In this book Kagarlitsky, an influential critic of post-Soviet Russia, theorist, and writer makes the provocative claim that the dominance of neoliberal capitalism and globalization in the post-1989 world shows, contrary to popular belief summed up in notions of the ‘end of history’, that socialism can still provide a political alternative. Kagarlitsky claims that in the post-communist world, a new barbarism has come into force in the conversion of the old communist countries to their neoliberal, liberal democratic, capitalist ‘destinies’. A call to revive the left and to reconsider how Marx’s economic theories may be more relevant today than ever (in light of the ‘primitive accumulation’ seen in today’s Russia, for example). See also more recent discussions on the ‘idea of communism’ by Slavoj Žižek, Alain Badiou, and others.