Saturday 2nd February marked the 70^th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, with the surrender of German troops, a key turning point in the Second World War and a shattering blow to Hitler. Alan Woods analyses this historic event and the way in which it shows the superiority of the planned economy.

The Moscow Trials, which lasted from 1936 to 1938 will go down as the greatest frame-up in history. Their aim was to liquidate the entire
remaining Bolshevik old guard and act as the means by which Stalin
could consolidate his power as head of the bureaucratic caste that ruled the Soviet Union. Seventy-five years on, Jim Brookshaw – a former member of the British Communist Party – looks back at what happened and asks: why?

Today we mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by publishing an article from the current edition of Socialist Appeal which analyses why the events of 1989 have not had the outcome which the West expected. You can also download an audio file on the subject by clicking here .