Department of History and Politics
Liverpool Hope University
Module: HISM030
Stalin’s Great Terror
2013-14
Professor Christopher Williams
Contents
Module Description
2
Intended Learning Outcomes
2
Modes of Assessment
3
Lecture Outline
4-5
Essay Titles
6
Writing essays and citation
7
Bibliography
8-13
1
Module Synopsis, Aims, Outcomes, Assessment
Synopsis
This module examines the nature and character of Stalin and Stalinism, exploring the
background to Stalin’s rise, the nature of his policies and focusing in particular on the
consequences of his rule during the period of the Great Terror, 1934-38.
Throughout the study of the module students will examine relevant source material –primary,
documentary and visual - and will explore the historiography of this subject.
Aims
The aim of this module is to provide students with a thorough understanding of the history,
economics and politics of Stalinist Russia, 1928-53 and Stalin’s impact on current events in
Russia. In particular students will
1. Explore in depth the social, political and cultural nature of the Stalinist state, taking
into account Western debates and Soviet historians and leadership assessments of
the Stalin legacy after 1953;
2. Develop the ability to critically interpret and use a wide range of relevant secondary
and primary materials, in translation, and to be aware of the strengths and limitations
of the available sources and evidence;
3. Be able to enhance their conceptual understanding, enabling students to become
more aware of the significance and value of historiography, current research and,
where appropriate, different Western and Russian approaches and methodologies
used to understand the economic, social, political and foreign policies of Russia in the
Stalin era;
4. Be able to communicate effectively and analytically at Masters level.
Learning Outcomes
Students will demonstrate:
1. A deep understanding of the Stalin era, taking account of current debates on the
Great Terror;
2. A more critical evaluation of numerous source materials in the essay;
3. A more informed and detailed understanding of past and current historical research
and, where appropriate, the impact of archival revelations on our understanding of the
purges;
4. Clear and effective communication skills for work in the subject at an advanced level.
2
Modes of Assessment
There is one component to assessment process:
(a) 100% Essay: the essay should be 3,000 words long, excluding footnotes/endnotes and
bibliography. The essay should be submitted on (tbc). Essays should be written and
referenced in accordance with the Department’s guidelines. Essay titles are available on
page five of this handbook.
Module co-ordinator contact details
If there are any questions about your work please contact Prof. Christopher Williams at
[email protected]
Structure of the Module
This module consists of several lectures/seminar discussions.
Lectures take place in the afternoon/evenings on (tbc).
The lectures are held in room (tbc).
3
Programme
Session 1
Stalin's Role in the October 1917 Russian Revolution and his rise to power,
1917-28
The aim of this session is to assess the nature of the tsarist legacy; outline the Stalin’s
biography; examine Stalin’s role in the October 1917 Revolution and the historiographical
debates surrounding it; assess the origins of one party-state in Russia up to 1928 and finally
to analyse the difficulties facing the new socialist regime in Russia during: War Communism
and civil war (1918-20) and New Economic policy period (1921-28)
Session 2
Stalin's Revolution from Above – Rapid industrialisation and forced collectivization
The aim of this session is to assess the policy change under Stalin in particular the
background to Stalin’s Revolution from above (1928 onwards) (hereafter RFA) and to outline
the nature of the two key policies: 1. Rapid industrialisation and 2. Forced collectivisation
focusing upon the impact of 1. Rapid industrialisation on the working class and 2. Forced
collectivisation on the peasantry and the consequences of Stalin’s policies. Finally, we will
assess the historical debate on success or failure of RFA and link to Stalin’s cultural
revolution – Revolution from below (RFB) – which launched a propaganda drive on RFA and
sought to create a new Stalinist elite
Session 3
The revolution from below – Cultural Revolution
The aim is to assess the criticisms made of Stalin’s Revolution from above and more
importantly to outline the nature of the Revolution from below: Definitions and debates. We
will evaluate the impact of Cultural revolution on literature, film, Education and social mobility
and public opinion in Stalin’s Russia and how the failure of the RFB might have led to the
Great Terror
Sessions 4
Stalin and the Great Terror I,
The aim of this session is to assess the origins of the purges; outline the nature of criticisms
made of Stalin; analyse the importance of Sergei Kirov; assess the inter-relationship between
Kirov’s murder and Stalin’s purge; analyse the nature of the purges – Definition,
Phases/waves
Session 5
Stalin and the Great Terror II
The aim is to assess the impact of the purges on Political system, military, Economy and
Society. We will assess the historical debates on Extent/scale of the purges; Who was
affected – different categories of victims; Who was responsible – Stalin alone or with others?
(and what motive did they have); Were the purges well planned or disorganised? And What
role the Party and Secret police and gulag played? The session will analyse two schools of
4
thought on purges: Orthodox – Robert Conquest and Revisionist – John Arch Getty, as the
representative of current split between historians. Finally we will compare Russian and
Western views.
Session 6
The Stalinist legacy: Contemporary debates
This final session has several aims to assess the views of selected post-Soviet leaders
regarding Stalin & Stalinism: Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev and Putin; to analyse the
views of various historians; to discuss implications of de or re-Stalinisation; to assess the
impact of opening up archives since 1985 on our knowledge of Stalin & Stalinism; to evaluate
whether new archival materials have changed our knowledge or confirmed what we already
know about Stalin era and to assess impact of above on your views
Seminars
Seminar 1 – Stalin’s Rise
“It was Stalin's skills rather than his rivals weaknesses that in enabled him to rise to power
by 1928” How far do you agree with this statement?
Seminar 2 – Stalin’s policies
What impact did Stalin's collectivisation policy have on the peasantry. Discuss with
reference to the first Five Year Plan period. OR
What impact did Stalin's indstrialisation policy have on the working class. Discuss with
reference to the first Five Year Plan period.
Seminar 3 – Stalin’s Cultural Revolution and building a new elite
What criticisms were made of Stalin’s collectivisation and industrialisation policies? How
successful was the cultural revolution in countering them during the first Five Year Plan?
Seminar 4 – Great Terror I
What do we mean by the term “purge”? Compare and contrast Lenin and Stalin’s policy on
this issue.
Seminar 5 – Great Terror II
Using an appropriate case study and supporting evidence analyse the causes and
consequences of Stalin’s Great Terror, 1934-38
5
Seminar 6 – Contemporary reflections
"We know considerably more today about Stalin and the Great Terror". Discuss with
reference to glasnost and post glasnost revelations.
Here we will have student led discussions, based on review of existing Western and Russian
historiography and use selected primary materials. These sessions are meant to help
MA students prepare their final essay.
Essay Titles
1. Did the crisis of NEP give rise to Stalin?
2. What do we mean by “socialist realism” and the “cultural revolution”. Discuss with reference
to Stalinist posters and propaganda.
3. What was the most important cause of Stalin’s purges – the internal enemy or the external
threat?
4. “Stalin’s ghost will always be with us”. Discuss the nature of the debates on Stalinism under
Gorbachev and Yeltsin and assess the extent to which this process revealed new insights
into Stalin and Stalinism since 1985.
Alternatively, students may draft their own question in consultation with the tutor. The tutor
must approve both the topic and the wording of the question by (tbc).
Submission date: tbc
6
Writing Essays
Studying and reading are essential but you must also learn to express your ideas clearly and
correctly in writing. You will fail to communicate them if they are obscured by spelling or bad
grammar, so be accurate in both. Remember that errors cost marks. Read over your
assignments when you have finished them and check for mistakes. Every student should
make use of a dictionary. To avoid constant repetition of the same words you are advised to
consult a thesaurus as well. Moreover, many books offer guidance on writing English, among
them Eric Partridge, Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English (Harmondsworth 1973),
Robert Mohr, How to Write: Tools for the Craft (Dublin, 1998), R. L. Trask, The Penguin
Guide to Punctuation (London, 1997), Martin Manser and Stephen Curtis, The Penguin
Writer's Manual (London, 2002) and Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots and Leaves (London, 2003).
Citation in essays
History essays should use the Department’s Citation Style.
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Bibliography
Recommended reading:
Christopher Ward, Stalin's Russia (Edward Arnold, 3rd. Ed 2007)
Graham Gill, Stalinism (Macmillan 1990)
Greg Andrle, A Social history of Twentieth Century Russia (Edward Arnold 1994)
Primary Sources
Soviet archival documents in translation
Fridrikh I. Firsov, Harvey Klehr, and John Earl Haynes, Secret Cables of the Comintern, 19331943 (2014)
Richard Bidlack and Nikita Lomagin; Translations by Marian Schwartz, The Leningrad Blockade,
1941-1944 A New Documentary History from the Soviet Archives (2013)
Oleg Khlevniuk; Translated by Vadim Staklo; Foreword by Robert Conquest; The History of the
Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror (2013)
C. J. Storella and A. K. Sokolov; Documents translated by C. J. Storella, The Voice of the People:
Letters from the Soviet Village, 1918-1932 (2013)
Besides the relevant chapters of the recommended texts above, and the archival documents
available through the “Annals of Communism series” students should find the following useful.
Useful biographies
I. Deutscher, Stalin
G. Gill, Stalinism
I Grey, Stalin -- man of history
R. Hindley, Stalin
R. McNeal, Stalin man and ruler
R. Medvedev, Let History Judge
R. Medvedev, All Stalin’s Men
L. Trotsky, Stalin
R. C. Tucker, Stalin as revolutionary
R. C. Tucker, Stalin in power
A. B. Ulam, Stalin: The man and his era
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Role in October 1917 Russian Revolution and War Communism
R Argenbright, ‘Red tsaristyn: Precursor of Stalinist Terror’, Revolutionary Russia Vol 4 (2), Dec
1991
E. H. Carr, The Russian revolution from Lenin to Stalin, 1917-29
S. F. Cohen, Rethinking the Soviet experience
M Dobb, Soviet Economic development since 1917
S. Fitzpatrick, The Russian revolution, 1917-32
A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR
R M Slusser, Stalin in October
C Williams, ‘The Russian famine: Centre and periphery responses’, Revolutionary Russia Vol 6
(2), Dec 1993
New Economic Policy: Stalin's rise to power
S F Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution
Robert V. Daniels, ‘The Left Opposition as an Alternative to Stalinism’ Slavic Review, Vol. 50,
No. 2. (Summer, 1991), pp. 277-285.
M Dobb, Soviet Economic development since 1917
S. Fitzpatrick, The Russian revolution, 1917-32
G. Gill, Stalinism
M Lewin, The making of the Soviet system
M Lewin, Lenin’s last struggle
Robert H. McNeal, ‘Lenin's Attack on Stalin: Review and Reappraisal’ American Slavic and
East European Review, Vol. 18, No. 3. (Oct., 1959), pp. 295-314.
R. C. Tucker, Stalin as revolutionary
R. C. Tucker, Stalin in power
A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR
Industrialisation Debate
S F Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution
R W Davies et al, The economic transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913-45
M Dobb, Soviet Economic development since 1917, chap. 8, 14
M Ellman, Socialist planning, chap. 5
P Gregory and R Stuart, Soviet economic structure and performance, chap. 5
M Lewin, Political undercurrents in Soviet economic debates, chaps. 2-3
A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR
Collectivisation
R W Davies et al, The economic transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913-45
R W Davies, The Socialist collective
R W Davies, The Soviet collective farm
R W Davies (ed.), From tsarism to the NEP, chap. 3,5-6
M Dobb, Soviet Economic development since 1917, chap. 9
P Gregory and R Stuart, Soviet economic structure and performance, chap. 3-5
M Ellman, Socialist planning, chap. 9
J. Millar and A. Nove, ‘A debate on collectivisation: Was Stalin really necessary?’, Problems of
Communism Vol 25, 1976
9
A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, chaps 6-7
L Viola, Best Sons of the Fatherland
Industrialisation
V Andrle, ‘How backward workers become Soviet…’ Social History, Vol 10, 1985, pp. 147-69
J Cooper, ‘To catch up and overtake: Soviet industrialisation, 1929-41’, Socialist Europe No.2
R W Davies et al, The economic transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913-45
R W Davies, The industrialisation of Soviet Russia, 2 vols
R W Davies (ed.), From tsarism to the NEP, chap. 4, 6-7
P Gregory and R Stuart, Soviet economic structure and performance, chap. 5
M Lewin, Political undercurrents in Soviet economic debates, chaps. 5
A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, chaps 8-9
A D Rassweiler, ‘Soviet labour history in the 1920s and 1930s’, Journal of Social History, 1983,
pp. 147-58
L H Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the politics of productivity in the USSR, 1935-41
The revolution from below -- Cultural Revolution
Victoria E. Bonnell, ‘The Peasant Woman in Stalinist Political Art of the 1930s’, The
American Historical Review, Vol. 98, No. 1. (Feb., 1993), pp. 55-82.
Jeffrey Brooks, ‘Socialist Realism in Pravda: Read All about It!’, Slavic Review, Vol. 53, No.
4. (Winter, 1994), pp. 973-991.
A T Baum, Komsomol participation in the First FYP
S Davies, Public opinion in Stalinist Russia
S Fitzpatrick (ed.), Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-41
S Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism
S Fitzpatrick, Education and social mobility in the SU, 1921-34
Sheila Fitzpatrick, ‘Cultural Revolution in Russia 1928-32’, Journal of Contemporary History,
Vol. 9, No. 1. (Jan., 1974), pp. 33-52.
Sheila Fitzpatrick, ‘Culture and Politics under Stalin: A Reappraisal’, Slavic Review, Vol. 35,
No. 2. (Jun., 1976), pp. 211-231.
Sheila Fitzpatrick, ‘Cultural Revolution Revisited’, Russian Review, Vol. 58, No. 2. (Apr.,
1999), pp. 202-209.
Vance Kepley Jr., ‘The First "Perestroika": Soviet Cinema under the First Five-Year Plan’,
Cinema Journal, Vol. 35, No. 4. (Summer, 1996), pp. 31-53.
H Kuromiya, Stalin’s industrial revolution
M Lewin, The making of the Soviet system
M Lewin, ‘Society and the Stalinist state in the period of the FYPs’, Social history May 1976, pp.
139-75
Susan E. Reid, ‘Socialist Realism in the Stalinist Terror: The Industry of Socialism Art
Exhibition, 1935-41’, Russian Review, Vol. 60, No. 2. (Apr., 2001), pp. 153-184.
Susan E. Reid, ‘All Stalin's Women: Gender and Power in Soviet Art of the 1930s’, Slavic
Review, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Spring, 1998), pp. 133-173.
R Thurston, Life and death in Stalin’s Russia, 1934-41
Denise J. Youngblood, ‘The Fate of Soviet Popular Cinema during the Stalin Revolution’
Russian Review, Vol. 50, No. 2. (Apr., 1991), pp. 148-162.
C Williams, ‘'The Revolution from above in Soviet medicine, Leningrad 1928-32', Journal of Urban
History Volume 20 (4), August 1994, pp. 512-540
10
Great Terror
J Arch Getty, Origins of the Great purges
J Arch Getty and R T Manning (ed.), Stalinist Terror: New perspectives
R Conquest, The Great Terror (1968)
R Conquest, The Great Terror: Reconsidered
R Conquest, Inside Stalin’s Secret police
R Conquest, Stalin and the Kirov murder
S Davies, Public opinion in Stalinist Russia
P Deli, ‘The image of the Russian purges in the Daily Herald and New Statesman’, Journal of
Contemporary History, Vol 20 (2)
Jonathan Haslam, ‘Political Opposition to Stalin and the Origins of the Terror in Russia,
1932-1936’, The Historical Journal, Vol. 29, No. 2. (Jun., 1986), pp. 395-418.
M Jakobson, Origins of the gulag
D King and I Deutscher, The Great Purges
A Solzhenitsyn, The gulag archipelago
Stalinist foreign policy
M Belov, The foreign policy of Soviet Russia, 1929-41
J Haslem, Soviet foreign policy
J Erickson and D Dilks (ed.), Barbarossa: The axis and the Allies
D Dunn, ‘Maksim Litvinov: Commissar of Contradiction’, Journal of Contemporary History Vol 23
(2), April 1988, pp. 221-43
K W Koch, ‘The spectre of peace in the East: Russo-German peace feelers, 1924-44’, Journal of
Contemporary History Vol 10 (3)
R Manne, ‘The British decision for alliance with Russia, May 1939’, Journal of Contemporary
History Vol 9 (3)
L Rotundo, ‘Stalin and the outbreak of war in 1941’, Journal of Contemporary History Vol 24 (2)
1989
A Sella, ‘Barbarossa: Surprise attack and communication’, Journal of Contemporary History Vol
13 (3), 1978, pp. 555-584
A Ulam, Expansion and Coexistence
V Zubok, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War
S Davies, Public opinion in Stalinist Russia
Nature of Stalinism: Contemporary debates
G. T. Rittersporn, ‘Rethinking Stalinism’, Russian History 1984, Vol 11 (4), Winter, pp. 343-61
R. C. Tucker, Stalinism: Essays in historical interpretation
Russian review special issues
M Lewin, ‘Stalinism -- Appraised and reappraised’, History 60 1975, pp. 71-77
G R Urban, Stalinism
R V Daniels, A Documentary history of Communism, 2 vols
A Hochschild, The unquiet ghost: Russians remember Stalin
R W Davies, Soviet history in the Gorbachev era
R W Davies, Soviet history in the Yeltsin era
A Nove (ed.), The Stalin Phenomenon
W Lacquer, Stalin: The glasnost Revelations
R Whitehead, Stalin
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Sigrid Mclaughlin, ‘Rybakov's Deti arbata: Reintegrating Stalin Into Soviet History’, Slavic
Review, Vol. 50, No. 1. (Spring, 1991), pp. 90-99.
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