The Cult of Ivan the Terrible in Stalin's Russia (Studies in Russian and East European History and Society)

In the writing of this book I have accumulated a number of debts. Some of the material it contains was first presented to various seminars and conferences: the 'SIPS' seminar at CREES, University of Birmingham, and the CREES Annual Conference at Cumberland Lodge; a conference on Russian Nationalism at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University of London; seminars at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, and at the London School of Economics; and the Annual Conference of the Study Group on the Russian Revolution at the University of Durham. I am most grateful to participants in all of these meetings for their helpful suggestions and constructive criticisms. I would particularly like to thank Bob Davies and Arfon Rees for their encouragement and interest, and for reading and commenting on the entire draft typescript. I owe a special debt of gratitude to David Brandenberger, who not only provided a detailed and informed critique of the manuscript, but was also very generous in sharing material, references and ideas. I have greatly benefitted, too, from discussions with Russian colleagues: M. E. Bychkova, A. L. Khoroshkevich and A. P. Pavlov were particularly helpful and hospitable. Much of the research for the book was conducted during two research trips to Moscow. The first visit, in 1996, was funded by the School of Social Sciences, University of Birmingham; the second, in 1999, was undertaken under the auspices of the British Academy's East Europe Exchanges scheme. I am grateful to Lyudmila Selivanova for her valuable services in 1996; and to Lyudmila Kolodnikova and her staff at the Institute of Russian History for their help in 1999. I should also like to thank all the librarians and archivists who provided me with assistance in Moscow; and, closer to home, the staffs of the Alexander Baykov and Main University Libraries in Birmingham, and the British Library and SSEES Library in London. Last but not least I should like to express my gratitude to family, friends and colleagues for their constant support and encouragement. In particular, I have to thank my husband, Bill, for his tolerance not only of my regular absences and occasional unsociability, but also of the frequent bouts of computer-induced panic which accompanied the writing of this book. Front Matter....Pages i-xv Introduction....Pages 1-4 Prologue Pre-Stalinization: Images of Ivan IV before 1934....Pages 5-21 Front Matter....Pages 23-23 History in the Service of Patriotism, 1934–45....Pages 25-44 Three Case Studies in Historical Analogy....Pages 45-69 Front Matter....Pages 71-71 The First Steps, 1934–39....Pages 73-84 Wartime and Postwar Historiography, 1940–53....Pages 85-105 Front Matter....Pages 107-107 V. I. Kostylev’s Novel....Pages 109-126 A. N. Tolstoi’s Play....Pages 127-148 S. M. Eisenstein’s Film....Pages 149-178 Epilogue De-Stalinization: Images of Ivan IV since 1953....Pages 179-191 Conclusion....Pages 192-196 Back Matter....Pages 197-255

Ivan IV, the 16th-century tsar notorious for his reign of terror, became an unlikely national hero in the Soviet Union during the 1940s. This book traces the development of Ivan's positive image, placing it in the context of Stalin's campaign for patriotism. In addition to historians' images of Ivan, the author examines literary and artistic representations, including Sergei Eisenstein's famous film Ivan the Terrible, banned for its depiction of the tsar which was interpreted as an allegorical criticism of Stalin.

Ivan IV, the sixteenth-century Russian tsar notorious for his reign of terror, became an unlikely national hero in the Soviet Union during the 1940s. This book traces the development of Ivan's positive image, placing it in the context of Stalin's campaign for patriotism. In addition to historians' images of Ivan, the author examines literary and artistic representations, including Sergei Eisenstein's famous film, banned for its depiction of the tsar which was interpreted as an allegorical criticism of Stalin.