Debates on Stalinism introduces major debates about Stalinism during and after the Cold War. Did 'Stalinism' form a system in its own right or was it a mere stage in the overall development of Soviet society? Was it an aberration from Leninism or the logical conclusion of Marxism? Was its violence the revenge of the Russian past or the result of a revolutionary mindset? Was Stalinism the work of a madman or the product of social forces beyond his control? The book shows the complexities of historiographical debates, where evidence, politics, personality, and biography are strongly entangled. Debates on Stalinism allows readers to better understand not only the history of history writing, but also contemporary controversies and conflicts in the successor states of the Soviet Union, in particular Russia and Ukraine.

Debates on Stalinism introduces major debates about Stalinism during and after the Cold War. It introduces major debates and major historians of the Soviet Union during the brutal reign of Stalin. Readers will better understand not only the history of our current understanding of Stalinism but also contemporary debates in Russia and Ukraine.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Introduction: Stalin, science, and politics after the Second World War -- "A Marxist should not write like that": the crisis on the "philosophical front" -- "The future belongs to Michurin": the agricultural academy session of 1948 -- "We can always shoot them later": physics, politics, and the atomic bomb -- "Battles of opinions and open criticism": Stalin intervenes in linguistics -- "Attack the detractors with certainty of total success": the Pavlov session of 1950 -- "Everyone is waiting": Stalin and the economic problems of communism -- Conclusion: science and the fate of the Stalinist system.

'Stalinism and the Politics of Mobilization' provides a new explanation of the political violence in Stalin's Soviet Union during the late 1930s by examining the thinking of Stalin and his allies, and placing it in the broader context of Bolshevik ideas since 1917.

'Stalin and Stalinism' examines Stalin's ambiguous personal and political legacy, his achievements and his crimes - all the subject of major reappraisal both in the West and in the former Soviet Union.

Focusing on urban areas in the 1930s, this college professor illuminates the ways that Soviet city-dwellers coped with this world, examining such diverse activities as shopping, landing a job, and other acts.