Stalin: A New History

by Sarah Davies (Editor), James Harris (Editor)

The recent declassification of a substantial portion of Stalin's archive has made possible this fundamental new assessment of the controversial Soviet leader. Leading international experts accordingly challenge many assumptions about Stalin from his early life in Georgia to the Cold War years--with contributions ranging across the political, economic, social, cultural, ideological and international history of the Stalin era. The volume provides a more profound understanding of Stalin's power and one of the most important leaders of the twentieth century.

Genres: History, Biography, Russian History, Soviet Union, Russia, Nonfiction, Soviet History

310 pages, Hardcover

First published August 9, 2005

About the author

Sarah Davies is a historian specializing in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era.

She is a professor of history at Durham University in Durham, England, United Kingdom, and currently serves as chair of the History Department.

Davies received the Alec Nove Prize for her first book, Popular Opinion in Stalin's Russia,[2] which was translated into Russian in 2011.[3] Along with James Harris, she is the author of the 2015 Stalin's World: Dictating the Soviet Order. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the book draws on Stalin's personal archives and previously unstudied diaries of people close to him to explain how he understood the world. The authors argue that Stalin was not a paranoid driven by irrational fears; instead, his beliefs were shaped by misperceptions stemming in part from flawed intelligence.[4] Davies is currently working on a book on British and Soviet cultural diplomacy during the Cold War.

Reviews

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of nuggets of incisive evidence-based scholarship wrapped up in unconvincing feints toward traditional 'totalitarian theory' histories of Stalin. Like they were afraid the book wouldn't get published if they didn't pay lip service to the 'left' anti-communist intellectual crowd, especially in the first handful of papers. This serves to strengthen the positive, evidence-based images of Stalin because those come off as nuanced and alive while the Western traditional received wisdom elements are cartoonish and one-dimensional.

This is a pretty great history book, especially considering it was written by bourgeois historians. Reading it with an understanding of class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat will give the Marxist reader many useful and thought-provoking insights, especially if paired with a reading of a book like Another View of Stalin by Martens.

[Jelle Rijntjes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good collection of essays on many different topics; Stalin and the cinema, Stalin as a Georgian, Stalin and international relations etc.

[Paul H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just priceless (p. 205):

"In 1948 when Lysenko wrote that 'any science is class-oriented,' Stalin crossed it out, adding in the margins, 'HA-HA-HA!!! And what about mathematics? And what about Darwinism?'"

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommend. A few of the essays aren’t good, the majority of the essays are good, and a handful are great.