Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Socialist Legality On Trial: The Purge Of The Ukrainian Nkvd, 1938-1943, Reide Petty

Honors Theses

In the winter of 1938, Grigorii Iufa was put on trial in a Soviet court for the violation of socialist legality, a charge alleging that he had manipulated Soviet legal processes and undermined the rule of law during his work. Prior to his arrest, Iufa had worked in the Moldavian division of the NKVD, the Soviet Union’s state security agency. In that capacity, he had played a significant role in the Great Terror, which was a highly concentrated campaign of mass violence conducted by the Soviet Union between 1937-1938 against perceived enemies among its own citizenry. This campaign primarily consisted …

[Introduction To] Stalin's Master Narrative: A Critical Edition Of The History Of The Communist Party Of The Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): Short Course, David Brandenberger, M. V. Zelenov

Bookshelf

The Short Course on the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) defined Stalinist ideology both at home and abroad. It was quite literally the the master narrative of the USSR—a hegemonic statement on history, politics, and Marxism-Leninism that scripted Soviet society for a generation. This study exposes the enormous role that Stalin played in the development of this all-important text, as well as the unparalleled influence that he wielded over the Soviet historical imagination.

“‘Gulag’—Slavery, Inc.”: The Power Of Place And The Rhetorical Life Of A Cold War Map, Timothy Barney

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In 1951, the American Federation of Labor produced a map of the Soviet Union showing the locations of 175 forced labor camps administered by the Gulag. Widely appropriated in popular magazines and newspapers, and disseminated internationally as propaganda against the U.S.S.R., the map, entitled “‘Gulag’—Slavery, Inc.,” would be cited as “one of the most widely circulated pieces of anti-Communist literature.” By contextualizing the map’s origins and circulation, as well as engaging in a close analysis of its visual codes and intertextual relationships with photographs, captions, and other materials, this essay argues that the Gulag map became an evidentiary weapon in …

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

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

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

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, …

[Introduction To] National Bolshevism: Stalinist Mass Culture And The Formation Of Modern Russian National Identity, 1931-1956, David Brandenberger

Bookshelf

During the 1930s, Stalin and his entourage rehabilitated famous names from the Russian national past in a propaganda campaign designed to mobilize Soviet society for the coming war. Legendary heroes like Aleksandr Nevskii and epic events like the Battle of Borodino quickly eclipsed more conventional communist slogans revolving around class struggle and proletarian internationalism. In a provocative study, David Brandenberger traces this populist "national Bolshevism" into the 1950s, highlighting the catalytic effect that it had on Russian national identity formation.

Beginning with national Bolshevism's origins within Stalin's inner circle, Brandenberger next examines its projection into Soviet society through education and …

Sostavlenie I Publikatsiia Ofitsial'noi Biografii Vozhdia--Katekhizisa Stalinizma, David Brandenberger

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Demyansk 1941-1943 : A Microscopic View Of The German-Soviet Conflict, Andrew K. Koch

Master's Theses

Well over ten million men served in the Axis armies during the war, and over 70 percent of these troops fought on the Eastern Front. Each soldier has/had a personal story to tell - their fighting units are all worthy of mention and every battle they fought in should be appraised. It has been the habit of English-speaking historians studying the Second World War to concentrate almost exclusively on the European Theater of operations. The events on the Eastern Front, with the exception of the battles of Leningrad, Stalingrad, and perhaps Kursk, are practically ignored. This study, however, will analyze …

Is The West Responsible For Lenin's Rise To Power?, Stephen D. Ramsey

Honors Theses

The year 1917 is probably the most significant year in modern Russian history, Many people view this as the year of the Bolsheviks. Indeed, Lenin and his cohorts seized the reigns of government in November (all date will be given in New Style) of that year and propelled Russia down an untrodden path of history. The effects of this revolution now permeate the globe. Some view that fateful day as the beginning of man's salvation from the exploitation of capitalism. Others view it as the birth of a pernicious disease which must be eliminated in a final apocalyptic battle to …

Factors Influencing American Opinion For And Against Recognition Of The Soviet Union, 1928-1933, Nelson Lankford

Honors Theses

The purpose of this paper is to present the reaction of Richmond's conservative white newspapers to the election in October 1967 for a constitutional convention. The three papers include the overtly racist Enquirer, the moderate Whig, and the Dispatch, whcih claimed a larger circulation than the other papers combined. All three newspapers, however, considered the Negro to be inferior and feared radical reconstruction as the ultimate disaster for Virginia. The press unanimously favored maintaining white supremacyand editorialized for the organization of conservative white opposition to the radical party in the October election.

The War Aims Of The Russian Provisional Government, Susan Parker

Honors Theses

The outbreak of the first World War marked the end of an era in the history of Euroe; nowhere was this to be more true than in Russia. At th eoutset there was a great show of popular support for the war, much more so than for the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. Anti-government and revolutionary activity had soon revived following the temporary hiatus after the seemingly successful Revolution of 1905, but it disappeared almost entirely in the rise of national feeling and loyalty that accompanied the declaration of war on August 1, 1914.

The French And British Socialist Missions To Russia, 1917 : A Thesis, Thomas L. Powers

Honors Theses

In 1917, several Allied countries sent Socialist representatives to Russia to try to convince the Russian Socialists to stay in the war. I have concentrated on the British and French missions because they, as representatives of the two largest of the Allied countries, contacted more people and groups, were more deeply involved in the situation in Russia, and made themselves more conspicuous than did the others. The other missions (principally the Belgian and Italian) did very little the British and French did not do and had few characteristics which the British and French did not share.

The American's also sent …