The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

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PREFACE

INTRODUCTION. Theme 1. THE STUDY OF MODERN RUSSIAN HISTORY: MAIN CHARACTERISTICS AND TRENDS

Theme 2. RUSSIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY: ITS SELF-IMAGE, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION, AND CONTRADICTIONS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT

Theme 3. FESTIVAL OF THE OPPRESSED OR SOCIAL DISEASE? THE NATURE OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS

Theme 4. EMERGENCY MEASURES AND THE «EXTREME EMERGENCY REGIME» IN THE SOVIET REPUBLIC AND OTHER STATE FORMATIONS ON THE TERRITORY OF RUSSIA, 1918‒1920

Theme 5. FROM «WAR COMMUNISM» TO THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY: CONTRADICTIONS OF THE NEP

Theme 6. NEP DOWNSIZING AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE POLICY OF EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES INTO A PERMANENT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

Theme 7. THE 1930S: CRISES, REFORMS, REPRESSIONS

Theme 8. THE HIERARCHY OF THE GREAT TERROR

Theme 9. ILLUSIONS AND AWAKENING OF THE GENERATION OF 1930S

Theme 10. THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941‒1945: MAIN EVENTS AND POPULAR MOOD IN THE UNOCCUPIED SOVIET UNION

Theme 11. THE PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS OF THE POST-WAR ERA

Theme 12. THE KHRUSHCHEV’S THAW AND ITS REVERSE SIDE

Theme 13. SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES: FROM REFORMS TO STAGNATION

Theme 14. THE 1980S: THE SPACE OF POWER AND A SEARCH FOR NEW WAYS OF HISTORICAL PROGRESS

Theme 15. AUGUST PUTSCH OF 1991 AND THE TERMIDOR OF YELTSIN

CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA. WITH WHAT DOES RUSSIA ENTER THE NEW MILLENNIUM?. Theme 16. THE REALM OF POWER UNDER VLADIMIR PUTIN

Theme 17. REFORMS AND THE HIERARCHY OF NATIONAL PROJECTS

Theme 18. LOCATING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD OF 1917 IN RUSSIAN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Theme 19. THE GREAT VICTORY OF 1945 IN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Theme 20. TWENTIETH-CENTURY RUSSIAN UTOPIAS: ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE AS IMAGINED BY THE STATE AND DESIRED BY THE INTELLIGENTSIA

MAIN EVENTS, DATES AND GLOSSARY

SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES

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Theme 11.
THE PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS OF THE POST-WAR ERA

We’d like to begin this theme with two historical episodes. Before we tell the first story, we’d like to remind you that Stalin means «the man of steel».

June 24, 1945. The Victory Parade is going on in the Red Square in Moscow. It is raining. Stalin is standing on the tribune of the Mausoleum. The dialogue of a father and a son in the crowd:

Father: Do you see Stalin well?

Son: Yes, Dad. He is standing in the rain. He is old. Won’t he get wet?

Father: Tempered steel doesn’t mind.

Son: Then, he is a steel man? That’s why he is called Stalin? Right?

Father: He is an ordinary man, but his power is like steel.

Son: Dad, why isn’t he happy? Is he angry with somebody?

Father: With God, perhaps, who hasn’t sent us good weather today.

Son: But why hasn’t Stalin ordered God to make good weather for us?

The year 1945 was the peak of Stalin’s authority and the cult of Stalin was at its height. Many thought that he was superior even to God. One veteran had reproached, that we could never know what the Stalin cult was really like, in its developed form. Then this veteran shared his recollections with us:

In the war-years I was a People’s Commissariat worker. Once, at daybreak, Stalin called me to his cabinet. He asked me questions and I answered him. Then Stalin came up to me and looked attentively in my eyes. Blinking was not allowed. Everybody knew that Stalin wanted everybody to look him straight in the eyes. Stalin used to say: «If your eyes rove, you have a guilty conscience». A minute passed. Stalin said: «Thank you, comrade», and shook my hand. When I felt his hand, it seemed to me, that a spark ran through me. I hid my hand in the cuff of my coat, and rushed home. Paying no need to my wife’s questions, I came up to the bed of my little son. Then I took out my hand and put it on his forehand so that Stalin’s warmth would reach him. That is what cult is.

Of course, Stalin didn’t want to share the victory over Germany with anybody and soon we will examine how he treated the «generation of winners». But at first, Stalin simply wanted to enjoy the fruits of victory.

The war altered the world and ordinary lives had radically changed. A common threat brought everybody together, removed old quarrels. The paradox was that the world disaster gave rise to the priority of human values, to a desire to unite. It seemed that this happened right after the war. Even the Cold War, which replaced the period of alliance, could not cancel the reality of «common home» idea. It was this very idea that started a process, later called convergence, that is a term signifying the slowly disappearing differences between systems, that is political system, economic system, etc. It seems to me that former allies proved to be more perceptive to the reality of the post-war world, than the USSR. Stalin half-opened the «iron curtain». The Kremlin was making plans of anti-American and anti-English propaganda. Any film, book, or play of a Western author was banned; the circulation of the magazines America and England was reduced. Only a few «worthy» people were allowed to read them.

История Bordyugov G., Devyatov S., Kotelenet E. The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

История Bordyugov G., Devyatov S., Kotelenet E. The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

The XXth Century Political History of Russia presents lecture materials for academics working with undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers of Russian history.<br /> The chapters are an unusual insight into the Russian past, which makes the readers think, analyze and also reconsider some events of the Russian history. It is an exciting blend of stories of the past and future trends, allowing to make forecasts and predictions.

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