David L. Hoffmann is Professor of History at Ohio State University where he teaches Russian History, including an upper-level course on Stalinism. His research focuses on the political, social, and cultural history of the Stalin era. He is author of "Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929-1941" (1994); "Stalinist Values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity, 1917-1941" (2003). He is also the co-editor of "Russian Modernity: Politics, Knowledge, Practices" (2000), and the co-author of "Cultivating the Masses: The Modern Social State in Russia, 1914-1941" (forthcoming).