Description
Book SynopsisJames Ryan is Senior Lecturer in Modern European (Russian) History at Cardiff University, UK. He is the author of
Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence (2012), and his articles have appeared in journals such as
Slavic Review,
Europe-Asia Studies, and
Historical Research.
Susan Grant is Reader in Modern European History at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. She is the author of
Physical Culture and Sport in Soviet Society (2013), and articles in journals such as the
American Journal of Public Health,
Medical History, and
Revolutionary Russia.
Trade ReviewThis useful volume makes a small step toward filling in some of the blanks of a particularly obscure and gruesome period in human history. * The Russian Review *
Scholars of Stalinism will find much of value in this collection of articles. Addressing topics from the Stalin cult to Red Army purges to the Cold War, the contributors add significantly to our understanding of this critical period in Soviet history. * David L. Hoffmann, Distinguished Professor of History, Ohio State University, USA *
This edited volume offers a remarkably stimulating and comprehensive discussion of Joseph Stalin’s style of political leadership. Without in any way playing down Stalin’s role as one of history’s great mass murderers, the cast of leading scholars in the field brought together in this volume focus on other elements of his leadership, such as his revolutionary motives and administrative qualities and effectiveness, thus helping us to acquire a more balanced reading of the dictator. * Erik van Ree, Research Associate of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands *
Table of ContentsList of Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: Revisioning Stalin and Stalinism,
James Ryan (Cardiff University, UK) and Susan Grant (Liverpool John Moores University, UK) Part I. The Controversial Vozhd’: Stalin as Leader and Statesman 1. The Many Lives of Joseph Stalin: Writing the Biography of a ‘Monster’,
Christopher Read (Warwick University, UK) 2. Stalin’s Purge of the Red Army and Misperception of Security Threats,
Peter Whitewood (York St. John University, UK) 3. Stalin and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939: The New Historiography,
Daniel Kowalsky (Queen's University Belfast, UK) 4. Brute Force and Genius: Stalin as War Leader,
Chris Bellamy (University of Greenwich, UK) Part II. Challenging Stalinist Models: Cults of Personality 5. The Stalin Cult in Comparative Context,
Judith Devlin (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) 6. From Heroic Lion to Streetfighter: Historical Legacies and the Leader Cult in 20th Century Hungary,
Balázs Apor (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) Part III. New Ways of Understanding the Stalinist System: The Cold War 7. Revisioning Stalin’s Cold War,
Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (Loughborough University, UK) 8. Working Towards the Vozhd’? Stalin and the Peace Movement,
Geoffrey Roberts (University College Cork, Ireland) 9. Construction of a Confession: The Language and Psychology of Interrogations in Stalinist Czechoslovakia,
Molly Pucci (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) Part IV. In Lieu of an Epilogue 10. Reckoning with the Past: Stalin and Stalinism in Putin’s Russia,
James Ryan (Cardiff University, UK) Select Bibliography Index
