The rise and demise of world communism was one of the great dramas of the twentieth century. Although five communist states remain in power today (in China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, and Cuba), fully eleven communist states came to an end between 1979 and 1992—in Cambodia, the Soviet Union, Mongolia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Albania. Also extinguished was the “world communist movement,” which existed for most of the twentieth century as a coordinated effort, led by Moscow, to bring new communist states into existence as part of its “antiimperialist” foreign policy mission. While several communist states remain important actors on the world stage today, there no longer exists a united world communist movement advancing an alternative system of global organization rooted in Marxist-Leninist principles.