist. Today, that world has almost vanished. In this episode, we drop straight into the moment when a system that claimed to abolish inequality began quietly collapsing from within.

Factories hit their output targets—but produced mountains of shoes no one wanted. Supermarkets stocked identical gray cans whose labels promised more than the shelves delivered. Scientists could launch satellites, yet struggle to buy decent sausages. Daily life in much of the communist world was full of these small contradictions: impressive numbers on paper, stubborn shortages in practice.

To see why, we have to move closer to the ground: to the planners with their five-year tables, the workers watching the clock, and the party officials trying to keep everything—and everyone—in line. Instead of asking only why the system eventually broke, we’ll ask how it actually functioned on an ordinary Tuesday.