Stalin: A New History

Cambridge University Press, 9/8/2005
EAN 9780521616539, ISBN10: 0521616530

Paperback, 310 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English

The figure of Joseph Stalin has always provoked heated and often polarized debate. The recent declassification of a substantial portion of Stalin's archive has made possible this fundamental new assessment of the Soviet leader. In this groundbreaking 2005 study, leading international experts challenge many assumptions about Stalin from his early life in Georgia to the Cold War years with contributions ranging across the political, economic, social, cultural, ideological and international history of the Stalin era. The volume provides a deeper understanding of the nature of Stalin's power and of the role of ideas in his politics, presenting a more complex and nuanced image of one of the most important leaders of the twentieth century. This study is without precedent in the field of Russian history and will prove invaluable reading for students of Stalin and Stalinism.

1. Joseph Stalin
power and ideas Sarah Davies and James Harris
2. Stalin as Georgian
the formative years Alfred Rieber
3. Stalin as commissar for nationalities affairs, 1918–22 Jeremy Smith
4. Stalin as General Secretary
the appointments process and the nature of Stalin's power James Harris
5. Stalin as 'Prime Minister'
power and the Politburo J. Arch Getty
6. Stalin as dictator
the personalisation of power Oleg Khlevniuk
7. Stalin as economic policy-maker
Soviet agriculture, 1931–6 R. W. Davies
8. Stalin as foreign policy-maker
avoiding war, 1927–53 Alfred Rieber
9. Stalin as Marxist
the western roots of Stalin's Russification of Marxism Erik van Ree
10. Stalin as Bolshevik Romantic
ideology and mobilisation, 1917–39 David Priestland
11. Stalin as patron of cinema
creating Soviet mass culture, 1932–6 Sarah Davies
12. Stalin as producer
the Moscow show trials and the construction of mortal threats William Chase
13. Stalin as symbol
a case study of the personality cult and its construction David Brandenberger
14. Stalin as the Coryphaeus of science
ideology and knowledge in the postwar years Ethan Pollock.