LA MYTHOLOGIE SCIENTIFIQUE DU COMMUNISME

The history of Communism has inspired a multitude of books. But they usually deal with the concrete history of the phenomenon and devote far less space to its mythological aspects. But communism was, above all else, a mythologyæan imaginary vision whose goal was to transform the world. Everything was supposed to change : society, nature, and mankind, so that science and technology could aid in enforcing the "laws of history". The result was grotesque : a (partially) achieved mythology and real societies operating in imaginary mode. Communism is the history of boundless hope and custom-made failure. It is this history, revisited with occasional black humor, that Lucian Boiaæa Romanian expert of the imaginaryæ has undertaken to relate.

Lucian Boia, historien, professeur à l'université de Bucarest, est auteur de nombreux ouvrages publiés en France, consacrés notamment à l'histoire des idées et de l'imaginaire. Dernières parutions aux Belles Lettres : L'Occident. Une interprétation historique (2007), Napoléon III, le mal-aimé (2008) ainsi que Hégémonie et Déclin de la France (2009).