Late Stalinism

•  What did the Soviet people expect from the post-war period?
• What were the living conditions like in the Soviet Union after the war?
• What is the connection between the Cold War and the Zhdanovshchina?
• Was Stalin after the war more "moderate" than before the war? [debate]

  PPT

Essential Reading

Suny, The Soviet Experiment, pp. 363-384.

Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ‘Postwar Soviet Society: The “Return to Normalcy”,’ in Susan Linz (ed.), The Impact of World War II on the Soviet Union, pp. 129-156.

Zubkova, Elena, Russia After the War: Hopes, Illusions and Disappointments, 1945-1957 (London, 1998), pp. 31-50, 101-138. (Scanned, pp. 31-39)

Additional Reading

Alexopoulos, Golfo, ‘Amnesty 1945: The Revolving Door of Stalin’s Gulag’, Slavic Review, 64 (2005), pp. 274-306 (JSTOR).

Kojevnikov, Alexei, ‘Games of Stalinist Democracy: Ideological Discussions in Soviet Sciences, 1947-52’, in Fitzpatrick, Stalinism: New Directions, pp. 142-175.

Filtzer, Donald, ‘The Standard of Living of Soviet Industrial Workers in the Immediate Postwar Period’, Europe-Asia Studies, 51 (1999), pp. 1013-1038 (JSTOR).

Tromly, Benjamin, ‘The Leningrad Affair and Soviet Patronage Politics, 1949-1950’, Europe-Asia Studies, 56 (2004), pp. 707-729 (JSTOR).

Brandenberger, David, ‘Stalin, the Leningrad Affair, and the Limits of Postwar Russocentrism, Russian Review, 63 (2004), pp. 241-255.

Gorlizki, Yoram, ‘Stalin’s Cabinet: the Politburo and Decision Making in the Postwar Years’, in Read, The Stalin Years, pp. 192-212.

Krementsov, Nikolai, Stalinist Science (Princeton, 1997).