The Soviet Union since Stalin

by Stephen F. Cohen (Editor), Alexander Rabinowitch (Editor), Robert Sharlet (Editor)

"The brutal social and economic revolution under Stalin began with the collectivization of 125 million peasants. Despite the losses of the 1920s, Stalin led the Soviet people to triumph over German fascism during World war II. Stalin's death in 1953 triggered a decade of reform--A promise for more consumer-goods production and housing construction. Nikita Khrushchev sought to stimulate agricultural production with lower taxes and higher prices to peasants. Censorship became less oppressive in literature. Political prisoners were amnestied. The partial rapprochement towards Yugoslavia eased, Soviet military bases in Finland were relinquished, and a peace settlement with Austria--all in 1955. In 1959, Khrushchev's pursuit of peaceful coexistence with the West developed. The conservative reaction under Kosygin and Brezhnev, especially their stance on civil rights, its harsh treatment of political dissent, and resurgence of neo-Stalinism, inevitably raise profound questions."

342 pages

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Stephen F. Cohen was Professor Emeritus of Politics at Princeton University, where for many years he served as director of the Russian Studies Program, and Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies and History at New York University. He grew up in Owensboro, Kentucky, received his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Indiana University, and his Ph.D. at Columbia University.

Cohen’s other books include Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography; Rethinking the Soviet Experience: Politics and History Since 1917; Sovieticus: American Perceptions and Soviet Realities; (with Katrina vanden Heuvel) Voices of Glasnost: Interviews With Gorbachev’s Reformers; Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia; Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War; and The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag After Stalin.

For his scholarly work, Cohen received several honors, including two Guggenheim fellowships and a National Book Award nomination.

Over the years, he was also a frequent contributor to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. His “Sovieticus” column for The Nation won a 1985 Newspaper Guild Page One Award and for another Nation article a 1989 Olive Branch Award. For many years, Cohen was a consultant and on-air commentator on Russian affairs for CBS News. With the producer Rosemary Reed, he was also project adviser and correspondent for three PBS documentary films about Russia: Conversations With Gorbachev; Russia Betrayed?; and Widow of the Revolution.

Cohen visited and lived in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia regularly for more than forty years.

(source: Amazon)