Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition: Essays in Memory of Victor Zaslavsky

Published by Central European University Press 2017

Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition

Essays in Memory of Victor Zaslavsky

Edited by: Tommaso Piffer and Vladislav Zubok
Translated by: Riccardo James Vargiu

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789633861325

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Piffer Tommaso :

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.

Zubok Vladislav :

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).

Reviews

Norman M. Naimark:

“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.”

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction Tommaso Piffer and Vladislav Zubok Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I THEORY and DEBATE
Movement, Formation, and Maintenance in the Soviet Union. Victor Zaslavsky’s Challenge to the Arendtian Theory of Totalitarianism Peter Baehr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
European Liberalism in the Age of Totalitarianisms Giovanni Orsina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Totalitarianism avant la lettre Vittorio Strada Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Totalitarianism and Ideological Hubris Vladimir Tismaneanu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
From Facts to Words. From Militia Party to Fascist Totalitarianism Emilio Gentile Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Part II History and Society
Stalin the Statesman. A Historian’s Notes Vladimir Pechatnov Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Stalin’s Dictatorship. Priorities, Policies, and Results Oleg Khlevniuk Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
The “National Question” in the Soviet Union Andrea Graziosi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
The Katyn Case. History and Articulation of Official Discourse in Russia Inessa Yazhborovskaia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Totalitarianism and Science. The Nazi and the Soviet Experience David Holloway Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
From Fascism to Communism. The History of a Conversion Maria Teresa Giusti Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Part III BEYOND TOTALITARIANISM
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vasily Grossman. Slavophile and Westernizer Against the Totalitarian Soviet State Veljko Vujačić Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
“Without the free word, there are no free people” Lydia Chukovskaya’s Writings on Terror and Censorship Antonella d’Amelia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
The Transition from Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism in Russia Lev Gudkov Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
Totalitarianism, Nationalism, and Challenges for Democratic Transition Gail Lapidus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
Public Memory and the Difficulty of Overcoming the Communist Legacy. Poland and Russia in Comparative Perspective Mark Kramer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	385
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	423
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	429

Language: English
Publisher: Central European University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 442
Keywords: 20th century; Dictatorship; Fascism; Memory politics; Nationalism; Nazism; Prisoners of war

eBook

Published: May 15, 2017
ISBN: 9789633861325