Description
Book SynopsisPresents the history of the successes and failures in historic preservation and of Leningraders' determination to honor the memory of the terrible siege the city had endured during World War II.
Trade ReviewMaddox's rich and lucid study makes multiple contributions. It provides a history of the figures, institutions, and policies driving Soviet preservationism. It also offers a new perspective on Stalinism by suggesting that the rehabilitation of patriotism and of the Russian past in the mid-1930s had roots in earlier efforts to protect tsarist architecture. . . . In addition, he traces the relationship between historic preservation and commemoration in the USSR.
* The Russian Review *
Based on extensive archival research, Steven Maddox's book makes use of formerly unread sources to elucidate the dramatic case of the preservation of Leningrad's historical sites shortly before, during, and aft er World War II.
* Slavic Review *
This book will make an excellent addition to even basic university libraries and will be of interest to anyone working on memory, museums, or preservation work in Russian and East European culture.
* American Historical Review *
In a meticulously researched and fluently written book Maddox succeeds in explaining how and why a war-ravaged city suffering acute shortages invested its scant resources in protecting and reconstructing monuments. . . . Maddox's fine study deserves to be widely read. Historians interested in Leningrad/St Petersburg, late Stalinism, the blockade and historic preservation, as well as those familiar with the city's architectural treasures, will find much of value here. Students less familiar with the city, and even first-time visitors, will also find their understanding of its historic urban fabric enhanced by reading this book.
* Slavonic and East European Review *
Maddox's well-researched book is a most welcome addition to the historiography of Europe's bombed cities and their reconstruction after World War II.
* JOURNAL OF MODERN HISTORY *
Steven Maddox's study of the shifting rationale, under Stalin, for the preservation and restoration of Leningrad's imperial monuments in the interwar period, and for restoration and commemoration in the early post-World War Two years, contributes to the growing body of research on the siege of Leningrad and the city's relationship to the Soviet government and ideology. The analysis is well documented, based on extensive archival and other sources, and follows deliberations surrounding preservation and restoration projects as well as accounts of work schedules and accomplishments or delays.
* Canadian Slavonic Papers *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. Old Petersburg, Preservation Movements, and the Soviet State's "Turn to the Past"
2. These Monuments Must Be Protected!: Leningrad's Imperial Cityscape at War.
3. Projecting Soviet Power: Historic Restoration as Commemoration in Postwar Leningrad
4. "When Ivan Comes, There Will be Nothing Left": Rebuilding and Reimagining the Historic Monuments in Leningrad's Suburbs
5. Becoming "Leningraders": Official Commemorations of the Blockade
6. Cold War Complications: Soviet Patriotism, Historic Restoration, and the End of Blockade Commemorations
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
