Monthly Archives: October 2014

Sixth Blogpost Guidelines

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rakli Toidze: (1943) Another in the Toidze series of recruiting posters. Source: Natalia Vorontsova-Iur eva: Live Journal

Irakli Toidze: (1943) Another in the Toidze series of recruiting posters.
Source: Natalia Vorontsova-Iur eva: Live Journal

This week we turn our attention to The Great Patriotic War (aka World War II) and the immediate post-war period.  Please use one of the modules from 1943 or 1947 in Seventeen Moments in Soviet History on-line archive. You may also use the module on Soviet Territorial Annexations from 1939.  You should consult  Ch. 12 in the Freeze text. If you are writing about something specific to the war, it would be worth considering William C. Fuller’s discussion on pp. 383-392 of Freeze about the reasons for Soviet victory. You may focus on an event, a development or an individual. Your post should use (and cite) primary sources (texts, music, or images). You may also use a particular image or primary document as a focal point for your post.  There’s plenty of action, drama, and complexity to keep us all engaged this week.  Не шагу назад!

False Mourning

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Joseph Stalin was, if nothing else, an opportunist, and that can be seen clearly in the tactics he used to come to power in the decade following Lenin’s death. A particularly strong example can be seen in 1934′s Kirov Affair, … Continue reading →

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Rehabilitation of Cossack Divisions

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The life of Russians in the 1930’s is truly interesting. The people of Russia have finally become one with their halfway communistic society. Although a large majority of people had become adjusted to the Soviet, certain portions of society weren’t warming up to the Reds like everyone else. One of these groups is the well-known […]

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Between a Rock and a Red Place

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Opera censorship in 1936The cultural reformation in Soviet culture during 1936 caused controversy and contradictions, as the government castigated the creativity and innovation that it once supported. The primary victims of this artistic purge included poet Demyan Bedny and avant-garde composer Dmitri Shostakovitch, as their personal lives and creative work suffered because of the Soviets’ lack of…

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Let’s Get Physical (Culture)

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James von Geldern describes physical culture as “the hygiene and discipline of the bodies of socialist citizens” (von Geldern). This phenomenon was of fundamental importance to the Soviets in the 1920s and 1930s for several reasons. Prior to the revolution, sports clubs … Continue reading →

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A Martyr of the Great Terror

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  When I traveled to Russia during the summer of 2013, I was fortunate enough to stumble across an exhibit dedicated to the life of Leon Trotsky in the basement of a Gulag museum in Moscow. I knew very little about the man who at one point was one of Vladimir Lenin’s right hand men, […]

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It’s a ChurchPoolChurch!

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The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was built over the span of 40 years, and opened in the 19th century.  This church is the archetype of what all churches hope to be: it was the largest Orthodox Church ever built, and was a prime example of opulence.  The inner sanctum was circumscribed by two galleries, […]

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Working the 9 to 5 and Then Some

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Now that Russia had entered a new era of Bolshevism, labor dicipline became a major issue.  Russia was in an attempt to show its power to the world.  This meant everything Russian must impress.  From their olympic sports teams right down to there average citizens in the workplace.  Lenin himself had pegged Labor dicipline as […]

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