Postwar Soviet Politics

Postwar Soviet Politics PDF Author: Werner G. Hahn
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501743392
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
In the years immediately following World War II, the Soviet Union witnessed a revival of tight Stalinist controls. Werner G. Hahn here explores the politics behind the USSR's rejection of moderation and seeming willingness to collaborate with the West, in favor of cold-war militancy abroad and inflexible dogmatism at home. Basing his work on scrupulous research in Soviet newspapers, journals, and books of the period, Hahn asserts that contrary to accepted opinion, there was vigorous debate between the Soviet conservatives and moderates in the early postwar period. In addition to documenting the events of the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hahn discusses the impact of the moderates' defeat in 1948–49 not only on contemporary Soviet politics, but also on Soviet science, philosophy, and economic thought. Illuminating an era of crucial importance in Soviet history—the final years of Stalin's reign.—this book will interest historians, political scientists, and students of contemporary Soviet affairs.

Postwar Soviet Politics

Postwar Soviet Politics PDF Author: Werner G. Hahn
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501743392
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
In the years immediately following World War II, the Soviet Union witnessed a revival of tight Stalinist controls. Werner G. Hahn here explores the politics behind the USSR's rejection of moderation and seeming willingness to collaborate with the West, in favor of cold-war militancy abroad and inflexible dogmatism at home. Basing his work on scrupulous research in Soviet newspapers, journals, and books of the period, Hahn asserts that contrary to accepted opinion, there was vigorous debate between the Soviet conservatives and moderates in the early postwar period. In addition to documenting the events of the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hahn discusses the impact of the moderates' defeat in 1948–49 not only on contemporary Soviet politics, but also on Soviet science, philosophy, and economic thought. Illuminating an era of crucial importance in Soviet history—the final years of Stalin's reign.—this book will interest historians, political scientists, and students of contemporary Soviet affairs.

Replacing the Dead

Replacing the Dead PDF Author: Mie Nakachi
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190635134
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
"In 1955 the Soviet Union re-legalized abortion on the basis of women's rights. However, this fact is not widely known. In the absence of a feminist movement, how did the idea of women's rights to abortion emerge in an authoritarian society, decades before it appeared in the West? The answer is found in the history of the Soviet politics of reproduction after World War II, a devastation in which 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians perished. This enormous loss of predominantly adult males posed a threat to economic recovery. In order to replace the dead, the Soviet Union introduced the 1944 Family Law based on the proposal submitted by Nikita S. Khrushchev. This extreme pronatalist policy encouraged men to father out-of-wedlock children and celebrated "Mother Heroines." However, Replacing the Dead argues that in the absence of serious commitment to supporting Soviet women who worked full-time, the policy actually did extensive collateral damage to gender relations and the welfare of women and children. Replacing the Dead finds the origin of the movement to improve women's reproductive environment in postwar social critique arising from women and Soviet professionals. Neither Stalin, nor Khrushchev allowed any major reform, but the movement did not die out. With relegalization and lack of contraception, an abortion culture grew among Soviet women. The model of socialist reproduction continues to set socialist and postsocialist countries apart. This history is a cautionary tale for today's Russia, as well as other countries that attempt to promote births"--

The High Title of a Communist

The High Title of a Communist PDF Author: Edward Cohn
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1609091795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Between 1945 and 1964, six to seven million members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were investigated for misconduct by local party organizations and then reprimanded, demoted from full party membership, or expelled. Party leaders viewed these investigations as a form of moral education and used humiliating public hearings to discipline wrongdoers and send all Soviet citizens a message about how Communists should behave. The High Title of a Communist is the first study of the Communist Party's internal disciplinary system in the decades following World War II. Edward Cohn uses the practices of expulsion and censure as a window into how the postwar regime defined the ideal Communist and the ideal Soviet citizen. As the regime grappled with a postwar economic crisis and evolved from a revolutionary prewar government into a more bureaucratic postwar state, the Communist Party revised its informal behavioral code, shifting from a more limited and literal set of rules about a party member's role in the economy to a more activist vision that encompassed all spheres of life. The postwar Soviet regime became less concerned with the ideological orthodoxy and political loyalty of party members, and more interested in how Communists treated their wives, raised their children, and handled their liquor. Soviet power, in other words, became less repressive and more intrusive. Cohn uses previously untapped archival sources and avoids a narrow focus on life in Moscow and Leningrad, combining rich local materials from several Russian provinces with materials from throughout the USSR. The High Title of a Communist paints a vivid portrait of the USSR's postwar era that will help scholars and students understand both the history of the Soviet Union's postwar elite and the changing values of the Soviet regime. In the end, it shows, the regime failed in its efforts to enforce a clear set of behavioral standards for its Communists—a failure that would threaten the party's legitimacy in the USSR's final days.

A History of Postwar Russia

A History of Postwar Russia PDF Author: Roger Pethybridge
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000479994
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
First Published in 1966, A History of Postwar Russia covers sixteen years of Soviet history, from the closing stages of the Second World War (1945) until the Twenty-second Soviet Party Congress (1961), dealing with both domestic and foreign policy and their influence on each other. It aims at giving the overall shape of Soviet history in these years. The author argues that in Soviet society each sector of activity must be viewed in relation to the whole, so that the monolithic pattern of totalitarian politics can be appreciated. More than any other major power, the Soviet Union did not submit easily to compartmentalized study, since every branch of Soviet life was carefully trimmed to grow towards the Communist aim. This book is an essential read for scholars and researchers of Soviet history, Soviet politics, European history, Russian history, and comparative politics.

The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe

The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe PDF Author: Richard Ned Lebow
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822338178
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Comparative case studies of how memories of World War II have been constructed and revised in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, and the USSR (Russia).

A Full-Value Ruble

A Full-Value Ruble PDF Author: Kristy Ironside
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674259254
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
A new history shows that, despite Marxism’s rejection of money, the ruble was critical to the Soviet Union’s promise of shared prosperity for its citizens. In spite of Karl Marx’s proclamation that money would become obsolete under Communism, the ruble remained a key feature of Soviet life. In fact, although Western economists typically concluded that money ultimately played a limited role in the Soviet Union, Kristy Ironside argues that money was both more important and more powerful than most histories have recognized. After the Second World War, money was resurrected as an essential tool of Soviet governance. Certainly, its importance was not lost on Soviet leaders, despite official Communist Party dogma. Money, Ironside demonstrates, mediated the relationship between the Soviet state and its citizens and was at the center of both the government’s and the people’s visions for the maturing Communist project. A strong ruble—one that held real value in workers’ hands and served as an effective labor incentive—was seen as essential to the economic growth that would rebuild society and realize Communism’s promised future of abundance. Ironside shows how Soviet citizens turned to the state to remedy the damage that the ravages of the Second World War had inflicted upon their household economies. From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, progress toward Communism was increasingly measured by the health of its citizens’ personal finances, such as greater purchasing power, higher wages, better pensions, and growing savings. However, the increasing importance of money in Soviet life did not necessarily correlate to improved living standards for Soviet citizens. The Soviet government’s achievements in “raising the people’s material welfare” continued to lag behind the West’s advances during a period of unprecedented affluence. These factors combined to undermine popular support for Soviet power and confidence in the Communist project.

The Sovietization of Eastern Europe

The Sovietization of Eastern Europe PDF Author: Balzs Apor
Publisher: New Acdemia+ORM
ISBN: 1955835314
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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Book Description
This essay anthology offers enlightening perspectives on how East-Central Europe was transformed into the “other” Europe during the Cold War era. When the Second World War ended, a new conflict arose between world powers jockeying for supremacy. The Soviet Union pursued a policy of exporting its system of government in a process known as sovietization. But there were also governments that sought to adopt a Soviet way of life on their own accord. Dictated by ideological imperatives, both styles of sovietization employed socialist strategies of state and nation building. This volume not only examines the imposition of new forms of government, but also the socialist response to modernity as reflected in approaches to new technology and management, consumption and leisure patterns, religious and educational policy, political rituals and attitudes to the past. The essays explore the diversity and the tensions within the sovietization process in the countries of the region. “This collection is a bold and timely attempt at shedding light on a rather insufficiently researched topic . . . the diverse approaches-ranging from socio-cultural and economic history to psycho-history.” —Dr. Dragos Petrescu, University of Bucharest.

Replacing the Dead

Replacing the Dead PDF Author: Mie Nakachi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fertility, Human
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Stalin and the Fate of Europe

Stalin and the Fate of Europe PDF Author: Norman M. Naimark
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674242920
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Winner of the Norris and Carol Hundley Award Winner of the U.S.–Russia Relations Book Prize A Financial Times Best History Book of the Year The Cold War division of Europe was not inevitable—the acclaimed author of Stalin’s Genocides shows how postwar Europeans fought to determine their own destinies. Was the division of Europe after World War II inevitable? In this powerful reassessment of the postwar order in Europe, Norman Naimark suggests that Joseph Stalin was far more open to a settlement on the continent than we have thought. Through revealing case studies from Poland and Yugoslavia to Denmark and Albania, Naimark recasts the early Cold War by focusing on Europeans’ fight to determine their future. As nations devastated by war began rebuilding, Soviet intentions loomed large. Stalin’s armies controlled most of the eastern half of the continent, and in France and Italy, communist parties were serious political forces. Yet Naimark reveals a surprisingly flexible Stalin, who initially had no intention of dividing Europe. During a window of opportunity from 1945 to 1948, leaders across the political spectrum, including Juho Kusti Paasikivi of Finland, Wladyslaw Gomulka of Poland, and Karl Renner of Austria, pushed back against outside pressures. For some, this meant struggling against Soviet dominance. For others, it meant enlisting the Americans to support their aims. The first frost of Cold War could be felt in the tense patrolling of zones of occupation in Germany, but not until 1948, with the coup in Czechoslovakia and the Berlin Blockade, did the familiar polarization set in. The split did not become irreversible until the formal division of Germany and establishment of NATO in 1949. In illuminating how European leaders deftly managed national interests in the face of dominating powers, Stalin and the Fate of Europe reveals the real potential of an alternative trajectory for the continent.

The Varga Controversy and Postwar Soviet Politics

The Varga Controversy and Postwar Soviet Politics PDF Author: Patrick Flaherty
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Soviet Union
Languages : en
Pages : 1650

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Book Description