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Full-Text Articles in History
Revisions In Red, Laura Browder
Revisions In Red, Laura Browder
English Faculty Publications
In this article the author reflects on her experience of researching the history of her grandfather Earl Browder, a former leader in the U.S. Communist Party, and exploring his significance both in historical and personal terms. She comments on her research regarding his status as a spy of the Soviet Union, share her views on her father's reluctance to discuss his past, and notes Browder's campaigns for President of the U.S. in the 1930s.
The Creative Intelligentsia And The Rise Of Official Russocentrism Under Stalin, David Brandenberger
The Creative Intelligentsia And The Rise Of Official Russocentrism Under Stalin, David Brandenberger
History Faculty Publications
In the mid-to-late 1930s, Soviet society witnessed a major ideological about-face as party propaganda and mass culture assumed an increasingly patriotic, Russo-centric orientation. Heroes, imagery, and legends from the Russian national past were deployed to bolster the legitimacy of the Soviet state and provide a complement to the reigning Marxist-Leninist ideology, then in a trend threatening to eclipse the stress on revolutionary class consciousness that had characterized the Soviet experiment for nearly two decades.
This shift away from proletarian internationalism toward Russo-centric etatism has been a source of considerable scholarly controversy. Some have linked this phenomenon to nationalist sympathies within …
Stalin As Symbol: A Case Study Of The Cult Of Personality And Its Construction, David Brandenberger
Stalin As Symbol: A Case Study Of The Cult Of Personality And Its Construction, David Brandenberger
History Faculty Publications
Although the cult of personality certainly owed something to Stalin’s affinity for self-aggrandisement, modern social science literature suggests that it was designed to perform an entirely different ideological function. Personality cults promoting charismatic leadership are typically found in developing societies where ruling cliques aspire to cultivate a sense of popular legitimacy.2 Scholars since Max Weber have observed that charismatic leadership plays a particularly crucial role in societies that are either poorly integrated or lack regularised administrative institutions. In such situations, loyalty to an inspiring leader can induce even the most fragmented polities to acknowledge the authority of the central …
Stalin's Secret Pogrom:The Postwar Inquisition Of The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (Book Review), David Brandenberger
Stalin's Secret Pogrom:The Postwar Inquisition Of The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (Book Review), David Brandenberger
History Faculty Publications
Stalin’s Secret Pogrom is a fascinating volume that presents many challenges as a historical source. Much of the information about the JAC and its associates contained in the transcript ought to be treated with great caution. Not only were the charges trumped-up, but the defendants were tortured, and their testimony was coerced. Nor should the transcript itself be studied as an orchestrated spectacle of Stalinist propaganda, inasmuch as the trial was held in secret and lacked much of the hyperbole characteristic of the show trials of the 1930s. Instead, the transcript testiªes to the bravery of many of the defendants, …
Sostavlenie I Publikatsiia Ofitsial'noi Biografii Vozhdia--Katekhizisa Stalinizma, David Brandenberger
Sostavlenie I Publikatsiia Ofitsial'noi Biografii Vozhdia--Katekhizisa Stalinizma, David Brandenberger
History Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.