New Directions in Soviet History

by Stephen White

Overview

Soviet history has seldom been of such importance—both to historians and to a broader public in the USSR—as it now is. In this timely volume, scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, using a breadth of source material including Soviet archives and the local press, present the most recent thinking and up-to-date research available. The original essays discuss Gorbachev and Soviet history, the changing nature of mass culture in the 1920s and 1930s, the politics of shopfloor culture between the wars, and the evolution of the political elite from the 1930s to the present day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521413763
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/25/1991
Series:	International Council for Central and East European Studies
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Hometown:

Colorado

Date of Birth:

August 20, 1951

Place of Birth:

Long Island, New York

Education:

B.A., UC Berkeley, 1972; M.A., University of Colorado, Boulder, 1975; Ph.D., 1979

Website:

http://www.authorstephenwhite.com

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. The Politics Of Soviet History: 1. Gorbachev and history Pierre Broue; Part II. Social Change And Cultural Policy: 2. Revolutionary lives: public identities in Pravda during the 1920s Jeffrey Brooks; 3. Entertainment or enlightenment?: popular cinema in Soviet society, 1921–1931 Denise Youngblood; 4. The centre and the periphery: cultural and social geography in the mass culture of the 1930s James van Gelderen; Part III. Politics, Industry and Shopfloor Relations: 5. The crisis of productivity in the New Economic Policy: rationalization drives and shop floor responses in Soviet cotton mills, 1924–1929 Chris Ward; 6. The politics of industrial efficiency during NEP: the 1926 rezhim ekonomiki campaign in Moscow John Hatch; 7. The Moscow party and the socialist offensive: activists and workers, 1928–1931 Catherine Merridale; 8. The demise of the shock brigades, 1931–1936 John Russell; 9. Reassessing the history of Soviet workers: opportunities to criticise and participate in decision-making, 1935–1941 Robert W. Thurston; Part IV. The Political Elite: From the 1930s to the 1990s: 10. Portrait of a changing elite: CPSU Central Committee members, 1939–1990 Evan Mawdsley; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...a stimulating collection. It is very much to the credit of Cambridge University Press that it has decided to publish this and other volumes derived from the Fourth World Congress, each with a reputable editor." Slavic Review

From the Publisher