The Stalin Years: A Reader

by Christopher Read

Overview

Christopher Read takes students through the history of the Stalin years, covering the key points of his rule from the late 1920s to the post-war years, using post-Soviet articles which provide more balanced and scholarly assessments of the leader's time in power. Taken together with Read's own contributions, which include an up-to-date historiographic survey, they constitute a complex and dynamic history of the central features of a terrible era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333963432
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/01/2003
Edition description:	2002
Pages:	241
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

CHRISTOPHER READ is Professor of History at the University of Warwick.
CHRISTOPHER READ is Professor of History at the University of Warwick.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword
Glossary
Stalin's Life and Times
PART 1: MAIN CURRENTS OF INTERPRETATION OF STALIN AND THE STALIN YEARS
During Stalin's Lifetime
The Rise of Revisionism
Perestroika and After
PART 2: CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Social Modernization
The Modernization of Russian Motherhood 1917-37; E.Waters
Towards the 'New Soviet Person': The Assault on Religion
The 1929 Congress of the Godless; D.Peris
PART 3: INDUSTRIALIZATION AND COLLECTIVIZATION
The Drive to Industrialize
Building the 'Soviet Detroit': The Construction of the Nizhnii Novgorod Automobile Factory, 1927-1932; K.Schulz
The Assault on the Peasantry
Stalin, Grain Stocks and the Famine of 1932-1933; S.Wheatcroft, M.Tauger and R.W.Davies
PART 4: THE GREAT TERROR
Why Did the Terror Take Place?
The Objectives of the 'Great Terror'; O.Khlevnyuk
The Purges in the Provinces
How the Mice Buried the Cat: Scenes from the Great Purges of 1937 in the Russian Provinces; S.Fitzpatrick
PART 5: THE GREAT FATHERLAND WAR
Soviet Women at War; J.Erickson
PART 6: THE FINAL YEARS
The Cold War
Moscow and the Marshall Plan: Politics, Ideology and the Onset of the Cold War, 1947; G.Roberts
Stalin's Dictatorship in the Final Years
Stalin's Cabinet: the Politburo and Decision Making in the Post-War Years; Y.Gorlizki
PART 7: SOME REFLECTIONS ON STALINISM
Stalinism as a Civilization
Stalinism as a Civilization; S.Kotkin
The Emerging Picture: Some Concluding Thoughts
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This is a very welcome, interesting and useful addition to the literature on Stalin and the Stalinist system. It will make available a diverse selection of material. The material contributed by the editor is also very useful: clearly written, balanced and yet also provocative in places. It provides an excellent introduction to the historiography, and importantly locates it in the wider historical, cultural and political context of its time.' - Mark Sandle, De Montfort University

'Particularly helpful for those wanting to write essays at a creative, non-superficial level.' - Dr David Collins, University of Leeds

'Don't let this book go past you if you teach this field.' - History Teaching Review

Editorial Reviews

"This is a very welcome, interesting, and useful addition to the literature on Stalin and the Stalinist system. It will make available a diverse selection of material. The material contributed by the editor is also very useful: clearly written, balanced and yet also provocative in places. It provides an excellent introduction to the historiography, and importantly locates it in the wider historical, cultural, and political context of its time." -- Mark Sandle, De Montfort University

From the Publisher