Ludo Martens (born c. 1945/48) is a Belgian historian noted for his work on francophone Africa and the Soviet Union. He is also the chairman of the Workers' Party of Belgium.
In 1968 he founded the group "Alle macht aan de arbeiders" (All Power to the Workers), which in 1979 became the Workers' Party of Belgium.
Martens wrote on the political history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he has lived and travelled extensively.
In 1994, Martens published Another View of Stalin , a history of the Soviet Union under Stalin that challenges in particular the dominant view of collectivisation in the USSR and the Great Purge. He explained his motivation for wtiting the book in the introduction: Defending Stalin's work, essentially defending Marxism-Leninism, is an important, urgent task in preparing ourselves for class struggle under the New World Order. Martens is perceived by some scholars as a "Stalin apologist".
Martens writes primarily in French; however, his books, especially Another View of Stalin, have been translated into Dutch, English, and numerous other languages.
Books authored by Ludo Martens
(English titles have been used where they exist. Elsewhere, the titles have been translated from the original French, for the convenience of the English-speaking reader.)
- Pierre Mulele, or the Second Life of Patrice Lumumba (Antwerp: Éditions EPO, 1985). ISBN 2204198509.
- Sankara, Compaoré, and the Burkinabé Revolution (EPO, 1989). ISBN 2872620338.
- Abo: A woman from the Congo (EPO, 1992). ISBN 2872621032.
- USSR, the velvet counter-revolution (EPO, 1991). ISBN 2872620575.
- Another View of Stalin (EPO, 1994). ISBN 2872620818.
- Kabila and the Congolese Revolution: The choice between pan-Africanism and neocolonialism (EPO, 2002). ISBN 2872621911.
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