The Structure of Soviet History Essays and Documents

by Suny, Ronald Grigor

• ISBN13: 9780195137040
• ISBN10: 0195137043
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-22
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This unique collection of primary documents and important scholarly articles tells the fascinating and tragic story of Russia's twentieth century. Edited by Ronald Grigor Suny, an eminent historian and political scientist, The Structure of Soviet History illustrates both the revolutionarychanges and the broad continuities in Soviet history. It discusses the history, not only of the Russian people, but of other Soviet peoples as well--the nationalities that made up the tsarist and Soviet empires and formed independent states in the early 1990s. This volume enables students to delvebeyond traditional narratives to look at the building blocks of history--archival documents, memoirs, and interpretive essays by the leading experts in the field. Students will learn about the fall of the tsarist empire, the hopes and aspirations of the revolutionary years, the brutalities of theStalin years, the attempts to reform the country in the last decades of Soviet power, and finally, the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of fifteen fragile republics. Rather than imposing a single view on students, The Structure of Soviet History allows them to come up with their own, freshinterpretations of a controversial and often misunderstood experience. Organized chronologically and covering political, social, and cultural history from a variety of viewpoints, the readings examine all of the major events and principal interpretations of Soviet history. Selections include official pronouncements and dissident manifestos, public speeches andprivate letters, and previously untranslated documents. Suny's introductory essay provides the broad outlines of Soviet history, while the chapter introductions summarize the main features and historical debates of each period. Each document is prefaced by a brief headnote that identifies the authorand places the work in context; explanatory notes are also included to define words and events that may not be familiar to students. A truly unique text, The Structure of Soviet History is ideal for use in undergraduate courses on the history of the Soviet Union as well as introductory courses onSoviet politics.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Back to the Future	xi
Acknowledgments	xviii
Transliteration and Dating	xviii
PART I REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR	1	(86)
The Revolutions of 1917	3	(45)
Essays
``Toward a Social History of the October Revolution''	6	(16)
Ronald Grigor Suny
``Antibourgeois Propaganda and Anti-`Burzhui' Consciousness in 1917''	22	(10)
Boris I. Kolonitskii
Documents
Order No. 1	32	(3)
A. F Kerenskii's Statement in the Soviet of Workers Deputies, March 2, 1917	35	(1)
Iraklii Tsereteli's Speech on Returning from Siberian Exile, March 1917	36	(2)
``The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution (`April Theses')''	38	(3)
V. I. Lenin
Tsereteli and Lenin's Exchange of Words During the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, June 3-4, 1917	41	(2)
``Report of the Commissar of the Novoaleksandrovsk Uezd, Kovno Guberniia'' June 14, 1917	43	(2)
``Letter to Central Committee Members,'' October 24, (November 9),1917	45	(3)
V. I. Lenin
Civil War, Socialism, and Nationalism	48	(39)
Essays
```Information Is the Alpha and Omega of Our Work': Bolshevik Surveillance in its Pan-European Context''	50	(12)
Peter Holquist
Documents
First Decrees of the New Soviet Government	62	(5)
The Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly	67	(6)
``The Cheka is Cheated''	73	(4)
I. N. Steinberg
Iulii Martov's Letter to A. N. Stein, June 16, 1918	77	(5)
Lenin's Letter to V. V. Kuraev, E. B. Bosh, A. E. Minkin, August 11, 1918	82	(1)
``Report on the Red Army'' to the First Congress of the Communist International, March 2, 1919	83	(4)
Lev Trotsky
PART II RETREAT AND REBUILDING	87	(62)
Politics, Society, and Culture in the 1920s	89	(60)
Essays
``An Affirmative-Action Empire: The Emergence of the Soviet Nationalities Policy, 1919-1923''	93	(10)
Terry Martin
Documents
The Workers' Opposition, 1921	103	(9)
Aleksandra Kollontai
Resolutions of the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Parry, ``On Parry Unity'' and ``On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation in Our Parry,'' March 1921	112	(5)
Lenin's Letter to Stalin, July 17, 1922	117	(1)
``Letter to the Congress'' (December 23-31, 1922) (Lenin's ``Testament'')	118	(6)
V. I. Lenin
Bukharin and Dzerzhinskii Disagree About the Nature of Revolutionary Government, December 1924	124	(2)
``The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists,'' December 17, 1924	126	(2)
Joseph Stalin
``Speech to the Fourteenth Parry Congress,'' December 1925	128	(2)
Lev Kamenev
The Code of Laws on Marriage and Divorce, the Family and Guardianship, November 19, 1926	130	(7)
Kamenev-Bukharin Exchange, July 11, 1928	137	(2)
Kliment Voroshilov's Letter to ``Sergo'' Orjonikidze, June 8, 1929	139	(1)
Stalin's Letter to Molotov, Voroshilov, and Orjonikidze, September 30, 1929	140	(1)
from To Be Preserved Forever	140	(9)
Lev Kopelev
PART III STALINISM	149	(178)
The Stalin Revolution	151	(113)
Essays
``The Bolshevik Invention of Class: Marxist Theory and the Making of `Class Consciousness' in Soviet Society''	164	(13)
Sheila Fitzpatrick
``The Centre and the Periphery: Cultural and Social Geography in the Mass Culture of the 1930s''	177	(11)
James Von Geldern
``World Revolution or Russia,'' from The Great Retreat	188	(10)
Nicholas S. Timasheff
``The Big Deal''	198	(11)
Vera S. Dunham
Documents
``Dizzy with Success: Concerning Questions of the Collective Farm Movement,'' March 2, 1930	209	(3)
Joseph Stalin
``The Last Grain Collections (1933)''	212	(10)
Lev Kopelev
``New Conditions-New Tasks in Economic Construction,'' Stalin's Speech to a Conference of Economic Managers, June 23, 1931	222	(6)
I. V. Stalin
Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Parry (Bolsheviks), ``On the Teaching of Civic History in the Schools of the USSR,'' May 16, 1934	228	(1)
``For the Fatherland!'' Editorial in Pravda, June 9, 1934	229	(3)
Stalin's Letter to Kosior and Chubar in Kharkov, January 2, 1930	232	(1)
``A May Night,'' excerpts from Hope Against Hope: A Memoir	232	(8)
Nadezhda Mandelstam
Stalin to All Members of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Parry, March 31, 1937	240	(1)
Stalin on the Arrests and Executions of Tukhachevskii, Iakir, Uborevich, and Others, June 1l, 1937	241	(1)
Beria to Stalin on Counter-revolutionary Organization in Ajaria, July 17, 1937	241	(2)
Stalin to the Secretaries of Obkoms, Kraikoms, and Central Committees of the National Communist Parties, August 3, 1937	243	(1)
``Is Pashchitskii Present?''	244	(1)
Iu. Lvova
Nikolai Bukharin's Letter to Stalin, December 10, 1937	245	(5)
Mekhlis to Stalin and Ezhov, October 28, 1938	250	(1)
Conference of Musicians at the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party, January 1948	251	(9)
Report to Stalin on Dissolving Jewish Writers' Associations; and Stalin's Decision (February 8, 1949)	260	(2)
Nikita Khrushchev's Apology to Stalin, March 6, 1951	262	(2)
Dangers and Opportunities: The Comintern, World War, and Cold War	264	(63)
Essays
``Popular Reactions in Moscow to the German Invasion of June 22, 1941''	267	(6)
John Barber
``The Premises of Policy,'' from Stalin and the Bomb	273	(12)
David Holloway
Documents
``Theses on the National and Colonial Question'' (1920)	285	(4)
``Theses on the Conditions for Admission'' to the Communist International (1920)	289	(5)
Stalin, ``On the Tasks of Workers in the Economy,'' excerpts from his speech to the First All-Union Conference of Workers of Socialist Industry, February 4, 1931	294	(1)
Stalin's Interview with Roy Howard of the Scripps-Howard Publications (1936)	295	(3)
The Nazi-Soviet Pact, August 23, 1939	298	(5)
Memorandum from Lavrenti Beria to Stalin, March 5, 1940	303	(3)
Letter to Nikita Khrushchev from Aleksandr Shelepin, March 3, 1959; and Draft Resolution to Destroy the Documents Concerning the Katyn Massacre, March 3, 1959	306	(1)
``At Naval Headquarters''	307	(6)
Admiral N. G. Kuznetsov
Report from Beria to Stalin, July 4, 1944	313	(2)
Record of Conversations between Comrade I. V Stalin and Chairman of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong, December 16, 1949; January 22, 1950	315	(12)
PART IV REFORM AND STAGNATION	327	(74)
From Autocracy to Oligarchy	329	(30)
Essays
``Irreconcilable Differences: Divorce and Conceptions of Private Life in the Khrushchev Era''	330	(8)
Deborah A. Field
Documents
from A Precocious Autobiography	338	(2)
Evgenii Evtushenko
``Secret Speech'' to the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Parry of the Soviet Union, February 25, 1956	340	(10)
Nikita Khrushchev'
``1956-A Memoir''	350	(6)
Joseph Starobin
Report of Vladimir Semichastnyi, chairman of the KGB, July 25, 1962	356	(3)
Stagnation	359	(42)
Essays
``The `New Soviet Man' Turns Pessimist''	360	(10)
John Bushnell
``The Little Deal: Brezhnev's Contribution to Acquisitive Socialism''	370	(9)
James R. Millar
Documents
``Brezhnev and the End of the Thaw: Reflections on the Nature of Political Leadership''	379	(6)
Fedor Burlatskii
Report of Vladmir Semichastnyi to the Central Committee on Armenian Nationalists, February 7, 1966	385	(3)
``Was the 1968 Prague Invasion Justified?''	388	(5)
``The Case of Boris Kochubiyevsky''	393	(4)
Letter from Vladimir Vysotskii to Petr Dimichev, April 17, 1973	397	(4)
PART V REFORM AND REVOLUTION	401	(163)
The Road to Revolution	403	(73)
Essays
``Televorot: The Role of Television Coverage in Russia's August 1991 Coup''	406	(17)
Victoria E. Bonnell
Gregory Freidin
Documents
from Memoirs	423	(10)
Mikhail Gorbachev
Election of Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union	433	(5)
``I Cannot Give Up My Principles''	438	(7)
Nina Andreeva
The Rehabilitation of Bukharin	445	(7)
Boris Yeltsin Resigns from the Communist Party at the Twenty-Eighth Congress of the CPSU (July 1990)	452	(3)
Boris Yeltsin Calls for Gorbachev's Resignation (February 1991)	455	(1)
The August Coup	456	(11)
End of the USSR: Formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States	467	(5)
``Speech of Resignation,'' December 25, 1991	472	(4)
Mikhail Gorbachev
The Second Russian Republic and the ``Near Abroad''	476	(57)
Essays
``Russia's Post-Communist Politics: Revolution or Continuity?''	478	(14)
Lilia Shevtsova
``Elite Transformation in Late-Soviet and Post-Soviet Transcaucasia, or What Happens When the Ruling Class Can't Rule?''	492	(13)
Ronald Grigor Suny
Documents
``After Events, On the Eve of Events,'' January 1992	505	(3)
Valentin Rasputin
``August 1991''	508	(8)
Gavriil Popov
Yeltsin Dissolves Parliament, Calls Elections, September 21, 1993; and the Reply by Ruslan Khasbulatov	516	(5)
``Russia and the Near Abroad''	521	(4)
Andranik Migranian
``Appeal to the Citizens of Russia,'' December 11 , 1994	525	(1)
Boris Yeltsin
The Russian State Duma Nullifies the Breakup of the Soviet Union	526	(3)
Principles for Determining the Foundations of Relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic, August 31, 1996	529	(1)
``Address to the Russian People,'' December 31, 1999	530	(3)
Boris Yeltsin
Summing Up	533	(31)
Essays
``Z'' [Martin Malia], ``To the Stalin Mausoleum''	533	(16)
``Causes of the Collapse of the USSR''	549	(15)
Alexander Dallin
``What Russia Teaches Us Now: How Weak States Threaten Freedom''	564
Stephen Holmes