Below is a list of post World War II scholarly books and journal articles written in or translated into English about communism. Items on this list should be considered a non-exhaustive list of reliable sources related to the theory and practice of communism in its different forms.

The criteria for inclusion are meeting one or more of:

• Books are published by an academic press or major nationally known unbiased publisher.
• Academic journals listed are mainstream academic journals published by an academic press or major nationally known publisher.
• Works that have been reviewed in mainstream academic journals.
• The author is well known and has written works on the subject that would be considered reliable sources.

The #Further reading section contains works with substantial bibliographies about communism.

The individual list items are in APA format and do not use citation templates. References for individual list items are in APA format and use citation templates. ISBNs are not included; editions are noted when important with an explanatory footnote.

• Brown, A. (2009). The Rise and Fall of Communism. London: The Bodley Head.^[1][2][3]
• Haslam, J. (2021). The Spectre of War: International Communism and the Origins of World War II. In Princeton Studies in International History and Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.^[4][5]
• Holmes, L. (2009). Communism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.

The Cambridge History of Communism

• Pons, S., & Smith, S. A. (Eds.). (2017). The Cambridge History of Communism. (Vol. 1). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[lower-alpha 1]}
• Naimark, N., Pons, S., & Quinn-Judge, S. (Eds.). (2017). The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 2, The Socialist Camp and World Power 1941–1960s. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• Fürst, J., Pons, S., & Selden, M. (Eds.). (2017). The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 3, Endgames? Late Communism in Global Perspective, 1968 to the Present. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[lower-alpha 3]}

Books in this section are grouped by subject, not author perspective.

• Getty, J. (1986). Trotsky in Exile: The Founding of the Fourth International. Soviet Studies, 38(1), pp. 24–35.
• Kirby, D. (1986). War, Peace and Revolution: International Socialism at the Crossroads, 1914-1918. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.^[10][11]
• McDermott, K., Agnew, J. (1996). The Comintern: A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Works here are about communist communities which existed in non-communist states.

• Gellately, R. (2007). Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. New York, NY: Knopf.^[38][39]
• Geyer, M., & Fitzpatrick, S. (2009). Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^[40][41][42]
• Gregor, A. J. (2009). Marxism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism: Chapters in the Intellectual History of Radicalism. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Kershaw, I., & Lewin, M. (1997). Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Pauley, B. F. (2015). Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Biographies of major figures in the history and theory of communism.

• Baron, S. H. (1963). Plekhanov: The Father of Russian Marxism. Stanford: Stanford University Press.^{[lower-alpha 7]}
• Deutscher, I. (2015). The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky. New York, NY: Verso.^{[lower-alpha 8]}
• Getzler, I. (1967). Martov: Political Biography: A Political Biography of a Russian Social Democrat. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Kotkin, S. (2014). Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928. New York, NY: Penguin Press.^{[43][44][45][46]}
• ———. (2017). Stalin. (Vol. 2). Waiting for Hitler, 1928–1941. New York, NY: Penguin Books.^[47][48]
• Mccauley, M. (2015). Stalin and Stalinism. New York, NY: Routledge.
• McLellan, D. (2006). Karl Marx: A Biography. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Theen, R. (2004). Lenin: Genesis and Development of a Revolutionary. Princeton: Princeton University Press.^[49]
• Wood, A. (2005). Stalin and Stalinism. London, UK: Routledge.

• Hanebrink, P. (2018). A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.^[50]

• Gregor, R. (2019). Resolutions and Decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Volume 2: The Early Soviet Period 1917-1929. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
• Hoffmann, D. L. (Ed.). (2002). Stalinism: The Essential Readings. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

The list below contains academic journals frequently referenced in this bibliography or that will contain other articles related to the history and theory of communism.

• Canadian-American Slavic Studies (1967–Present): Brill Online.
• Central Asian Survey (1982–Present): Taylor Francis Online.
• Contemporary European History (1992–2014): JSTOR.
• East European Quarterly (1967–2008, 2015–Present): Central European University.
• Journal of Baltic Studies (1970–Present): Taylor Francis Online.
• Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography (2008–Present): Brill Online.
• Journal of Ukrainian Studies (1976–2012): Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Archived 18 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine.
• Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History (2000–Present): Georgetown University, Project Muse.
• The Polish Review (1942–1945, 1956–2019): The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, JSTOR.
• Rethinking Marxism (2003–present) Official website.
• Revolutionary Russia (1988–Present): Taylor Francis Online.
• The Russian Review (1941–Present): Wiley Online, Wiley Online Library, JSTOR.
• Russian Studies in History (formerly Soviet Studies in History) (1962–1992, 1992–Present): Taylor Francis Online.
• Sibirica: Journal of Siberian Studies (2001–2019): Berghahn, Taylor Francis Online.
• Studies in Soviet Thought (1961–2016): JSTOR.
• The Slavic and East European Journal (1957–Present): American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, JSTOR.
• Slavic Review (1961–Present): University of Illinois, JSTOR.
• Slavonic and East European Review (1922–1927, 1928–Present): UCL School of Slavonic And East European Studies, JSTOR.
• Soviet Studies (1949–1992): JSTOR.
• Studies in Comparative Communism (1968–1992): Science Direct Online.
• Politics, Religion & Ideology (formerly Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions) (2000–Present): Taylor Francis Online

This annotated list contains bibliographies of communism and works containing significant bibliographies on communism.

Books

• Suny, R. G. (Ed.). (2006). The Cambridge History of Russia: Volume 3, The Twentieth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[lower-alpha 9][33][34]}
• Pons, S., & Smith, S. A. (Eds.). (2017). The Cambridge History of Communism. (Vol. 1). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[lower-alpha 10]}
• Naimark, N., Pons, S., & Quinn-Judge, S. (Eds.). (2017). The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 2, The Socialist Camp and World Power 1941–1960s. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• Fürst, J., Pons, S., & Selden, M. (Eds.). (2017). The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 3, Endgames? Late Communism in Global Perspective, 1968 to the Present. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[lower-alpha 11]}

Academic journals

• Filardo, P. M. (2017). United States Communist History Bibliography 2016, and a Selective Bibliography of Non-U.S. Communism and Communism-Related Theory. American Communist History, 16(3–4), 168–220.
• Haynes, J. E. (2004). "A Bibliography of Communism, Film, Radio and Television". Film History. 16(4): 396–423.

• Bibliography on American Communism
• Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
• Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union
• Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union
• List of communist parties