The fall of the Soviet Union gave the green light to an unprecedented ideological offensive against the ideas of socialism. The collapse of planned economies of the East was presented as the ultimate proof of the failure of socialism and of the ideas of Marx. The defenders of capitalism saw the fall of the Soviet Union as the final proof that their system was the only one possible.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been a ferment of discussion within the Left worldwide. The aim for the course is to explain this debate in the Left during the last twenty years on the Soviet Union legacy, the Chinese and Cuban perspectives on socialism, the new "eco-socialist" trend and the signification of the economic crisis who exploded in the United States in 2007.