Late Stalinist Russia : Society Between Reconstruction and Reinvention

ISBN-13: 9780415374767 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 287 str.

Juliane Furst

Opis

The late Stalinist period, long neglected by researchers more interested in the high-profile events of the 1930s, has recently become the focus of new and innovative research. This book examines late Stalinist society's interaction with ideology, state policy and national and international politics. It dispels the notion of late Stalinism as the apogee of Stalin's rule. Rather than being cowed by terror and control, Soviet post-war society emerges as highly diverse and often contradictory. The analysis of issues such as the impact of demographic changes, shifts in popular opinion, the rise of new generations and the construction of post-war spaces demonstrates that alongside the needs of reconstruction, a strong desire for reinvention existed. The late Stalinist years are thus shown to be a crucial turning point between the Soviet Union's revolutionary origins and its later appearance as a mature and consolidated empire beset by problems of stagnation and corruption. It was in this time that the Soviet Union acquired many of the characteristics that gave it the face it was to have until its demise.

Spis treści

Introduction: Late Stalinist Society: History, Policies and People  Part 1: When the War was Over  1. Population, Politics and Reproduction: Late Stalinism and its Legacy  2. The Bitter Legacy of the ‘Great Patriotic War’: Red Army Disabled Soldiers under Late Stalinism  3. Subversive Tales? War Rumours in the Soviet Union 1945-47  Part 2: Barracks, Queues and Private Plots: Post-War Urban and Rural Landscapes  4. Standard of Living versus Quality of Life: Struggling with the Urban Environment in Russia During the Early Years of Post-War Reconstruction  5. "Into the Grey Zone": Sham Peasants and the Limits of the Kolkhoz Order in the Post-War Russian Village, 1945-1953  Part 3: The Corrupted State: War and the Rise of the Second Economy  6. A ‘Campaign Spasm’: Graft and the Limits of the ‘Campaign’ against Bribery after the Great Patriotic War  7. A Darker ‘Big Deal’: Concealing Party Crimes in the Post-WWII Era  Part 4: New Generations: Identity between the Yesterday of War and the Possibilities of Tomorrow  8. More than Just Stalinists: The Political Sentiments of Victors 1945-1953  9. Children’s Lives after Zoia’s Death: Order, Emotions and Heroism in Children’s Lives and Literature in the Post-War Soviet Union  10. The Importance of Being Stylish: Youth, Culture and Identity in Late Stalinism  Part 5: Post-War Spaces: Reconstructing a New World  11. ‘Where Should we Resettle the Comrades Next?’ The Adjudication of Housing Claims and the Construction of the Post-War Order  12. The Moscow Gorky Street in Late Stalinism: Space, History and Lebenswelten.  Conclusion: Late Stalinism in Historical Perspective

O autorze

Authored by Fürst, Juliane