The Shortest History of the Soviet Union

by Sheila Fitzpatrick

Overview

In 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries came to power in the war-torn Russian Empire in a way that defied all predictions, including their own. Scarcely a lifespan later, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed as accidentally as it arose. The decades between witnessed drama on an epic scale—the chaos and hope of revolution, famines and purges, hard-won victory in history’s most destructive war, and worldwide geopolitical conflict, all entwined around the dream of building a better society.

This book is a lively and authoritative distillation of this complex history, told with vivid details, a grand sweep, and wry wit. The acclaimed historian Sheila Fitzpatrick chronicles the Soviet Age—its rise, reign, and unexpected fall, as well as its afterlife in today’s Russia. She underscores the many ironies of the Soviet experience: An ideology that claimed to offer humanity the reins of history wrangled with contingency. An avowedly internationalist and anti-imperialist state birthed an array of nationalisms. And a vision of transcending economic and social inequality and injustice gave rise to a country that was, in its way, surprisingly normal.

Moving seamlessly from Lenin to Stalin to Gorbachev to Putin, The Shortest History of the Soviet Union provides an indispensable guide to one of the twentieth century’s great powers and the enduring fascination it still exerts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913083168
Publisher:	Old Street Publishing, Ltd
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	826,468
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Sheila Fitzpatrick is Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of Russian History at the University of Chicago, honorary professor at the University of Sydney, and a professor in the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Catholic University. Her many books include Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s (1999), The Russian Revolution (third edition, 2007), and On Stalin’s Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics (2015), and she is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Making the Union
2. The Lenin Years and the Succession Struggle
3. Stalinism
4. War and Its Aftermath
5. From ‘Collective Leadership’ to Khrushchev
6. The Brezhnev Period
7. The Fall
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Further Reading
List of Images
Index

Editorial Reviews

Hugely authoritative.

Times Literary Supplement

Fitzpatrick has written another instant classic.

Journal of Contemporary History

Fitzpatrick is the foremost historian of the Soviet Union in the world. With admirable writing and strong organization, she compresses tons of excellent information into a very accessible text.

Choi Chatterjee

Sheila Fitzpatrick’s The Shortest History of the Soviet Union comes as close to a miracle as an academic book can. It is written for the general public that wants a clear overview of the topic but at the same time offers a concise and well-balanced synthesis of decades of Soviet studies. It is an immensely readable overview of the entire history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991, full of anecdotes and lively detail but also meeting the highest academic standards. It avoids all extreme political passions, but its pages are nonetheless permeated by a gut moral sense. When things get really horrible, only black comedy can adequately render the situation—every pathetic sense of tragedy is already a fake. In this vein, I would add that if I were a Stalinist, I would have said that those who ignore this book deserve . . . if not a Gulag sentence, then at least a year or two of harsh re-education!

Slavoj eiek

Sheila Fitzpatrick does the seemingly impossible by telling the entire history of the Soviet Union (and even some post-Soviet history) in a single sitting. A clear and engaging account of Soviet history, this book is extremely readable, mind-bogglingly brief, and relentlessly insightful.

Alexis Peri

A lively and authoritative distillation of this complex history, told with vivid details, a grand sweep, and wry wit.

Midwest Book Review

Sheila Fitzpatrick’s The Shortest History of the Soviet Union comes as close to a miracle as an academic book can. It is written for the general public that wants a clear overview of the topic but at the same time offers a concise and well-balanced synthesis of decades of Soviet studies. It is an immensely readable overview of the entire history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991, full of anecdotes and lively detail but also meeting the highest academic standards. It avoids all extreme political passions, but its pages are nonetheless permeated by a gut moral sense. When things get really horrible, only black comedy can adequately render the situation—every pathetic sense of tragedy is already a fake. In this vein, I would add that if I were a Stalinist, I would have said that those who ignore this book deserve . . . if not a Gulag sentence, then at least a year or two of harsh re-education!

Slavoj Žižek

Robin Siegerman gives a most winsome narration of this historical overview of the Soviet Union. Fitzpatrick covers the history from before the Revolution of 1917 through civil war, collectivization, forced industrialization, the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, and many other, often traumatic, occurrences and eras through the Russia of today. As a student in the U.S.S.R. in the late 1970s and having studied Russia before that, I contend that the West has always misunderstood this country—and still continues to. This short history is a nice introduction to the history of this region. Siegerman’s pacing and delivery are excellent. She is extremely clear in delivery and enunciation and is sufficiently expressive to maintain the listener’s interest. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Robin Siegerman gives a most winsome narration of this historical overview of the Soviet Union. Fitzpatrick covers the history from before the Revolution of 1917 through civil war, collectivization, forced industrialization, the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, and many other, often traumatic, occurrences and eras through the Russia of today. As a student in the U.S.S.R. in the late 1970s and having studied Russia before that, I contend that the West has always misunderstood this country—and still continues to. This short history is a nice introduction to the history of this region. Siegerman’s pacing and delivery are excellent. She is extremely clear in delivery and enunciation and is sufficiently expressive to maintain the listener’s interest. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile