Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia by Alfred J. Rieber Stalin at War. The Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Research Group cordially invites you to the first meeting in the Research Seminar Series 2016/2017 entitled: Stalin at War by Alfred J. Rieber. In this lecture I argue that the war forced Stalin to combine two apparently contradictory principles of governance in order to mobilize the population: on the one hand he followed a path toward even greater introducing centralization of power under his command of the civil and military sectors alike; on the other hand he allowed a greater degree of spontaneity and autonomy to key institutions in order to tap new sources of creativity from below. A key element in the latter strategy was to recognize and welcome greater initiatives and flexible responses to solving critical problems to the Academy of Sciences and the cadres of technical specialists engaged in the innovative design and production of weapons. The results were in some cases spectacular and in other cases unexpected. For example, the Academy responded by taking initiatives in the exploration of natural resources, the development of medical and biological research for wartime use, the invention of new techniques and models to enhance the effectiveness of military hardware. As a result of the contribution of the scientific and technical intelligentsia to the war effort, its position in the post war hierarchical structure was strengthened and its defense of the value of pure research was reinforced. A particularly important role was played by the Jewish intelligentsia. However, once the war was over, Stalin re-imposed controls over the local initiatives and harnessed the scientific and technical intelligentsia to the new task of producing the atomic bomb. Professor Alfred J. Rieber has written and edited nine books in Russian and Soviet History as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Among his books are Stalin and the French Communist Party, 1941-1947; The Politics of Autocracy; Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Imperial Russia; Perestroika at the Crossroads; Forced Migration in Central and Eastern Europe, 1939-1950,and Imperial Rule. His most recent scholarly books are Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands: From the Rise of Early Empires to the End of the First World War (2014) and Stalin and The Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia (2015), both published with Cambridge University Press. His chapter, "The Anti-Fascist Resistance during the Second World War," will appear this year in the New Cambridge History of Communism. He is also the author of three historical detective novels: To Kill a Tsar (2010); The Kiev Killings (2013); and Siberian Secrets (2014), all published by the New Academia Press. All students, faculty and staff members are welcome to attend! Drinks to follow. Prof Alexander Voronovici, Ksenia Litvinenko, Sofia Lopatina, Yan Mazitov. Professor Alfred J. Rieber: Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia - Departmental Research Seminar and Live Stream Session. Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia is a sequel to The Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands. From the Rise of the Early Modern Empires to the End of the First World War. It is a major reinterpretation of the interrelationship of Soviet domestic and foreign policy. In the wake of the collapse of the great multi-cultural dynastic empires of Eurasia (Romanov, Habsburg, Ottoman, Qajar and Qing, the emergence of the Soviet Union from revolution, civil war and intervention under Bolshevik rule required new forms of building the state and conducting foreign relations. In responding to this challenge, Stalin drew upon his experience as a Marxist revolutionary in the borderland of the South Caucasus and the struggle over the Eurasian borderlands during the civil war and intervention to construct a Weltanschauung unique among his rivals. In this study it is called Stalin’s ‘borderlands thesis.’ It combined an approach to the nationalities problem in the Soviet Union with his campaign to ensure security on the frontiers in competition with the successor states of the defunct empires. The rise of ‘the flank powers,’ Nazi German and militarist Japan, and their expansionist plans for Eurasia raised the stakes and intensified the struggle. Stalin resorted to several diplomatic combinations in order to postpone a war that he was convinced would come. During the Second World War, he flexibly fashioned his war aims in light of his borderland thesis, adjusted to the ‘balance of forces’ as he perceived them. But the foundations of his supremacy in Eurasia were never strong and already began to show signs of weakness in his own life time. Alfred J. Riebe r is currently University Professor Emeritus at the CEU and Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as chair of the History Departments at both universities where he also won teaching awards. His research interests span the imperial and Soviet periods of Russian history. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim, Woodrow Wilson, Ford and National Council Foundations. Among his numerous books are The Politics of Autocracy (1966), Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Imperial Russia (1982), The Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands: From the Rise of Early Modern Empires to the End of World War (2014) and Stalin and the Struggle for Eurasia (2015). A collection of his articles and book chapters is currently being considered by The University of Toronto Press. He has just completed a chapter for the New Cambridge History of Communism on “Anti-Fascist Resistance during the Second World War.” We would like to invite all attendees to a small reception and a book signing with Professor Rieber after the lecture. His latest volumes will be available for purchase at a student-friendly discount. We are looking forward to seeing you all. Organisers: Matthias Riedl (Head of Department), Imogen Bayley, Dejan Lukic. Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia by Alfred J. Rieber (2015, Trade Paperback) The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is applicable). Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag. See details for additional description. What does this price mean? This is the price (excluding shipping and handling fees) a seller has provided at which the same item, or one that is nearly identical to it, is being offered for sale or has been offered for sale in the recent past. The price may be the seller's own price elsewhere or another seller's price. The "off" amount and percentage simply signifies the calculated difference between the seller-provided price for the item elsewhere and the seller's price on eBay. If you have any questions related to the pricing and/or discount offered in a particular listing, please contact the seller for that listing. Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia by Alfred J. Rieber (2015, Hardcover) The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is applicable). Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag. See details for additional description. What does this price mean? This is the price (excluding shipping and handling fees) a seller has provided at which the same item, or one that is nearly identical to it, is being offered for sale or has been offered for sale in the recent past. The price may be the seller's own price elsewhere or another seller's price. The "off" amount and percentage simply signifies the calculated difference between the seller-provided price for the item elsewhere and the seller's price on eBay. If you have any questions related to the pricing and/or discount offered in a particular listing, please contact the seller for that listing. Alfred Rieber. Alfred J. Rieber has been teaching and writing Russian and Soviet history for more than fifty years. He was a participant in the first year of the Soviet-American cultural exchange in 1958-59 and has returned to the Soviet Union and Russia many times to lecture and conduct archival research. He began teaching at Northwestern and then moved to the University of Pennsylvania where he taught for twenty–five years and chaired the History Department for ten years, now holding the title of Professor Emeritus. For the past twenty-two years he has taught at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary where he was also chair of the History Department for four years, and upon retirement was elected by the university Senate as University Professor Emeritus. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. In 1966 he was awarded the E. Harris Harbison Prize of the Danforth Foundation as one of the ten best teachers in the U.S. He has won additional teaching awards at Penn and CEU where he was elected professor of the year by the entire student body in 1997 and 1998. The American Philosophical Society awarded him the Henry C. Moe Prize in 1985. His book Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands. From the Rise of Early Modern Empires to the End of the First World War, Cambridge University Press, 2014 was awarded the Bentley Prize of the World History Association and its sequel, Stalin’s Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia , Cambridge, 2016 was short listed for the Pushkin History Prize. In addition to these award winning books, he has written and edited seven books as well as over fifty articles and book chapters on Russian and Soviet history. Among his books are Stalin and the French Communist Party, 1941-1947; The Politics of Autocracy; Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Imperial Russia; Perestroika at the Crossroads; Forced Migration in Central and Eastern Europe, 1939-1950, and with Alexei Miller, Imperial Rule. His most recent book, The Imperial Russian Project. Politics, Economic Development and Social Fragmentation from Peter the Great to the Revolution , Toronto University, appeared in December 2017.Among his many research grants are fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation National Endowment for the Humanities, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, and Woodrow Wilson National Foundation. He has lectured widely in the U.S. and Europe, most recently at Georgetown University, Oxford, Cambridge, the University of London (SEES), University of L’viv, Mohyla Academy in Kiev, University of Szeged, University of Bucharest, Sofia University, the Free University of Berlin, University of Geneva, University of Ulan-Ude, and the European University in St. Petersburg. Most recently, his chapter, "The Anti-Fascist Resistance during the Second World War," appeared in the New Cambridge History of Communism , in 2017 and his chapter “Russia in Asia,” will appear in 2018 in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asia . His current research and writing takes him back to the 19th century Russia for a book length manuscript entitled “Reforming Russia: the Life and Times of Count P.A. Shuvalov.” He is also the author of three historical detective novels: To Kill a Tsar (2010); The Kiev Killings (2013); and Siberian Secrets (2014), all published by the New Academia Press. Contact Us. Department of History College Hall 208 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6379.