Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s

by Sheila Fitzpatrick

Overview

Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by a leading authority on modern Russian history. Focusing on the urban population, Fitzpatrick depicts a world of privation, overcrowding, endless lines, and broken homes, in which the regime's promises of future socialist abundance rang hollowly. We read of a government bureaucracy that often turned life into a nightmare, and of how ordinary citizens tried to circumvent it. We also read of the secret police, whose constant surveillance was endemic at this time, and the waves of terror, like the Great Purges of 1937, which periodically cast society into turmoil.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199839247
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/04/1999
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Sheila Fitzpatrick teaches modern Russian history at the University of Chicago. A former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, and a co-editor of The Journal of Modern History, she is also the author of The Russian Revolution, Stalin's Peasants, and many other books and articles about Russia. She lives in Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Milestones Stories A Note on Class 1. The Party is Always Right Revolutionary Warriors Stalin's Signals Bureaucrats and Bosses A Girl with Character 2. Hard Times Shortages Miseries of Urban Life Shopping as a Survival Skill Contacts and Connections 3. Palaces on Monday Building a New World Heroes The Remaking of Man Mastering Culture 4. The Magic Tablecloth Images of Abundance Privilege Marks of Status Patrons and Clients 5. Insulted and Injured Outcasts Deportation and Exile Renouncing the Past Wearing the Mask 6. Family Problems Absconding Husbands The Abortion Law The Wives Moment 7. Conversations and Listeners Listening In Writing to the Government Public Talk Talking Back 8. A Time of Troubles The Year of 1937 Scapegoats and "The Usual Suspects" Spreading the Plague Living Through the Great Purges Concluson Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"Fitzpatrick makes subtle use of the press and of police reports that assist in giving us one of the most comprehensive accounts of what it meant to live in Stalin's Russia in the 1930s."—Kirkus Reviews

"A fine work—engrossing, well written, superbly documented, and much needed to boot....[The book's sources] make absolutely fascinating reading....An assiduous scholar, Professor Fitzpatrick seems to have scrutinized every relevant scrap of paper. Her explication is a model of balance and judiciousness....Individual memoirs apart, most histories of this period were written from the top—that is, showing how the policies were shaped and implemented, rather than how they were perceived and experienced by their subjects. It is the latter...that constitutes the major distinction of Fitzpatrick's book."—Abraham Brumberg, The Nation

"The author's rich materials challenge readers to build their own model of Stalin's people, their complicity and resistance."—Wilson Quarterly

"A most welcome addition to the literature on Stalin's Russia....Fitzpatrick has used the entire range of sources available, from familiar memoirs and postwar interview material to contemporary research and an array of archival information....The book is a major contribution to understanding this extraordinary period. Its lucid prose and the inherent interest of its subject matter should make it accessible to undergraduates, as well as to more specialized readers."—CHOICE

"One of the most influential historians of the Soviet period describes what it was like to live under Stalin in the 1930s—the frantic, heroic, tragic decade of collectivization, forced-draft industrialization, and purges, when ordinary Russians struggled to a find a wearable pair of shoes and lined up in subzero weather at two o'clock in the morning in the hope of getting 16 grams of bread....They were years of unimaginable hardship and brutality but also of idealism, a surreal melange that [Fitzpatrick] captures with admirable matter-of-factness."—Foreign Affairs

"A fine crossover book for both upperlevel and introductory courses....Well written."—Roger W. Haughey, Georgetown University

"Everyday Stalinism should prove invaluable for any course on Soviet history. Knowing how a nation's people actually lived, thought, and felt is essential to any real understanding of the past. On this, Fitzpatrick—who has done more than any other scholar to make the complexities of the social history of the Stalin years come alive—delivers as no one else can."—John McCannon, Norwich University

"Casts new light on a hitherto neglected facet of Stalinism: the everyday life of ordinary citizens in the major urban and industrial centers of the USSR... It is a 'fun read' that offers many insights to specialists and students alike."—American Historical Review

From the Publisher