Stalinist Society offers a fresh analytical overview of the complex social formation ruled over by Stalin and his henchmen from the late 1920s to the early 1950s. Drawing on declassified archival materials, interviews with former Soviet citizens, old and new memoirs, and personal diaries, as well as the best of sixty years of scholarship, this book offers a non-reductionist account of social upheaval and social cohesion in a society marred by violence. Combining the perspectives from above and from below, the book integrates recent writing on everyday life, culture and entertainment, ideology and politics, terror and welfare, consumption and economics. Utilizing the latest archival research on the evolution of Soviet society during and after World War II, this study also integrates the entire history of Stalinism from the late 1920s to the dictator's death in 1953. Breaking radically with current scholarly consensus, Mark Edele shows that it was not ideology, terror, or state control which held this society together, but the harsh realities of making a living in a chaotic economy which the rulers claimed to plan and control, but which in fact they could only manage haphazardly.

About the Author
Mark Edele is Associate Professor of History at the University of Western Australia and is the author of Soviet Veterans of the Second World War. A Popular Movement in an Authoritarian Society, 1941-1991 (2008), which is also published by Oxford University Press.

Reviews
the breadth of its engagement should make it a thought-provoking read for graduate students and professionals alike. * David Brandenberger, English Historical Review *
a truly interesting book presenting recent research in a coherent framework. It is a clear and fundamentally honest account, required reading for the specialist as much as for the reader freshly encountering the subject. * Cahiers du Monde Russe *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199236411
Author Mark Edele
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 482g
Dimensions(mm) 212mm * 141mm * 24mm