Academic analysis has not always kept pace with the dramatic changes that have occurred in the USSR since Stalin’s time, for objective study has often been overshadowed—especially in the 1980s—by publicity concerning the negative aspects of the “Evil Empire.” Recently, however, because of reforms initiated by Gorbachev, the dynamics of the Soviet system have come into sharper focus. This book provides a wide-ranging, detailed view of economic, social, ideological, and literary aspects of t...

This classic Soviet Union history traces the USSR from 1917 to its fall, offering “a master class in understanding the structures and intricate workings of the Soviet system” (Ian Kershaw, historian and Hitler biographer).Today, the Soviet Union remains the most extraordinary but tragic attempt to create a society beyond capitalism. Yet its history was one that for a long time proved impossible to write.In The Soviet Century, Moshe Lewin follows th...

Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by one of our foremost authorities on modern Russian history. Focusing on urban areas in the 1930s, Sheila Fitzpatrick shows that with the adoption of collectivization and the first Five-Year Plan, everyday life was utterly transformed. With the abolition of the market, shortages of food, clothing, and all kinds of consumer goods became endemic. As peasants fled the collectivized villages, major cities were soon in the gri...

"The Soviet Tragedy is an essential coda to the literature of Soviet studies...Insofar as [he] returns the power of ideology to its central place in Soviet history, Malia has made an enormous contribution. He has written the history of a utopian illusion and the tragic consequences it had for the people of the Soviet Union and the world."-- David Remnick, The New York Review of Books"In Martin Malia, the Soviet Union had one of its most acute observers. Wi...

Almost twenty years after the Soviet Unions' end, what are we to make of its existence? Was it a heroic experiment, an unmitigated disaster, or a viable if flawed response to the modern world? Taking a fresh approach to the study of the Soviet Union, this Very Short Introduction blends political history with an investigation into the society and culture at the time. Stephen Lovell examines aspects of patriotism, political violence, poverty, and ideology; and provides answers to so...

Essays on how chaos, totalitarianism, and trauma have shaped Ukraine's culture: "A milestone of the scholarship about Eastern European politics of memory." —Wulf Kansteiner, Aarhus UniversityIn a century marked by totalitarian regimes, genocide, mass migrations, and shifting borders, the concept of memory in Eastern Europe is often synonymous with notions of trauma. In Ukraine, memory mechanisms were disrupted by political systems seeking to repress and control the ...

An extensive revision of the valued but unobtainable 1960 edition. Nearly 300 key documents are now readily available in translation.

Mikhail Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynar were friends for half a century, since they first crossed paths as students in 1950. Although one was a Russian and the other a Czech, they were both ardent supporters of communism and socialism. One took part in laying the groundwork for and carrying out the Prague spring; the other opened a new political era in Soviet world politics.In 1993 they decided that their conversations might be of interest to others and so they began to tape-record the...

Reinventing Politics gives an account of East European politics from the time of Soviet domination to the 1989-90 revolutions, and considers the effect of tyranny on East European culture and politics, the chances for successful and harmonious development in the region, and its relationship with the rest of Europe.“Using primary materials from Eastern European democratic movements, Tismaneanu shows how dissident enclaves, grassroots political groups, indep...

A panoramic, interdisciplinary survey of Russian lives and "a must-read for any scholar engaging with Russian culture" ( The Russian Review).In this interdisciplinary collection of essays, distinguished scholars survey the cultural practices, power relations, and behaviors that characterized Russian daily life from pre-revolutionary times through the post-Soviet present. Microanalyses and transnational perspectives shed new light on the formation and elabo...

There are few more divisive names in modern history than that of the diehard revolutionary Leon Trotsky. To some he was a hypocritical totalitarian, while to many others he was a revolutionary liberator, an idealist determined to crush an outdated, oppressive dynasty in order to replace it with a proletarian socialist commonwealth. But one thing is agreed: his impact as a leader in the Russian Revolution and his widely read polemical books and articles make Trotsky one of the most influent...

A Dorothy Rosenberg Prize–winner: "A remarkable social history that investigates the process of Sovietization among Jews in Belorussia" (Jeffrey Veidlinger, author of In the Shadow of the Shtetl).This insightful history demonstrates how Jewish life in Belorussia fundamentally changed when Jews started joining the Bolshevik movement and populating the front lines of the revolutionary struggle. While Andrew Sloin's story follows the arc of Bolshevik history, ...