Tales about Communism

Gripping stories about communism around the world

I’ve read book after book about the Nazis. They were evil after all. But hardly any movies or stories in the past 70 years have been published about communists. They are just as totalitarian as the Nazis after all. But the leftist elites in control of our universities, K-12 schools, government, media and most American institutions don’t want us to know that. As a result, most younger Americans and many older ones are completely oblivious to the evils of communism. An annual survey taken by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation shows our knowledge about communism dwindles every year.

That’s why the focus of today’s issue is on historical fiction and nonfiction books that are not only gripping but very informative about what life is really like under communism.

I Must Betray You

This thriller written by Ruta Sepetys portrays the citizen spy network used by the communist regime in Romania to maintain its power. The secret police blackmail the protagonist, 17-year-old Cristian Florescu, forcing him to become a informer. He must betray everyone he loves unless he can come up with a creative alternative. Cristian decides to try to outwit his handler, undermine the ruthless regime, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. But what is the cost of freedom?

Between Shades of Gray

Also written by Ruta Sepetys, this historical novel is a #1 New York Times bestseller. It tells the story of Lina, a 15-year-old girl who is herded into a train car when the communist Soviet army invades Lithuania during World War II. Her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp. Lina and the rest of her family are shipped off to a communist forced-labor camp in Siberia where they begin a long struggle to survive. The book has been made into a movie titled “Ashes in the Snow.”

Cilka’s Journey

Heather Morris is the author of this historical novel about a woman who survives not only the German concentration camps but also the Soviet forced-labor camps. It provides a unique side-by-side comparison of the two faces of totalitarianism as experienced by Cilka, a young woman who not only manages to survive but to help other prisoners despite the brutal conditions.

Train to Moscow

In this historically-based story, fiction writer Elena Gorokhova depicts life in post-World War II Russia. Sasha dreams of becoming an actress. In reaching for her goal she must navigate her family’s numerous secrets and the forbidden truths about Stalin’s brutality revealed in her uncle Kolya’s war journal. To achieve success, Sasha also needs to contend with the widespread corruption that lies at the core of the communist society within which she lives.

I’d also like to mention a nonfiction book about living under communism.

Short Hair Detention

Written by Channy Laux, this non-fiction book is the memoir of a 13-year-old girl who survived the Cambodian genocide under the communist regime of Pol Pot. Communism killed more than two million citizens in the killing fields of Cambodia, including about one-quarter of the nation’s population, and took the lives of some of the members of Channy’s family. This is a moving true-life story of how she survived the horrific conditions implemented under the communist Khmer Rouge.

Have you read any tales about communism you could recommend to the 2026 community? If so, please let us know in the comments.

Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, site of the 1989 massacre of hundreds or thousands of Chinese citizens by the Chinese Communist Party’s troops.