Recent research on Stalin s Russia
The totalitarian model Jan T. Gross: What brings social atomization is the mutual fear and distrust induced in people's minds when the social control mechanism in their society is such that they can only cause harm to one another and are defenceless against such attempts by others Hannah Arendt: totalitarianism obliterates the possibility of any kind of spontaneity
Revisionist approaches Resistance eg Lynne Viola s work on women s riots (the babii bunt) Self-advancement eg Sheila Fitzpatrick on the vydvyzhentsy (promotees) Fear is not universal eg Robert Thurston s work on reactions to Stalin s terror
The Stalinist Soul Soviet power as a disciplinary project (work influenced by Foucault) Igal Halfin and Jochen Hellbeck Hellbeck focuses on diary-writing, using the writings of the former kulak Stepan Podlubnyi extensively
12.2. 1933 [...] The young people who come together to dance and sing in the kitchen of the Rodins: These young people are all from the village - girls and fellows from a backward, extremely low milieu. You stand there and look at them, a pleasant picture at first sight. But when you think about it more deeply, you draw back, because you remember that these are living people. People! Not animals. But their relation toward each other, their thoughts and manners are just animal-like... [...] Let's just take this evening. One of many. A dance, a "virtuoso" dance accompanied by an accordion. The fellows with drunken mugs and even sober guys with insolent expression paw the girls, shoving, and being rowdy. Vas'ka Godunov, a lad who has lived in Moscow since 1928. He is only 20, in the prime of his life. He is dead drunk; on clumsy, drunken legs he taps out the Russian dance. He has forgotten that it's time to go to work, that his comrades there are waiting for him, that the driver is waiting with the car (he is a loader). [...] He has emptied a whole bottle, he couldn't care less. But tomorrow? Tomorrow he'll get up with a heavy, aching head - without work, without his bite of bread, torn and sick. And then? Well, they won't give him work, where can he go? Perhaps do some trading on the market. A number of these fellows will come together, and they'll begin to steal. If it works, fine, but if not, they will literally die of hunger. Without a home, they'll freeze to death. There you see a thief, a bandit and what have you, someone who it is very difficult, if not impossible, to put on their feet, and lead to the path of truth, the path of a cultured person.
De-Stalinisation Traditional concept of the thaw to cover the mid-50s and 60s. Recent research questions whether relief was universal, offering a more complex picture of societal reactions
Deeply respected Viacheslav Mikhailovich [Molotov], Forgive my audacity in daring to write to you, but I can t hold myself back any more. I ask you to defend us simple people from the persecution and terror of thieves. They go about stealing in the broad light of day, they walk about with knives and razor blades, and if anyone tries to stand up to them, they start on him. This happened to tram conductor Grigor eva from the Krasnaia Presniia district. You go to work, and you don t know if you re going to make it home OK or not. The police are powerless, and when you call for help for example on the train all the passengers keep quiet because they re scared of being stabbed. Such disgraceful horrors happen in Moscow, without even speaking about the Moscow suburbs, where the bandits reign, especially with their lairs in Nikitovka and Obiralovka, stations on the Gor kii railway line. Indeed this dirty water, these Russian gangsters are without conscience or honour. We conquered Germany when she was armed to the teeth, can it really be that our state is without the strength to conquer these parasites? We beg you to write a law which says that any thief who is caught has five fingers chopped off his left hand and is branded, so that everyone knows that he is a thief and keeps away from him. Merciless and strict measures must be taken. We ve had enough of being humane with these weeds. Only the grave corrects the hunchback. Only then will us honest workers get the peace and security, knowing that they ll make it home safe each night. Take any tram conductor from the Krasnaia Presniia district, and they ll be able to tell you a lot. It is impossible to bear this situation any longer. Yours sincerely, Antonova.
Studies of De-Stalinisation The Gulag returns Reactions to the Secret Speech The 1957 Youth Festival
The Soviet Union as multi-ethnic empire Study of the non-russian areas of the Soviet Union, particularly for the 1920s and 1930s
The Hujum, 1927 Soviet attempts to overcome backwardness eg polygyny, paying bridal price, veiling Some women embrace the unveilings (particularly marginal women) But patriarchal society responds: 2,500 killings of women (by Uzbek men) between 1927 and 1930 Marianne Kamp: deeply patriarchal and deeply divided society in which religious violence is enacted on women by men, incited by religious leaders.
General trends in the history of the USSR as empire Challenge to view of historians like Richard Pipes who stress the role of Moscow in suppressing nationalisms Many of the nation-states that emerged post- 1991 did not in fact exist before Soviet power Importance of korenizatsiia (indigenisation) Ronald Suny s revenge of the past