The Soviet Union was not just another dictatorship. It also was an attempt to remake the whole of society, and even the best historians often have difficulty conveying a sense of what life was about in those years. Since 1991 Russian historians have produced a vast and continuing flood of documents from that era, many of which have been translated into English. A dip into the volumes of the Yale University Press series, Annals of Communism, will reward the general reader. The most useful are: J. Arch Getty and Oleg Naumov, eds., The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks 1932–1939 (1999); History of the Gulag: from Collectivization to the Great Terror, Oleg V. Khlevniuk et al. ed., trans. Vadim A. Staklo (2004); The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence 1931–1936, ed., R.W. Davies et al., trans. Steven Shabad (2003); Stalin’s Letters to Molotov 1925–1936, eds. Lars T. Lih, Oleg V. Naumov, and Oleg V. Khlevniuk, trans. Catherine A. Fitzpatrick (1995); War against the Peasantry 1927–1930, ed. Lynne Viola et al., trans., Steven Shabad (2005). THE WAR
The Soviet war against Nazi Germany has given rise to a gigantic and ever-expanding literature, complicated by new understanding of both sides. The best overall history is that of Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: the Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945 (2005). A portrait of Moscow in the terrible days of 1941 is Rodric Braithwaite, Moscow 1941: a City and its People at War (2006). For those with greater interest in detailed military history the many works of David Glantz, such as When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (1995) will be satisfying. For understanding the German side of the war the turning point was the appropriately titled work of General Klaus Reinhardt, Moscow – the Turning Point: the Failure of Hitler’s Strategy in the Winter of 1941–42, translated by Karl B. Keenan (1992, German original 1972). Reinhardt was the first to point out that the casualties and material losses of the Wehrmacht were so great by the end of 1941 that the German effort was essentially doomed. Greater background on this issue is provided by Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction: the Making and Remaking of the Nazi Economy (2006). On German extermination and exploitation policies see Geoffrey P. Megargee, War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941 (2006). The vast literature on the Holocaust also provides insight into German policies in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. THE COLD WAR AND THE END OF THE USSR
Stalin’s last years are only now beginning to be studied. Fundamental is Yoram Gorlitzki and Oleg V. Khlevniuk, The Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle 1945–1953 (2004). For the Cold War itself, David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb: the Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939–56 (1994), makes compelling reading. Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali recount the Soviet side of the Cold War in Khrushchev’s Cold War (2006), with many revelations, especially for those who lived through it. William Taubman’s Khrushchev: the Man and His Era (2003) is fundamental. For the last years of the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia reliable studies are hard to find. A fascinating introduction to life in the provinces, popular culture, and the origins of the post-1991 oligarchy is provided by Sergei I. Zhuk, Rock and Roll in the Rocket City: the West, Identity and Ideology in Dniepropetrovsk, 1960–1995 (2010). The best all around account remains Steven Kotkin, Armageddon Averted: the Soviet Collapse 1970–2000 (2d. ed. 2008). On the origins of the post-Cold War order new perspectives are in Mary Elise Sarotte, 1989: the Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe (2009). Typical Western views of Russian leaders are provided in Archie Brown, The Gorbachev Factor (1996); Timothy J. Colton, Yeltsin: a Life (2008); and Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s Choice (2d ed. 2008). CULTURE
An excellent introduction to a major component in Russian culture is William Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture (1993). For music, Richard Taruskin’s studies of Mussorgsky and Stravinsky are fundamental but daunting for the non-musician. For other composers see Roland John Wiley, Tchaikovsky (2009); Stephen Walsh, Stravinsky: a Creative Spring, Russia and France 1882–1934 (1999); Harlow Robinson, Prokofiev (2002); and Laurel E. Fay, Shostakovich: a Life (2000). Russian art has only recently come to the attention of English speaking scholars. Pioneers are Camilla Gray, The Russian Experiment in Art 1863–1922 (1986) and Elizabeth Valkenier, Russian Realist Art: the State and Society: the Peredvizhniki and their Tradition (1989) as well her Ilya Repin and the World of Russian Art (1990) and Valentin Serov: Portraits of Russia’s Silver Age (2001). Another source is David Jackson, The Russian Vision: the Art of Ilya Repin (2006). For the emergence of modernism see John Bowlt, Moscow and Saint Petersburg 1900–1920: Art Life and Culture of the Russian Silver Age (2008). On Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes see Sjeng Scheijen, Diaghilev: a Life (2010). The best introduction to Russian literature is to read it. Otherwise see Joseph Frank, Dostoyevsky (2010), and Ernest J. Simmons, Leo Tolstoy (1946).
On the culture of the Soviet era a good place to start is Richard Stites, Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution (1989) and Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society Since 1900 (1992). The best attempt to understand Socialist Realism is Katerina Clark, The Soviet Noveclass="underline" History as Ritual (2000), and for visual arts there is Matthew Cullerne Bown, Socialist Realist Painting (1998). Film was one of the USSR’s main cultural efforts. The classic study remains Jay Leyda, Kino: a History of the Russian and Soviet Film (last edition 1983). For Eisenstein see David Bordwell, The Cinema of Eisenstein, 2nd ed. (2005). Much of the drama of the history of Soviet culture is found in Soviet Culture and Power: a History in Documents: 1917–1953 (2007) edited by Katerina Clark and Evgeny Dobrenko with Andrei Atizov and Oleg Naumov. On Soviet physics see Paul R Josephson, Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia (1991); Alexei B. Kojevnikov, Stalin’s Great Science: the Times and Adventures of Soviet Physicists (2004); and for biology and the Lysenko affair David Joravsky, The Lysenko Affair (1970) and Nils Roll-Hansen, The Lysenko Effect: the Politics of Science (2005). The connection of science and technology is treated in Paul R Josephson, Red Atom: Russia’s Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today (2000).
Index
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.