Politics and society under the Bolsheviks : selected papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies, Warsaw, 1995

The relationship between society and the regime has been central to much recent research in the field of Soviet history. In this book, an international team of scholars investigates this theme in the revolutionary period, and in the Stalin years from the 1920s to the 1940s, with an additional section on the Bolshevik's relations with the outside world via the Communist International based in Moscow. The use of fresh archival materials provides challenging new interpretations and insights. Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Politics and Society under the Bolsheviks....Pages 1-12 The Russian Pharmaceutical Industry in the Late Imperial-Early Soviet Period....Pages 13-36 Early Disenchantment with Bolshevik Rule....Pages 37-46 Out of the Dustbin of History....Pages 47-61 A House Divided....Pages 62-89 Mass Political Consciousness in Soviet Russia in the 1920s....Pages 90-99 Suicide among Representatives of Active Social Groups in the USSR in the 1920s....Pages 100-111 Stalinism in Post-Soviet Historical Writing....Pages 112-139 Work and Leisure among Textile Workers in Soviet Russia....Pages 140-159 Categorising Resistance to Rural Stakhanovism....Pages 160-188 Sovety zhen as a Surrogate Trade Union....Pages 189-198 Dynamics of the Mood of Muscovites....Pages 199-244 The Theory and Practice of World Revolution in the Perception of Inter-war Europe....Pages 245-250 The Abortive ‘German October’, 1923....Pages 251-262 The Central Apparatus of the Comintern....Pages 263-284 Comintern, Stalinism and Totalitarianism....Pages 285-293 Back Matter....Pages 295-302 Understandably it is the social, political and cconomic upheavals in the former USSR and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe that have attracted the lion's share of attention from the academic community and the general public alike during the last decade. It is, however, also necessary to take note of the important linguistic changes that have accompanied these upheavals. Most of the papers in this volume deal with Russian which, as one of the languages exposed longest to 'Sovietization', has undergone a particularly complex process of readjustment. If it is still carly to draw definitive conclusions, each contribution from its own individual standpoint helps to provide a preliminary understanding of the new language situation of post-Soviet Russia. The remaining papers examine the Russian and Ukrainian languages, the position of Komi-Permiak, and ask fundamental questions about language and society. Presenting 16 selected papers drawn from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies held in Warsaw in August 1995, addressing an array of topics including new data on the Revolutionary Communist Party from the Saratov and Central Communist Party archives; Stalinism in post-Soviet historical writing; work and leisure among textile workers in Soviet Russia; and activist women in the 1930s. Contributors include international scholars of political science, Russian history, East-West studies, and modern history, as well as Russian researchers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) "Post-communist developments in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union do not follow any predetermined pattern. The authors, all of whom are leading experts in their respective fields, analyse the diversity of the experience of democratisation in a number of different settings and contexts."--Jacket Edited By Kevin Mcdermott And John Morison. Includes Bibliographical References (p. ) And Index. Edited By Sue Bridger. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.