Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union
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The Collapse and Recovery of Subjective Well-Being in Post-Communist Russia
Ronald Inglehart, Roberto Foa, Eduard Ponarin, Christian Welzel UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIAN MALAISE: THE COLLAPSE AND RECOVERY OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING IN POST-COMMUNIST RUSSIA BASIC RESEARCH PROGRAM WORKING PAPERS SERIES: SOCIOLOGY WP BRP 32/SOC/2013 This Working Paper is an output of a research project implemented at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE). Any opinions or claims contained in this Working Paper do not necessarily reflect the views of HSE. Ronald Inglehart1, Roberto Foa2, Eduard Ponarin3 and Christian Welzel4 UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIAN MALAISE: THE COLLAPSE AND RECOVERY OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING IN POST-COMMUNIST RUSSIA This article analyzes the decline of subjective well-being and a sense of national self- esteem among the Russian people that was linked with the collapse of the communist economic, political and social systems in the 1990s—and a subsequent recovery of subjective well-being that began more recently. Subjective well-being is closely linked with economic development, democracy and physical health. The people of rich countries tend show higher levels than those of poor countries, but already in 1982, the Russia people ranked lower on happiness and life satisfaction than the people of much poorer countries such as Nigeria or India; external signs of this malaise were rising alcoholism and declining male life expectancy. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, subjective well-being in Russia fell to levels never seen before, reaching a low point in 1995 when most Russians described themselves as unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives as a whole. Since 2000, this trend has been reversing itself, but in 2011 Russia still ranked slightly lower than its level in 1981. -
A Chronology Ofv. I. Lenin's Life (1870-1924)
A Chronology ofV. I. Lenin's Life (1870-1924) 1870 April: V. I. Lenin (born Vladimir Illich Ulyanov) is born in 1870 in the town of Simbirsk on the Volga River 1887 June: Lenin graduates from gymnasium (high school) 1887 May: Lenin's brother Alexander is executed 1887 August: Lenin enters the University of Kazan 1887 December: Lenin is arrested for participating in student protests 1887 December: Lenin is expelled from the University and exiled to the village of Kokushkino near Kazan' for one year 1891 November: Lenin graduates from the University of St. Petersburg 1893 Autumn: Lenin joins a Marxist circle in St. Petersburg 1894 Nicholas II becomes tsar 1895 December: Lenin is arrested and spends 14 months in prison. 1897 February: Lenin is sentenced to three years exile in Eastern Siberia 1898 July: Lenin marries Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaia 1898- 1900 In exile, Lenin writes The Development of Capitalism in Russia 1900 July: On returning from exile, Lenin goes abroad to Switzerland and other countries 1901 Lenin, who has been known until this point as Ulyanov, adopts the name N. Lenin 1901- 1902 Lenin writes What Is to Be Done? and edits Iskra (The Spark) 1903 July-August: Lenin attends the Second Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party and helps to split the party into factions: Bolsheviks and Mensheviks 1904 February: Beginning of Russo-Japanese War 162 CHRONOLOGY 163 1904 December: Surrender of Port Arthur to Japanese 1905 january: The "Bloody Sunday" massacre; The First Russian Rev olution begins 1905 june-july. -
Conspiracy of Peace: the Cold War, the International Peace Movement, and the Soviet Peace Campaign, 1946-1956
The London School of Economics and Political Science Conspiracy of Peace: The Cold War, the International Peace Movement, and the Soviet Peace Campaign, 1946-1956 Vladimir Dobrenko A thesis submitted to the Department of International History of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, October 2015 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 90,957 words. Statement of conjoint work I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by John Clifton of www.proofreading247.co.uk/ I have followed the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, for referencing. 2 Abstract This thesis deals with the Soviet Union’s Peace Campaign during the first decade of the Cold War as it sought to establish the Iron Curtain. The thesis focuses on the primary institutions engaged in the Peace Campaign: the World Peace Council and the Soviet Peace Committee. -
Fbarry-PATEJ Development Cannot Be Viewed with Complacency
'he was an alternate in the* THE EVENING STAR. Washington, D. C. •• ruling Politburo and obviously A-3 Malenkov Gets a Stalin favorite. He was one of five (with Stalin, Molotov. Beria and Marshal Klementi Voroshilov) on the top direc- 1,800 j jritrjfr torate for World War n. Job Miles ¦ In charge of reconstruction after the war, Malenkov did the impossible. As a reward he climbed to full Politburo From Moscow membership along with Beria. in 1946. But LONDON, July 11 ambitious Andrei /MOSCOW*'\ Kiro* \ Zhdanov, long considered Sta- cow radio says none of the de- 1 J lin's heir apparent, was gun- posed Kremlin leaders is being j ning for him. At Stalin's or- persecuted. It made that dec- ders, Zhdanov was preparing an laration in announcing that extensive party purge. Zhdan- ov, conveniently for Malen- Georgi Malenjov ißSljt Is being hus- kov, did in September, 1948. li|B . n°s power jl,-' tled off to run a plant Malenkov moved in and purged 1.800 miles from Moscow and Zhdanov men. Prominent rzi i jjjß CHANEL |jgjj^|J|Bl the other ousted leaders are Communists went to oblivion getting other and death. unspecified jobs. UST Got Stalin's Mantle Wk jr|SK m The broadcast last night ./J By October, c 1952. and the iMm ®fk$t wlt #¦ $ also asserted that the appoint- 19th party congress it was clear ! o BoAhoth - A TV ¦ J^SLr ment of the former Premier as A Malenkov could succeed Stalin ¦¦ premier. Others, including manager hydroelectric as of the Khrushchev, hitched their station at Ust Kamenogorsk is * • Tashkent wagons to his star. -
Estonian Collective Farms and Postmodern Architecture Dr
Screening Soviet Standards: Estonian Collective Farms and Postmodern Architecture Dr. Andres Kurg, Senior Researcher, Institute of Art History, Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn Lunch Lecture, presented by The Center for the Study for Europe, Department of History of Art and Architecture, and Prof. Sophie Hochhäusl, Boston University. May 3, 12.00-1.00 pm, Pardee School of Global Studies, 121 Bay State Rd., Room 126 Co-moderated by Ewa Matyczyk, PhD Candidate, History of Art and Architecture and PJ Carlino, PhD Candidate, American and New England Studies. Abstract: The 1970s and the early 1980s have the Eastern bloc, which led to the so called “vel- in the Soviet history retrospectively been termed vet” revolution and to the “singing” revolutions in as the “era of stagnation”: a period of stalling the Baltic countries? economy, lack of reforms and repression of democratic initiative. This sense of stasis has Andres Kurg is Senior Researcher at the Insti- been further underlined by frequent representa- tute of Art History, Estonian Academy of Arts in tions of the era’s building production that show Tallinn. His research explores the architecture uniform mass housing areas, filling the entire and design of the Soviet Union in the late 1960s country with same-looking prefabricated panel and 1970s in relation to technological transfor- structures. mations and changes in everyday life as well as My talk will counter this stereotype by focusing its intersections with alternative art practices. He on Soviet Estonian rural co-operative farms – studied art history at the Estonian Academy of kolkhozy and sovkhozy – that maintained their Arts and architectural history at University Col- economic efficiency in these years and reused lege London. -
Ethnic Violence in the Former Soviet Union Richard H
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2011 Ethnic Violence in the Former Soviet Union Richard H. Hawley Jr. (Richard Howard) Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION By RICHARD H. HAWLEY, JR. A Dissertation submitted to the Political Science Department in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2011 Richard H. Hawley, Jr. defended this dissertation on August 26, 2011. The members of the supervisory committee were: Heemin Kim Professor Directing Dissertation Jonathan Grant University Representative Dale Smith Committee Member Charles Barrilleaux Committee Member Lee Metcalf Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To my father, Richard H. Hawley, Sr. and To my mother, Catherine S. Hawley (in loving memory) iii AKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who made this dissertation possible, and I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all of them. Above all, I thank my committee chair, Dr. Heemin Kim, for his understanding, patience, guidance, and comments. Next, I extend my appreciation to Dr. Dale Smith, a committee member and department chair, for his encouragement to me throughout all of my years as a doctoral student at the Florida State University. I am grateful for the support and feedback of my other committee members, namely Dr. -
The Brezhnev Bibliography
The Brezhnev Bibliography General works on the Brezhnev era Amalrik, A., Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984? (London, 1970). Bialer, S., Stalin’s Successors (Cambridge, 1980). Bialer, S., The Soviet Paradox; External Expansion, Internal Decline (London, 1986). Bialer, S. and T. Gustafson (eds), Russia at the Crossroads: The 26th Congress of the CPSU (London, 1982). Breslauer, G., Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders (London, 1982). Brezhnev, L. I., Leninskim kursom, 7 vols (Moscow, 1970–9). Brezhnev, L. I., Ob osnovnykh voprosakh ekonomicheskoi politiki KPSS na sovremennom etape, 2 vols (Moscow, 1975). Brezhnev, L. I., Malaya zemlya (Moscow, 1978). Brezhnev, L. I., Ob osnovnykh voprosakh ekonomicheskoi politiki KPSS na sovremennom etape: rechi i doklady, 2 vols, expanded edn (Moscow, 1979). Brown, A. and M. Kaser (eds), The Soviet Union Since the Fall of Khrushchev, 2nd edn (London, 1978). Cohen, S., Rethinking the Soviet Experience (Oxford, 1985). Cohen, S., A. Rabinowitch and R. Sharlet (eds), The Soviet Union Since Stalin (London, 1980). Colton, T., The Dilemma of Reform in the USSR (New York, 1986). Conquest, R., Russia after Khrushchev (New York, 1965). Dallin, A. (ed.), The Khrushchev and Brezhnev Years (New York, 1992). Dallin, A. (ed.), The 25th Congress of the CPSU (Stanford, 1977). Dallin, A. and G. Lapidus (eds), The Soviet System in Crisis (Boulder, Col., 1991). Dornberg, J., Brezhnev. The Masks of Power (London, 1974). Fleron, F. J. (ed.), Technology and Communist Culture (New York, 1977). Hosking, G., A History of the Soviet Union, final edn (London, 1994). Hough, J., ‘The Brezhnev Era: The Man and the System’ Problems of Communism, 25(4), 1976. -
A Cultural Analysis of the Russo-Soviet Anekdot
A CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSO-SOVIET ANEKDOT by Seth Benedict Graham BA, University of Texas, 1990 MA, University of Texas, 1994 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2003 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Seth Benedict Graham It was defended on September 8, 2003 and approved by Helena Goscilo Mark Lipovetsky Colin MacCabe Vladimir Padunov Nancy Condee Dissertation Director ii Copyright by Seth Graham 2003 iii A CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSO-SOVIET ANEKDOT Seth Benedict Graham, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2003 This is a study of the cultural significance and generic specificity of the Russo-Soviet joke (in Russian, anekdot [pl. anekdoty]). My work departs from previous analyses by locating the genre’s quintessence not in its formal properties, thematic taxonomy, or structural evolution, but in the essential links and productive contradictions between the anekdot and other texts and genres of Russo-Soviet culture. The anekdot’s defining intertextuality is prominent across a broad range of cycles, including those based on popular film and television narratives, political anekdoty, and other cycles that draw on more abstract discursive material. Central to my analysis is the genre’s capacity for reflexivity in various senses, including generic self-reference (anekdoty about anekdoty), ethnic self-reference (anekdoty about Russians and Russian-ness), and critical reference to the nature and practice of verbal signification in more or less implicit ways. The analytical and theoretical emphasis of the dissertation is on the years 1961—86, incorporating the Stagnation period plus additional years that are significant in the genre’s history. -
The Rise and Fall of Communism
The Rise and Fall of Communism archie brown To Susan and Alex, Douglas and Tamara and to my grandchildren Isobel and Martha, Nikolas and Alina Contents Maps vii A Note on Names viii Glossary and Abbreviations x Introduction 1 part one: Origins and Development 1. The Idea of Communism 9 2. Communism and Socialism – the Early Years 26 3. The Russian Revolutions and Civil War 40 4. ‘Building Socialism’: Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917–40 56 5. International Communism between the Two World Wars 78 6. What Do We Mean by a Communist System? 101 part two: Communism Ascendant 7. The Appeals of Communism 117 8. Communism and the Second World War 135 9. The Communist Takeovers in Europe – Indigenous Paths 148 10. The Communist Takeovers in Europe – Soviet Impositions 161 11. The Communists Take Power in China 179 12. Post-War Stalinism and the Break with Yugoslavia 194 part three: Surviving without Stalin 13. Khrushchev and the Twentieth Party Congress 227 14. Zig-zags on the Road to ‘communism’ 244 15. Revisionism and Revolution in Eastern Europe 267 16. Cuba: A Caribbean Communist State 293 17. China: From the ‘Hundred Flowers’ to ‘Cultural Revolution’ 313 18. Communism in Asia and Africa 332 19. The ‘Prague Spring’ 368 20. ‘The Era of Stagnation’: The Soviet Union under Brezhnev 398 part four: Pluralizing Pressures 21. The Challenge from Poland: John Paul II, Lech Wałesa, and the Rise of Solidarity 421 22. Reform in China: Deng Xiaoping and After 438 23. The Challenge of the West 459 part five: Interpreting the Fall of Communism 24. -
Early Career
1 Early Career According to his official biography, Nikolai Ivanovich Ezhov had the right proletarian origin. He was born on 1 May (19 April, OS) 1895 in the Russian capital St. Petersburg, the son of a poor metalworker, a founder. But during interrogation, after his arrest in April 1939, he stated that he had been born in Mariiampole, a provincial town in southwest Lithuania, not far from the Polish border (later Kapsukas) and at that time part of the Russian em- pire. He had moved to Petersburg only in 1906, when he was eleven years old. After the revolution he started to assert that he was born there. Ezhov also confessed that his father had not been an industrial worker at all. On the contrary, having been called up for military service, Ivan Ezhov, a Russian from Volkhonshino village in the Krapivna district to the southwest of Tula, joined a musical de- tachment in Mariiampole, where he married the conductor’s maid. After demobilization he became a forest warden and then a pointsman in the railway service. In 1902–3, according to his son’s words, he kept a tearoom, in fact serving as a brothel. From 1905 to 1914, after the tearoom closed, the elder Ezhov worked as a house painter. Even worse from the proletarian point of view, .......................... 9199$$ $CH1 02-05-02 16:04:46 PS 2 Stalin’s Loyal Executioner he was a small contractor who employed two wage laborers. Ivan Ezhov died in 1919, after some years of a debilitating illness.1 Nor did the other half of Nikolai Ezhov’s origins suit later requirements. -
Aleksandr Shliapnikov's Purge from the Soviet Communist Party in 1933
Cahiers du monde russe Russie - Empire russe - Union soviétique et États indépendants 49/4 | 2008 Destins individuels et terreur. Jeunesse dans la société post-stalinienne Aleksandr Shliapnikov's purge from the soviet communist party in 1933 BARBARA C. ALLEN Édition électronique URL : http://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/9495 DOI : 10.4000/monderusse.9495 ISSN : 1777-5388 Éditeur Éditions de l’EHESS Édition imprimée Date de publication : 28 décembre 2008 Pagination : 559-580 ISBN : 978-2-7132-2197-2 ISSN : 1252-6576 Référence électronique BARBARA C. ALLEN, « Aleksandr Shliapnikov's purge from the soviet communist party in 1933 », Cahiers du monde russe [En ligne], 49/4 | 2008, mis en ligne le 01 janvier 2008, Consulté le 19 avril 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/9495 ; DOI : 10.4000/monderusse.9495 2011 BARBARA C. ALLEN ALEKSANDR SHLIAPNIKOV’S PURGE FROM THE SOVIET COMMUNIST PARTY IN 1933* Before the Russian Revolution and during the early years of the Soviet era, Russian Bolshevism was a diverse political movement in which Lenin’s views were not hegemonic.1 The Russian Civil War provided the context in which the coercive and centralizing variant of Leninist Bolshevism that became Stalinism achieved ascendancy.2 Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin’s faction prevailed over those of his political rivals by 1929, but even in the 1930s, there were still some Russian Communists for whom “speaking Bolshevik” did not necessarily mean “speaking Stalinist.”3 Perhaps they were more prevalent among the older generation of party members than the * Research for this article was made possible by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship and by a grant from the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX). -
Assessing Soviet Economic Performance During the Cold War: a Failure of Intelligence?
76 The Scholar Assessing Soviet Economic Performance During the Cold War: A Failure of Intelligence? Marc Trachtenberg Texas National Security Review: Volume 1, Issue 2 (March 2018) Print: ISSN 2576-1021 Online: ISSN 2576-1153 77 For years, scholars have argued that economists and the CIA failed to see that the Soviet Union’s economy was headed toward collapse. But are they right? The swift and peaceful collapse of the claimed flatly that Western specialists in this area Communist order, first in Eastern Europe and then had failed to “‘diagnose observable tendencies,’ in the Soviet Union itself, was an extraordinarily such as the continued decline of economic growth important historical event, and people at the time rates.”3 According to Igor Birman, another émigré were amazed to see the Soviet system end the way economist — and one much admired by Malia — it it did. But why did it come as such a surprise? was “only in 1981, or maybe in 1982,” that people Shouldn’t the experts in the West who had devoted began “talking about problems within the Soviet their lives to the study of the Soviet Union have economy.”4 Even today, many observers still take been able to see that such enormous changes were it for granted that the economics profession, and in the making? indeed scholars more generally, essentially missed Many observers felt that social scientists in what was going on in the USSR — a major failure, general, and economists in particular, had failed, given the importance of the issue.5 as Martin Malia put it, to understand “the deeper And it was not just academic economists who dynamics driving Soviet reality.” Their writings, in were criticized for their supposed failure to Malia’s view, had suggested that the Soviet system understand what was happening in the USSR.