Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition

by Tommaso Piffer (Editor), Vladislav Zubok (Editor), Riccardo James Vargiu (Translator)

Overview

This book is a tribute to the memory of Victor Zaslavsky (1937–2009), sociologist, émigré from the Soviet Union, Canadian citizen, public intellectual, and keen observer of Eastern Europe. In seventeen essays leading European, American and Russian scholars discuss the theory and the history of totalitarian society with a comparative approach. They revisit and reassess what Zaslavsky considered the most important project in the latter part of his life: the analysis of Eastern European - especially Soviet societies and their difficult "transition" after the fall of communism in 1989–91. The variety of the contributions reflects the diversity of specialists in the volume, but also reveals Zaslavsky's gift: he surrounded himself with talented people from many different fields and disciplines.

In line with Zaslavsky's work and scholarly method, the book promotes new theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of totalitarianism for understanding Soviet and East European societies, and the study of fascist and communist regimes in general.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789633861301
Publisher:	Central European University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2017
Pages:	442
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tommaso Piffer is the Bodossakis Research Fellow of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge and an affiliate of the Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Vladislav Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Among his publications are Anti-Americanism in Russia: From Stalin to Putin (with Eric Shiraev, Palgrave Press, 2000); Zhivago’s Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia (Harvard University Press, 2009); The Idea of Russia. The Life and the Works of Dmitry Likhachev (I. B. Tauris, 2016).

Table of Contents

I Introduction Tommaso Piffer Vladislav Zubok 1

1 Theory and Debate

2 Movement, Formation, and Maintenance in the Soviet Union: Victor Zaslavsky's Challenge to the Arendtian Theory of Totalitarianism Peter Baehr 19

3 European Liberalism in the Age of Totalitarianism Giovanni Orsina 53

4 Totalitaranism avant la lettre Vittorio Strada 77

5 Totalitarianism and Ideological Hubris Vladimir Tismaneanu 91

6 From Facts to Words: From Militia Party to Fascist Totalitarianism Emilio Gentile 113

II History and Society

7 Stalin the Statesman: A Historian's Notes Vladimir Pechatnov 141

8 Stalin's Dictatorship: Priorities, Policies, and Results Oleg Khlevniuk 165

9 The "National Question" in the Soviet Union Andrea Graziosi 183

10 The Katyn Case: History and Articulation of Official Discourse in Russia Inessa Yazhborovskaia 205

11 Totalitarianism and Science: The Nazi and the Soviet Experience David Holloway 231

12 From Fascism to Communism: The History of a Conversion Maria Teresa Giusti 251

III Beyond Totalitarianism

13 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vasily Grossman: Slavophile and Westernizer Against the Totalitarian Soviet State Veljko Vujacic 279

14 "Without the free word, there are no free people": Lydia Chukovskaya's Writings on Terror and Censorship Antonella D'Amelia 309

15 The Transition from Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism in Russia Lev Gudkov 327

16 Totalitarianism, Nationalism, and Challenges for Democratic Transition Gail Lapidus 353

17 Public Memory and the Difficulty of Overcoming the Communist Legacy: Poland and Russia in Comparative Perspective Mark Kramer 385

List of Contributors 423

Index 429

Editorial Reviews

"This fascinating volume of essays reminds me of Victor Zaslavsky himself: smart, sophisticated, engaging, and provocative. The authors also reflect Zaslavsky’s own world, which included the very best in Russian, European, and American scholarship in a variety of disciplines. These articles on the Soviet past, totalitarianism, and the transition to the post-Soviet world contain fresh insights into this history, and at the same time provide warnings about the present and the future."

—Norman M. Naimark

From the Publisher