THE HISTORY OF STATE BUILDING IN THE SOVIET UNION UNDER STALIN

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-113
Author(s):  
Mikhail Mints ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political History ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
State Building ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of

This review article deals with a collection of essays published in «Europe-Asia Studies», vol. 71, N 6 (2019), the authors of which are analyzing Stalinism as a specific exemplar of state-building. Their research is based on various concepts of modern social sciences, especially on the theory of the developmental state. The authors show the new opportunities provided by such an approach and suggest the main directions of further study of the political history of the USSR from this point of view.

Reliability of the Plot Related to the Conversation with Deng Xiaoping on the Sino-Soviet Territorial Issues in the Memoirs of E. Shevardnadze

2021 ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Yinan Li
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Deng Xiaoping ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
History Of ◽  
Territorial Claims

In 2009, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR and President of Georgia E.A. Shevardnadze published his memoirs in Russian, which contain an “explosive” plot: while visiting China in February 1989, during his meeting with Deng Xiaoping, a lengthy dispute over border and territorial issues occurred. At that time, Deng allegedly expressed his point of view that vast lands of the Soviet Union, from three to four million square kilometers, belonged to China. Chinese can wait patiently until someday the lands return to China. This content is cited in scientific works by many historians from different countries as an argument. However, there is no other evidence which can prove this recollection. Many details in it contradict the well known historical facts or are completely illogical. There is a good reason to believe that the plot in the memoirs of Shevardnadze is an incorrect recollection. It could even be considered as a made-up story. Moreover, it is possible that it was fabricated for some reasons. Hence, the plot is not worthy of being quoted as a reliable source. At the Sino-Soviet summit Deng Xiaoping did have expressed the point of view that in the past Russia and then the Soviet Union cut off millions of square kilometers of land from China, but at the same time he promised the leader of the Soviet Union that China would not make territorial claims. Since the mid-1980s Deng Xiaoping actively promoted the settlement of the Sino-Soviet border issues through negotiations, which led to the result that 99% of the border between Russia and China was delimited on a legal basis in the last years of his life. At present, the problems of the Sino-Russian border have been finally resolved long ago. There is no doubt that the scientific research and discussions on issues related to territory and borders in the history of Sino-Soviet relations can be made. However, such research and discussions should be based on reliable sources.

ISAAK RUBIN: HISTORIAN OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT DURING THE STALINIZATION OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN SOVIET RUSSIA

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Boldyrev ◽  
Martin Kragh
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fundamental Uncertainty ◽  
Soviet Russia

Research within the history of economic thought has focused only little on the development of economics under dictatorship. This paper attempts to show how a country with a relatively large and internationally established community of social scientists in the 1920s, the Soviet Union, was subjected to repression. We tell this story through the case of Isaak Il’ich Rubin, a prominent Russian economist and historian of economic thought, who in the late 1920s was denounced by rival scholars and repressed by the political system. By focusing not only on his life and work, but also on that of his opponents and institutional clashes, we show how the decline of a social science tradition in Russia and the USSR as well as the Stalinization of Soviet social sciences emerged as a process over time. We analyze the complex interplay of ideas, scholars, and their institutional context, and conclude that subsequent repression was arbitrary, suggesting that no clear survival or career strategy existed in the Stalinist system, due to a situation of fundamental uncertainty.

scholarly journals Localization of Marxism in China: History, Theory and the Challenge

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Peng Li
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Communist Party Of China ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Governing Principle ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Of Value

Marxism is the science of universal standard. The truth, practicality, scientific of Marxism has been proved by history. But with the development of practice, the development of Marxist theory itself is facing a new opportunity, also faced with unprecedented challenges. How to effectively cope with the challenges？Such as: Is communism a utopia? The labor theory of value is effective? Socialist country is democracy? And so on. All these problems are the socialist system and Marxist must think and answer. As a Marxist, how to truly stand in the position of Marxism, using the Marxist method and point of view to observe the social and economic development and the progress of human civilization and world history, is the problem of contemporary Marxists has to think about. Or it will lose vitality, and will be out of date, and possible failure. The most familiar example is the socialist power caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union and its consequences. As important heritage and development of Marxist theory, the Communist Party of China has always been guided by the Marxism theory, whether in revolution, construction and reform, or the governing principle politics today. Can say, not only accumulated a very valuable historical experience, but also enriched and developed Marxism, the Communist Party of China have a say in the history of Marxist development. So, we need to discuss three questions, the effectiveness of the Marxist theory, and understanding of Marxist trajectory of the Communist Party of China, the challenge for the Marxism theory and how to deal with.

scholarly journals Отражение событий августа 1991 года в Мурманской области.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2020) ◽  
pp. 140-149
Author(s):  
Alexander V. Shekh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Murmansk Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Wait And See

The attempt to remove from power in August 1991, M.S. Gorbachev actually marked the end of the history of the Soviet Union. The August events forced the peoples of the republics of the USSR to unite around republican elites who defended the achievements of perestroika. The socio-political situation in the Murmansk region in August 1991 is considered on the material of the regional press.It reflects a specific feature of those events in the region. Despite the differences in the positions of different groups of the population, in General, electoral support for the legitimate authorities was reflected. The highest degree of tension in the labor collectives of the region fell on the morning of August 21. The political elite of the region took a wait-and-see attitude. The Soviet authorities in one of the militarized regions of the country managed to prevent clashes, not to give reasons to the top leadership to enter troops in localities, and to declarea state of emergency in the region.

scholarly journals The Journey Begins: Letter from Vasily Struve to Mikhail Rostovtzev of 25 May 1914

2020 ◽  
pp. 1119-1130
Author(s):  
Ivan A. Ladynin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Near East ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Archives ◽  
Russian State ◽  
History Of

The article presents a publication of the letter from Vasily Vasilievich Struve (1889–1965), pioneer in the research of the Ancient Near East societies in the Soviet Union, to Mikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzev (1870–1952), the prominent Classicist, one of the first scholars in socio-economic history of the Antiquity in pre-revolutionary Russia. The letter was written during Struve’s post-graduate sabbatical in Berlin in 1914; it is stored in the Russian State Historical Archives in St. Petersburg. The document is significant due to its information on Struve’s stay in Berlin and on his contacts with leading German scholars (including Eduard Meyer and Adolf Erman), but it also touches upon a bigger issue. In the early 1930s Struve forwarded his concept of slave-owning mode of production in the Ancient Near East, which was immediately accepted into official historiography, making him a leading theoretician in the Soviet research of ancient history. It has been repeatedly stated in memoirs and in post-Soviet historiography that this concept and, generally speaking, Struve’s interest in socio-economic issues was opportunistic. His 1910s articles on the Ptolemaic society and state published prior to the Russian revolution weigh heavily against this point of view. The published letter contains Struve’s assessment of his future thesis (state institutions of the New Kingdom of Egypt) and puts its topic in the context of current discussions on the Ptolemaic state and society and of his studies in the Rostovtzev’s seminar at the St. Petersburg University. Struve declares the study of Egyptian social structure and connections between its pre-Hellenistic and Hellenistic phases his life-task, introduced to him by Rostovtzev. Thus, Struve’s early interest in these issues appears to be sincere; it stems from pre-revolutionary trends in the Russian scholarship.

scholarly journals THE USSR THROUGH THE EYES OF MODERN FINNISH WRITERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-466
Author(s):  
Helena Soini ◽  
Irina Matashina
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
World Community ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Special Value ◽  
History Of

The article is devoted to the image of the USSR, which is formed in the fiction of Finland in the XX-XXI centuries. Attention is paid to both prose and poetic works. Each of the selected authors presents the reader a special view of the history of the Soviet Union and adjacent countries, makes an attempt to see well-known events in a new way, show them from the point of view of the Finnish Swedes, Finns, Estonians, pay attention to new details of history. The article compares the positions of writers of different generations: the group of «flame-bearers» of the early XX century («Tulenkantajat»), who reflected the interest of the world community in the emergence of a young Soviet state, and our contemporaries for the same era. The problems that exist in Soviet society are becoming noticeable. Writers try to find a balance between the positive and negative aspects of Soviet history, to show the fate of a particular person. Authors are also interested in outstanding representatives of Russian culture and history (for example, Dostoevsky and Gogol). Memories of writers about their stay in the USSR influence the formation of the figurative system of their works. The object of the image is not only specific people, but also cities: Leningrad, Murmansk, Moscow, the impression of them is extrapolated to the country as a whole. The personality of the writer, reflected in the choice of the historical period, the main character and the point of view on the history of the USSR, gives special value and uniqueness to each of the selected novels and poems.

scholarly journals To India and Lithuania through Soviet Picture Books

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-250
Author(s):  
Hanna Paulouskaya
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Russian Literature ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Book Art ◽  
History Of Childhood ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Literature

The review article discusses a book by Giedrė Jankevičiūtė and V. Geetha, Another History of the Children’s Picture Book: From Soviet Lithuania to India (2017). It describes the content of the monograph in the context of studies on picture books, especially those of Russia, Lithuania, and the Soviet Union, on the history of childhood and Russian literature. The main merit of the volume, in the opinion of the reviewer, is the choice of Indian and Lithuanian book art for comparison, which is made from the perspectives of the history of literature, art, societies, and understanding of childhood.

scholarly journals The 1957 Domestic Loan and the Completion of the Era of “Voluntary-Obligatory Loans” (Middle Ural)

2020 ◽  
pp. 435-449
Author(s):  
V. N. Mamyachenkov ◽  
E. A. Ivanov ◽  
V. V. Shvedov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Economic History ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Modern Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of

The purpose of this article is to investigate events related to a significant fact in the economic history of the USSR - the actual refusal by the state of its obligations on previously placed domestic loans in 1957. The relevance of the study is due to the interest shown in researching the experience of overcoming the financial crisis. The scientific novelty of the study is seen in the fact that archival materials not previously published are introduced into the scientific circulation. It is stated that from the point of view of the modern economy, government borrowing is an indispensable and mandatory attribute of public finances. It is stated that the reason for the need for such borrowing lies in the property of a loan to reduce the time of realization of personal and social needs. It focuses on the fact that the culmination and final moment of the era of permanent state internal borrowing was the factual default of the state declared in the spring of 1957. A review of the statements of citizens characterizing their attitude to this event is carried out. It is proved that the default did not have a significant impact on the state of the family budgets of citizens of the country. It is concluded that in the history of the Soviet Union the mentioned event will remain an event of the passive-palliative type.

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