The Secret History of Soviet Russia's Police State: Cruelty, Co-operation and Compromise, 1917-91

by Martyn Whittock

Overview

'[R]eadable and thoughtful . . . does an excellent job of exploring how the murderous political police in all its incarnations defined the Soviet Union, and left a poisonous legacy still with us today'
Professor Mark Galeotti, author of The Vory and A Short History of Russia

Repression, control, manipulation and elimination of enemies assisted in the establishment of the Soviet state, and helped maintain it in power, but could not, in the end, prevent its collapse.

Citizens of the West have, for the most part, been told a very simplified story of the repressive 'totalitarian' state that was the USSR. In fact, it was sustained by more than just policing and force. No amount of revisionist history can erase the reality of millions controlled, imprisoned and killed, but there was much more to the USSR's one-party state than this. Whittock tells a more complex story of the combination of cruelty, co-operation and compromise required to build and run a one-party state. Much of this is the story of the role played by the secret police in creating and sustaining such a form of government, but it is much more than simply a 'history of the secret police'. This is because the 'police state' which emerged (in which dissent, both real and imaginary, was undoubtedly policed, threatened and ruthlessly eliminated) was more than just the product of the arrests, interrogations, executions and imprisonments carried out by the secret police. The USSR was also made possible by a battle for hearts and minds which led millions of people to feel that they really had benefited from the system and had a stake in the new society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472142399
Publisher:	Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date:	07/23/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	826,879
File size:	895 KB

About the Author

Martyn Whittock graduated in Politics from Bristol University in 1980, where his degree special study was in the Development of the Soviet State. He taught history at secondary level for thirty-five years, teaching Soviet History at A-Level and writing an A-Level text book entitled Stalin's Russia and a GCSE textbook on Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941. He has acted as an historical consultant to the National Trust, the BBC and English Heritage and is the author or co-author of forty-eight books, including A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages, A Brief History of the Third Reich and Norse Myths and Legends.
MARTYN WHITTOCK taught history at secondary level for thirty-five years. He has acted as an historical consultant to the National Trust, the BBC and English Heritage and is the author or co-author of forty-eight books, including A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages, Norse Myths and Legends and The Secret History of Soviet Russia's Police State.

Table of Contents

Map: The Main Camp Complexes of the Gulag System, Across the USSR viii

Note on the Changing Titles of the Secret Police xi

Introduction xv

Chapter 1 The Roots of Lenin's Dictatorship 1

Chapter 2 The Start of 'Red Terror', September-October 1918 25

Chapter 3 Civil War and Mass Violence, 1918-22 41

Chapter 4 A Return to Normal in the 1920s … But What Is Normal? 61

Chapter 5 A Forgotten 'Genocide'? The Ukrainian Famine 81

Chapter 6 The Revolution Starts to Turn on Its Own 101

Chapter 7 The 'Great Terror', 1937-8 119

Chapter 8 Empire of Repression: Life in the Gulag System 141

Chapter 9 The Secret Police in the Great Patriotic War (1941-5) 161

Chapter 10 Bringing Eastern Europe Under Control After 1945 183

Chapter 11 The Post-war Repression and the Death of Stalin 203

Chapter 12 Rebuilding Repression, from the Mid-1960s to the Early 1980s 225

Chapter 13 From Gorbachev to Putin: The End of the USSR and Its Secret Police State 243

Chapter 14 The Ghosts of History: The Continuing Influence of the Soviet Police State 257

Notes 274

Bibliography 301

Acknowledgements 304

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

[R]eadable and thoughtful . . . does an excellent job of exploring how the murderous political police in all its incarnations defined the Soviet Union, and left a poisonous legacy still with us today.—Professor Mark Galeotti, author of The Vory and A Short History of Russia

A classic example of how a generalist book can be actually a really good book. Whittock has got a great eye for nice vignettes, nice anecdotes that don't just entertain, but also actually illustrate wider points and precisely because he comes to it as a generalist I think he does an excellent job in distilling the big themes, the things that are important particularly in the different ages of Soviet police state and intelligence activity . . . a very readable book . . . even as something of spook wonk myself there were bits and pieces where I thought, 'Ah yes, I'd either forgotten about that or didn't know it in the first place' . . . a thoughtful piece that's done really well.—Professor Mark Galeotti, University College London, In Moscow’s Shadows podcast

On Norse Myths Legends (written with Hannah Whittock)
A terrific, detailed introduction of these wonderful stories and the pantheon of characters in them . . . their writing is vivid and lively . . . a great addition to any library.

—San Francisco Book Review

On Christ: The First 2000 Years (written with Esther Whittock)
Intelligently written . . . informative and insightful; an excellent summary.

—Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury

On Mayflower Lives:
Whittock displays a fine eye for detail.

—Wall Street Journal

On Mayflower Lives: Whittock [is] an engaging writer.—Kirkus Reviews

On Trump and the Puritans (written with James Roberts):
Insightful, well-written . . . Recommended reading before a dinner party.

—Catholic Herald

On Trump and the Puritans:
An essential and riveting read.

—Julie Etchingham, journalist and broadcaster

From the Publisher