When East European communism collapsed in the revolutions of 1989, the newly liberated countries discarded socialism altogether. For the first time, most of Eastern Europe experienced free elections and a multitude of parties, mostly with liberal, conservative or nationalist connotations, made their entry into political life. A bewildered world is now trying to imagine the future course of events. Has capitalism won or is something different emerging? Has market socialism vanished for good? How can the transitionary period be managed and what effect will it have on the standard of living in...

In this volume, scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, using a breadth of source material including Soviet archives and the local press, present recent thinking and research on Soviet history. New Directions in Soviet History opens with a provocative review of Gorbachev and Soviet history by Pierre Broue. This is followed by papers on the changing nature of mass culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Jeffrey Brooks explores how public identities were constructed in the party press, Denise Youngblood looks at the role of the cinema and James van Gelderen examines tensions within the arts between...