Inside the Red World: 27 Intriguing Facts about Communism

The French Marxist philosopher Guy Debord's first book 'Mémoires' was bound with a sandpaper cover so that it would damage other books placed next to it.

Bob Marley wrote a song called "Zimbabwe" in support of the Marxist-Leninist and Maoist guerillas fighting against the Rhodesian government. After Robert Mugabe became the leader of the new country of Zimbabwe, Marley was invited to perform at the country's independence celebrations.

The Indonesian Communist Party was once the largest non-governing Communist Party in the world and was effectively dissolved through a US-supported mass killing of 500,000 of its members.

Mengistu, the brutal communist dictator of Ethiopia, who had thousands of people executed and may have personally murdered Emperor Haile Selassie, is alive and well under asylum in Zimbabwe.

The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia wanted to build a state-of-the-art subway network with better trains, but the Soviet Union forced them to use their old, inefficient train designs for the benefit of the Soviet Economy.

The Communist Party of China was on the verge of defeat in the Chinese civil war in 1946 and would probably have lost the war, but Americans persuaded the KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party) to stop fighting to prevent an all-out civil war. Consequently the Communists regained their strength and won the war.

Khmer Rouge, the genocidal Communist regime in Cambodia, was toppled by Vietnam, but due to Cold War politics, many Western powers supported Khmer Rouge's claim to be a government in exile and gave them a seat in the United Nations.

To apply to become a Communist Party member in China, you need to write periodic "thought reports" for two years, detailing your opinions on society and about your personal life. Additionally you have to attend classes once a week for three months and pass a final exam.

The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada hasn’t been able to secure a single seat in the Canadian Parliament despite running candidates for every election since 1974.

Canada had a top-secret list of suspected Communists they intended to detain indefinitely. If they tried to escape, they would be shot. One of the people on that list was Tommy Douglas, the founder of the current Healthcare and CPP programs.