Historically Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution Pdf, Epub, Ebook

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Historically Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution Pdf, Epub, Ebook HISTORICALLY INEVITABLE?: TURNING POINTS OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Tony Brenton,Donald Crawford,Sean McMeekin,Dominic Lieven,Orlando Figes,Richard Sakwa,Douglas Smith,Martin Sixsmith,Professor Simon Dixon,Boris Kolonitsky | 384 pages | 23 Jun 2016 | Profile Books Ltd | 9781781250211 | English | London, United Kingdom Historically Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution PDF Book Slavisa rated it it was amazing Jan 03, Tony Brenton's afterword to the volume draws parallels between the Revolution and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union in , and places the events of in the context of more recent events in Russia and the Crimea. Most contemporary historians of the Russia recognise that the Bolshevik path to victory in could have been derailed several times and that they were lucky to survive the first few years of their rule. In Was Revolution Inevitable? More filters. It was brought to fruition by the genius of Lenin and pointed the world towards a better future. Craig rated it really liked it Jun 20, Whether there was any real alternative to Bolshevism or another dictatorship cannot be determined solely in reference to the contingency of events; it requires a consideration of many conditions and underlying factors. Sign up today. Marx held that the progression of society from capitalism to communism was 'historically inevitable'. Aug 05, Mikhail Ignatev rated it did not like it. Richard Pipes Contributor ,. This website requires cookies to provide all of its features. The Bolsheviks worked with and co-opted popular revolutions, and also repressed them, to seize power. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. View the recorded event. As a tool for historical research, counterfactual history has been dismissed by many historians on account of its purely speculative character, but it still retains the sympathy of a number of scholars working in various fields. Historically Inevitable? Michael Clifford: Evidence doesn't support family's belief Ian Bailey got away with murder. Got halfway through but could not finish it for the life of me. Preview — Historically Inevitable? If this one important implausible event had not happened, how may things have played out differently? Family Notices Book Notice. Even those who think that counterfactual history is no more than amusement might gain from the wealth of interesting information that is offered in Historically Inevitable. What would the world be like had Fanny Kaplan succeeded in assassinating Vladimir Lenin in ? THIS year marks the centenary of the most important event in 20 century global history: the Russian revolutions of This kind of counterfactual history can be fun to read, but it is seldom persuasive. Ilse rated it really liked it Apr 02, Trivia About Historically Inev For more information on what data is contained in the cookies, please see our Cookie Notice. About the book Marx held that the progression of society from capitalism to communism was 'historically inevitable'. The Russian Revolution put totalitarian communism into power, fueled Nazism and the Second World War, and forged one of the West's greatest antagonists. Tony Brenton, former British Ambassador in Moscow, compiled thought-provoking essays on counterfactual contingencies of the Russian Revolution. No Lenin, no revolution. What if the Bolsheviks had never imposed the brutal "War Communism" initiatives that devastated the Russian peasants? Some omissions are regrettable. Simon Dixon Contributor ,. The best food, health, entertainment and lifestyle content from the irishexaminer. Ryan rated it really liked it Nov 05, Rating details. Neil Robinson is professor of politics, University of Limerick. Tony Brenton. It is hard to see how the Constituent Assembly could have controlled them whenever it was elected. From the Russo-Japanese conflict of through to the appropriation of church property in , and focusing especially on the incredible chain of events in leading to the October Revolution itself, Historically Inevitable? Click here to download the sample directly. But was the Russian Revolution really inevitable? Worth exploring also was the possibility of Lenin not having succeeded in convincing the Bolsheviks to promote the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the regime accepting Allied help against Germany in the context of the international war, considering the opposition that he faced to impose a line of action that appeared to all as cynical treason. Linz insisted in his Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes 17 , history shows that democracy has often developed where the supposed conditions for it were absent and has collapsed where it had good conditions to develop. Historically Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution Writer It is important to keep in mind that the various contributors often provide a personal perspective to historical problems that tend to be objects of controversy. Strong voices, sharp writing on the issues that matter to you. About the book Marx held that the progression of society from capitalism to communism was 'historically inevitable'. Kanwarjot Kaur rated it really liked it Feb 25, Lead detective: I owed Adrian Donohoe justice. Michael Clifford: Evidence doesn't support family's belief Ian Bailey got away with murder. Live News ePaper. Ilse rated it really liked it Apr 02, Orlando Figes Contributor ,. Tsarism was always going to fail the test of modern warfare in World War I. Surprisingly, I know enough about the Russian Revolution to have understood most of the book. Ryan rated it really liked it Nov 05, If this one important implausible event had not happened, how may things have played out differently? Stay connected. Jul 30, Alek rated it it was ok Shelves: dnf , social-sciences. This collection of fourteen contributions from the world's leading Russian scholars attempts to answer the question by looking back at the key t Marx held that the progression of society from capitalism to communism was 'historically inevitable'. Details if other :. Neil Robinson is professor of politics, University of Limerick. This, of course, is not likely to provoke controversy. More in this section. This has always involved taking into account the accidents that produced Bolshevik success as well as factors like World War I that propelled Russia towards revolution. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Related Posts Book Reviews. Sean McMeekin, Richard Pipes and Orlando Figes argue that the October Revolution could have been avoided if Lenin had been prevented from going to Russia, if General Lev Kornilov had been allowed to suppress Lenin and the Bolsheviks before October, or if Lenin had been arrested on his way to the meeting that launched the October seizure of power. My Account. Brenton simply assures us that claims of historical inevitability cannot be assessed except through counterfactual history; but the reader is left with doubts as to whether this exercise might have a bit more to contribute to the historiography of the Russian Revolution or the Soviet state. Eric Lee rated it it was amazing Aug 19, Dmitriy rated it liked it Nov 02, If you happen to love ca I expected this book to be a balanced look at the historical moments surrounding the Bolshevik Revolution and the ways in which events could have produced different outcomes. As they did this they rebuilt the state and began to face up to the tasks of transforming the economy. Lifestyle Newsletter. Start your review of Historically Inevitable? JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. Close It appears you don't have the ability to view PDFs in this browser. However, it does. Yet, it would have been opportune if the book had offered reasons to think that counterfactual history has any utility in historiography. Instead, I ended up reading a series of essays all of which basically amounted to "how we might have stopped communism". Click here to download the sample directly. Refresh and try again. Showing The answer is speculation. Error rating book. Preeminent scholars, including Orlando Figes, Richard Pipes, Douglas Smith, and Martin Sixsmith, ruminate on these questions and many others, assembling a series of pivotal moments that reveal what might have gone differently, and, if so, what the repercussions would have been. Find this book:. Historically Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution Reviews About the author Blog Admin. Showing Books by Tony Brenton. Tony Brenton. Book Reviews. I expected this book to be a balanced look at the historical moments surrounding the Bolshevik Revolution and the ways in which events could have produced different outcomes. In Was Revolution Inevitable? Download our mobile apps on. Surprisingly, I know enough about the Russian Revolution to have understood most of the book. A few more years of life in office for Stolypin would not have saved tsarism. Erik Landis Contributor ,. Kanwarjot Kaur rated it really liked it Feb 25, Instead, I ended up reading a series of essays all of which basically amounted to "how we might have stopped communism". Marx held that the progression of society from capitalism to communism was 'historically inevitable'. I even enjoyed much of it. Web development by Firsty Group. Or does it mean that, in a given historical scenario, the various relevant factors are conducive to one outcome that cannot be changed? Douglas Smith Contributor ,. It was the end of all hopes for democracy in Russia; the beginning of seventy years of unbending communist autocracy. Preview — Historically Inevitable? These are different ideas with different implications, but the book seems to conflate them at certain times. Details if other :. This means we already recognise there was nothing inevitable in what happened in Russia after February Dominic Lieven Contributor ,. Eric Lee rated it it was amazing Aug 19, Created with Sketch. If this one important implausible event had not happened, how may things have played out differently? Most of the essays, however, tend to adopt the second meaning, which provides a more interesting content for assessment and might allow us to connect the results of this exercise with general discussions about what preconditions are needed for political regimes to develop or fail.
Recommended publications
  • Annual Report
    KENNAN INSTITUTE Annual Report October 1, 2002–September 30, 2003 The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20004-3027 www.wilsoncenter.org KENNAN INSTITUTE Kennan Institute Annual Report October 1, 2002–September 30, 2003 Kennan Institute Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Kennan Moscow Project One Woodrow Wilson Plaza Galina Levina, Alumni Coordinator 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Ekaterina Alekseeva, Project Manager Washington,DC 20004-3027 Irina Petrova, Office Manager Pavel Korolev, Project Officer (Tel.) 202-691-4100;(Fax) 202-691-4247 www.wilsoncenter.org/kennan Kennan Kyiv Project Yaroslav Pylynskyj, Project Manager Kennan Institute Staff Nataliya Samozvanova, Office Manager Blair A. Ruble, Director Nancy Popson, Deputy Director Research Interns 2002-2003 Margaret Paxson, Senior Associate Anita Ackermann, Jeffrey Barnett, Joseph Bould, Jamey Burho, Bram F.Joseph Dresen, Program Associate Caplan, Sapna Desai, Cristen Duncan, Adam Fuss, Anton Ghosh, Jennifer Giglio, Program Associate Andrew Hay,Chris Hrabe, Olga Levitsky,Edward Marshall, Peter Atiq Sarwari, Program Associate Mattocks, Jamie Merriman, Janet Mikhlin, Curtis Murphy,Mikhail Muhitdin Ahunhodjaev, Financial Management Specialist Osipov,Anna Nikolaevsky,Elyssa Palmer, Irina Papkov, Mark Polyak, Edita Krunkaityte, Program Assistant Rachel Roseberry,Assel Rustemova, David Salvo, Scott Shrum, Erin Trouth, Program Assistant Gregory Shtraks, Maria Sonevytsky,Erin Trouth, Gianfranco Varona, Claudia Roberts, Secretary Kimberly Zenz,Viktor Zikas Also employed at the Kennan Institute during the 2002-03 In honor of the city’s 300th anniversary, all photographs in this report program year: were taken in St. Petersburg, Russia.The photographs were provided by Jodi Koehn-Pike, Program Associate William Craft Brumfield and Vladimir Semenov.
    [Show full text]
  • Historically Inevitable?
    HISTORICALLY INEVITABLE? TURNING POINTS OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION Edited by TONY BRENTON PROFILE BOOKS Historically Inevitable.indd 3 28/04/2016 13:26 First published in Great Britain in 2016 by PROFILE BOOKS LTD 3 Holford Yard Bevin Way London wc1x 9hd www.profilebooks.com Text copyright © Profile Books Ltd, 2016 Selection copyright © Tony Brenton, 2016 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays, St Ives plc Typeset in Arno by MacGuru Ltd The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 1 78125 021 1 eISBN 978 1 84765 859 3 Historically Inevitable.indd 4 28/04/2016 13:26 CONTENTS A Note to the Reader ix Chronology x Acknowledgements xvii Map xviii Introduction Tony Brenton 1 1 1900–1920 Foreign intervention: The long view Dominic Lieven 11 2 September 1911 The assassination of Stolypin Simon Dixon 29 3 June 1914 Grigory Rasputin and the outbreak of the First World War Douglas Smith 48 4 March 1917 The last Tsar Donald Crawford 66 5 April–July 1917 Enter Lenin Sean McMeekin 91 6 August 1917 The Kornilov affair: A tragedy of errors Richard Pipes 109 7 October 1917 The ‘harmless drunk’: Lenin and the October insurrection Orlando Figes 123 Historically Inevitable.indd 7 28/04/2016 13:26 8 January 1918 The short life and early death of Russian democracy: The Duma and the Constituent Assembly Tony Brenton 142 9 July 1918 Rescuing the Tsar and his family Edvard Radzinsky 163 10 August 1918 Fanny Kaplan’s attempt to kill Lenin Martin Sixsmith 178 11 November 1918 Sea change in the Civil War Evan Mawdsley 200 12 March 1920 The fate of the Soviet countryside Erik C.
    [Show full text]
  • Books Added to Benner Library from Estate of Dr. William Foote
    Books added to Benner Library from estate of Dr. William Foote # CALL NUMBER TITLE Scribes and scholars : a guide to the transmission of Greek and Latin literature / by L.D. Reynolds and N.G. 1 001.2 R335s, 1991 Wilson. 2 001.2 Se15e Emerson on the scholar / Merton M. Sealts, Jr. 3 001.3 R921f Future without a past : the humanities in a technological society / John Paul Russo. 4 001.30711 G163a Academic instincts / Marjorie Garber. Book of the book : some works & projections about the book & writing / edited by Jerome Rothenberg and 5 002 B644r Steven Clay. 6 002 OL5s Smithsonian book of books / Michael Olmert. 7 002 T361g Great books and book collectors / Alan G. Thomas. 8 002.075 B29g Gentle madness : bibliophiles, bibliomanes, and the eternal passion for books / Nicholas A. Basbanes. 9 002.09 B29p Patience & fortitude : a roving chronicle of book people, book places, and book culture / Nicholas A. Basbanes. Books of the brave : being an account of books and of men in the Spanish Conquest and settlement of the 10 002.098 L552b sixteenth-century New World / Irving A. Leonard ; with a new introduction by Rolena Adorno. 11 020.973 R824f Foundations of library and information science / Richard E. Rubin. 12 021.009 J631h, 1976 History of libraries in the Western World / by Elmer D. Johnson and Michael H. Harris. 13 025.2832 B175d Double fold : libraries and the assault on paper / Nicholson Baker. London booksellers and American customers : transatlantic literary community and the Charleston Library 14 027.2 R196L Society, 1748-1811 / James Raven.
    [Show full text]
  • AHA Colloquium
    Cover.indd 1 13/10/20 12:51 AM Thank you to our generous sponsors: Platinum Gold Bronze Cover2.indd 1 19/10/20 9:42 PM 2021 Annual Meeting Program Program Editorial Staff Debbie Ann Doyle, Editor and Meetings Manager With assistance from Victor Medina Del Toro, Liz Townsend, and Laura Ansley Program Book 2021_FM.indd 1 26/10/20 8:59 PM 400 A Street SE Washington, DC 20003-3889 202-544-2422 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.historians.org Perspectives: historians.org/perspectives Facebook: facebook.com/AHAhistorians Twitter: @AHAHistorians 2020 Elected Officers President: Mary Lindemann, University of Miami Past President: John R. McNeill, Georgetown University President-elect: Jacqueline Jones, University of Texas at Austin Vice President, Professional Division: Rita Chin, University of Michigan (2023) Vice President, Research Division: Sophia Rosenfeld, University of Pennsylvania (2021) Vice President, Teaching Division: Laura McEnaney, Whittier College (2022) 2020 Elected Councilors Research Division: Melissa Bokovoy, University of New Mexico (2021) Christopher R. Boyer, Northern Arizona University (2022) Sara Georgini, Massachusetts Historical Society (2023) Teaching Division: Craig Perrier, Fairfax County Public Schools Mary Lindemann (2021) Professor of History Alexandra Hui, Mississippi State University (2022) University of Miami Shannon Bontrager, Georgia Highlands College (2023) President of the American Historical Association Professional Division: Mary Elliott, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (2021) Nerina Rustomji, St. John’s University (2022) Reginald K. Ellis, Florida A&M University (2023) At Large: Sarah Mellors, Missouri State University (2021) 2020 Appointed Officers Executive Director: James Grossman AHR Editor: Alex Lichtenstein, Indiana University, Bloomington Treasurer: William F.
    [Show full text]
  • Stalin's Ghost
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Birkbeck Institutional Research Online Stalin’s Ghost: the Legacies of Soviet History and the Future of Russia Orlando Figes Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London Telders Lecture in the Nicolaï Church in Utrecht March 4th 2009 Telders Lecture 2009 1 Foreword Since the year 2000, the Telders Lecture is organized by the Telders Foun- dation, the think tank that carries out research for the benefit of liberalism in general and for the Dutch Liberal Party VVD in particular. The Telders Foundation publishes books with the results of its research, and it organis- es meetings: conferences, seminars, an annual liberal summer school, and a regular Telders Lecture. The purpose of this lecture is to stimulate public debate in the Netherlands by inviting a leading scholar or politician to provide us with profound, well-based ideas and insights. The lectures may cover a broad spectrum of relevant issues concerning science and politics. The Telders Foundation organises the lecture regularly as a tribute to Pro- fessor B.M. Telders after whom the foundation is named. During his short life (1903-1945), Professor Telders was highly respected in various capaci- ties: as a lawyer, a philosopher and as a liberal politician. This combina- tion of science and politics is also very characteristic for the Telders Lec- tures. Professor Telders showed great courage as a politician throughout the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II and it was this courage that eventually cost him his life. He died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, just a few days before the camp was liberated by the Allied forces.
    [Show full text]
  • Personal Tragedies Under Stalin
    Personal tragedies under Stalin total-ness of Stalinist totalitarianism. Chris Berg reviews Resistance and dissent was not a The Whisperers: viable option for individuals living in Private Life in Stalin’s the early Soviet Union. Almost every- body faced the stark choice between ar- Russia rest and collaboration. by Orlando Figes That choice, and the dual way of (Metropolitan Books, life it created—between the fear of ar- 2008, 740 pages) rest and mutual denunciation—is the source of The Whisperers’ title. t has taken historians in both There are two words for ‘whisper’ Russia and the West a long time in Russian. Shepchushchii means whis- to get their minds around Stalin- pering out of fear of being heard. As I many urban Russians lived in commu- ism. Anne Applebaum’s 2003 Gulag: A Resistance and History went a long way to shedding nal apartments—either buildings spe- some of the misconceptions about the dissent was not a cially designed for collective living, or Stalinist system of repression—most in large houses confiscated from their obviously on the left, where the history viable option for owners and subdivided into cramped of the gulag has been shamefully mini- living quarters—there was an ever-pres- mised. In The Whisperers: Private Life individuals living ent fear of being overheard saying criti- in Stalin’s Russia, Orlando Figes steps cal things about the Soviet regime. And into the lives of individuals and fami- in the early Soviet the word sheptun refers to whispering lies to expose the personal tragedies Union. Almost or informing to the authorities.
    [Show full text]
  • Read Keith Thomas' the Wolfson History Prize 1972-2012
    THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 1972-2012 An Informal History Keith Thomas THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 1972-2012 An Informal History Keith Thomas The Wolfson Foundation, 2012 Published by The Wolfson Foundation 8 Queen Anne Street London W1G 9LD www.wolfson.org.uk Copyright © The Wolfson Foundation, 2012 All rights reserved The Wolfson Foundation is grateful to the National Portrait Gallery for allowing the use of the images from their collection Excerpts from letters of Sir Isaiah Berlin are quoted with the permission of the trustees of the Isaiah Berlin Literary Trust, who own the copyright Printed in Great Britain by The Bartham Group ISBN 978-0-9572348-0-2 This account draws upon the History Prize archives of the Wolfson Foundation, to which I have been given unrestricted access. I have also made use of my own papers and recollections. I am grateful to Paul Ramsbottom and Sarah Newsom for much assistance. The Foundation bears no responsibility for the opinions expressed, which are mine alone. K.T. Lord Wolfson of Marylebone Trustee of the Wolfson Foundation from 1955 and Chairman 1972-2010 © The Wolfson Foundation FOREWORD The year 1972 was a pivotal one for the Wolfson Foundation: my father, Lord Wolfson of Marylebone, became Chairman and the Wolfson History Prize was established. No coincidence there. History was my father’s passion and primary source of intellectual stimulation. History books were his daily companions. Of all the Foundation’s many activities, none gave him greater pleasure than the History Prize. It is an immense sadness that he is not with us to celebrate the fortieth anniversary.
    [Show full text]
  • The Samovar and Russian National Identity, 1832-1901
    ABSTRACT MAKING TEA RUSSIAN: THE SAMOVAR AND RUSSIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY, 1832-1901 by Audra Jo Yoder Over the course of the nineteenth century, tea was transformed from an aristocratic luxury to an everyday household commodity in Russia. Concurrently, the samovar (a metallic vessel of obscure origin, used to heat water for tea) rose to prominence as an everyday household item and a potent symbol of Russian identity. Since neither tea nor the samovar are Russian in origin, the “Russianness” of tea drinking can be analyzed as an “invented tradition” linked to Russia’s developing national identity. This thesis argues that the great writers and artists of the nineteenth century were largely responsible for establishing tea and the samovar as Russian before either were affordable for the majority of Russia’s population. By the advent of the twentieth century, the samovar had become so deeply ensconced in Russian myth and memory that Soviet and post- Soviet Russians believe it to be an obligatory fixture of “old” Russian culture. MAKING TEA RUSSIAN: THE SAMOVAR AND RUSSIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY, 1832-1901 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History by Audra Jo Yoder Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2009 Advisor: Stephen Norris Reader: Daniel Prior Reader: Robert Thurston TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Part I The samovar becomes Russian: Pushkin and Gogol 10 Part II The flowering of an invented tradition 19 Tea and samovar imagery in the literature of the second half of the nineteenth century 22 Late nineteenth-century images of the samovar and the popularization of tea 34 Conclusion Samovars in the twentieth century and beyond 49 Bibliography 58 ii Introduction In June 1971, Soviet Life magazine ran a two-page spread under the heading: “Russian Tea: A Tradition Three Centuries Old.” The article featured glossy black-and-white photos of smiling people gathered around samovars, and the text boasted: Muscovites have long been tea drinking connoisseurs.
    [Show full text]
  • Penguin Classics
    PENGUIN CLASSICS A Complete Annotated Listing www.penguinclassics.com PUBLISHER’S NOTE For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, providing readers with a library of the best works from around the world, throughout history, and across genres and disciplines. We focus on bringing together the best of the past and the future, using cutting-edge design and production as well as embracing the digital age to create unforgettable editions of treasured literature. Penguin Classics is timeless and trend-setting. Whether you love our signature black- spine series, our Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, or our eBooks, we bring the writer to the reader in every format available. With this catalog—which provides complete, annotated descriptions of all books currently in our Classics series, as well as those in the Pelican Shakespeare series—we celebrate our entire list and the illustrious history behind it and continue to uphold our established standards of excellence with exciting new releases. From acclaimed new translations of Herodotus and the I Ching to the existential horrors of contemporary master Thomas Ligotti, from a trove of rediscovered fairytales translated for the first time in The Turnip Princess to the ethically ambiguous military exploits of Jean Lartéguy’s The Centurions, there are classics here to educate, provoke, entertain, and enlighten readers of all interests and inclinations. We hope this catalog will inspire you to pick up that book you’ve always been meaning to read, or one you may not have heard of before. To receive more information about Penguin Classics or to sign up for a newsletter, please visit our Classics Web site at www.penguinclassics.com.
    [Show full text]
  • Private Life in Stalin's Russia: Family Narratives, Memory
    Private Life in Stalin’s Russia: Family Narratives, Memory and Oral History by Orlando Figes For many years, we knew next to nothing about the private lives of 5 ordinary Soviet citizens during Stalin’s reign. Until very recently, the social history of the Soviet Union written by Soviet and Western historians alike was limited entirely to the public sphere – politics and ideology, and the collective experience of the ‘Soviet masses’. The individual (insofar as he or she appeared at all) featured mainly as a letter-writer to the Soviet 10 authorities (that is, as a public actor rather than a private person or member of a family). Sources were the obvious problem. Apart from a few memoirs by great writers, there was practically no reliable evidence about the private sphere of family life. For ordinary people in the Soviet Union, for the tens of millions 15 who suffered from repression, their family history was a forbidden zone of memory – something they would never talk or write about. During the Soviet period, the personal collections (lichnye fondy) built up in the state and Party archives belonged in the main to well-known public figures in the world of politics, science and culture; their documents 20 were carefully selected by their owners for donation to the state. The memoirs published in the Soviet Union were also generally unrevealing about the private experience of the people who wrote them, although there are some exceptions, particularly among those published in the glasnost period after 1985. The memoirs by intellectual emigre´s
    [Show full text]
  • Stalingrad and Researching the Experience of War
    Lees-Knowles Lectures Cambridge 2002-3 Antony Beevor 1. Stalingrad and Researching the Experience of War Stalingrad was one of the most monstrous and inhuman battles ever known. It was further dehumanised by both sides in their propaganda. The point of researching the subject was to find a way to describe accurately the true physical conditions of this battle, and the terrible psychological pressures on the soldiers. These included not just fear of the enemy, but also fear of execution by their own side. Soldiers and civilians were crushed pitilessly between the two totalitarian regimes. Red Army snipers at Stalingrad, for example, were ordered to shoot starving Russian children, who had been tempted with crusts of bread by German infantrymen to fill their waterbottles in the Volga. This is why history from above – the decisions of Stalin or Hitler and their generals – needs to be combined with history from below. It is the only way to demonstrate the direct consequences of their decisions and the consequent suffering of those trapped in the terrible maelstrom created by their dehumanizinf propaganda. The attempt to recreate the experience of battle can come only from a wide range of sources which naturally vary in validity and in reliability. They include war diaries, reports of prisoner interrogations, officers‘ and soldiers‘ letters home, doctors‘ accounts, chaplains‘ reports on morale, private diaries, accounts by war correspondents, reports by evacuees written a few weeks after the event, accounts written years later, interviews with survivors and so on. In the case of Stalingrad, one can even learn a good deal from certain novels, but this is a question I will come back to.
    [Show full text]
  • SUGGESTED READINGS for Phd QUALIFYING EXAM in SOVIET HISTORY
    Benjamin Nathans University of Pennsylvania Department of History SUGGESTED READINGS FOR PhD QUALIFYING EXAM IN SOVIET HISTORY Note to users: this bibliography is meant to serve as a resource for graduate students compiling reading lists in preparation for their PhD oral exam in the field of Soviet history. It does not pretend to be comprehensive, especially as regards journal articles. Nor does it reflect an expectation that the prepared student will have read everything listed below (which would be virtually impossible). Rather, it is a starting point from which to pick and choose, and upon which to build. The list consists of three groups of works: 1. those designed to help orient you on the macro and micro levels 2. those organized according to specific periods of Soviet history 3. those organized according to specific themes There is some overlap between groups 2 and 3. Within each sub-topic, works are listed alphabetically by author’s last name. You can move from section to section by searching for the next asterix (*). My goal has been to list the most relevant and up-to-date works as of 2009 in the major European languages. Inevitably, there will be lacunae, errors, and typos. I would appreciate having these brought to my attention so that I can improve future editions of this list: [email protected] Happy hunting. BN Nathans/Soviet Field/p.2 ORIENTATION: Reference Works Atlases Overviews of Soviet History, 20th-Century Russia, Socialism/Communism State of the Field CHRONOLOGICAL UNITS: Pre-Revolutionary Period First World
    [Show full text]