The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships : Stalin and the Eastern Bloc

The first book to analyze the distinct leader cults that flourished in the era of 'High Stalinism' as an integral part of the system of dictatorial rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Fifteen studies explore the way in which these cults were established, their function and operation, their dissemination and reception, the place of the cults in art and literature, the exportation of the Stalin cult and its implantment in the communist states of Eastern Europe, and the impact which de-Stalinisation had on these cults. Front Matter....Pages i-x Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Leader Cults: Varieties, Preconditions and Functions....Pages 3-26 Front Matter....Pages 27-27 Stalin and the Making of the Leader Cult in the 1930s....Pages 29-46 ‘A Very Modest Man’: Béla Illés, or How to Make a Career through the Leader Cult....Pages 47-62 Leader in the Making: The Role of Biographies in Constructing the Cult of Mátyás Rákosi....Pages 63-80 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 The Stalin Cult, Bolshevik Rule and Kremlin Interaction in the 1930s....Pages 83-101 Grandpa Lenin and Uncle Stalin: Soviet Leader Cult for Little Children....Pages 102-122 Georgian Koba or Soviet ‘Father of Peoples’? The Stalin Cult and Ethnicity....Pages 123-140 Working Towards the Centre: Leader Cults and Spatial Politics in Pre-war Stalinism....Pages 141-157 Front Matter....Pages 159-159 Exporting the Leader: The Stalin Cult in Poland and East Germany (1944/45–1956)....Pages 161-178 President of Poland or ‘Stalin’s Most Faithful Pupil’? The Cult of Bolesław Bierut in Stalinist Poland....Pages 179-193 Georgi Dimitrov: Three Manifestations of his Cult....Pages 194-207 Leader Cults in the Western Balkans (1945–90): Josip Broz Tito and Enver Hoxha....Pages 208-223 Front Matter....Pages 225-225 ‘I’ve Held, and I Still Hold, Stalin in the Highest Esteem’: Discourses and Strategies of Resistance to De-Stalinisation in the USSR, 1953–62....Pages 227-245 Surviving 1956: Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and the ‘Cult of Personality’ in Romania....Pages 246-260 The Second Step of a Ladder: The Cult of the First Secretaries in Poland....Pages 261-277 Back Matter....Pages 279-298 This is the first book to examine the nature of the highly distinctive leader cults of 'High Stalinism' in the USSR and Eastern Europe as a political, sociological and cultural phenomenon. It explores the way the leader cult was established and its operation and function within these states. It examines the way in which the cults were produced and disseminated, their place in art and literature, the reception of the cult and its adaptation for different audiences, including children and different national groups. It looks at the way the Stalin cult was exported to the communist states of Eastern Europe, and examines the highly distinctive cults which developed around figures such as Rakosi in Hungary, Bierut in Poland, Tito in Yugoslavia and Hoxha in Albania. The book examines the impact of de-Stalinisation on these cults, the conflicting responses to this process, and the survival of aspects of the cult Annotation The first book to analyze the distinct leader cults that flourished in the era of 'High Stalinism' as an integral part of the system of dictatorial rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Fifteen studies explore the way in which these cults were established, their function and operation, their dissemination and reception, the place of the cults in art and literature, the exportation of the Stalin cult and its implantment in the communist states of Eastern Europe, and the impact which de-Stalinisation had on these cults