first para: Grappling with the relationship between intellectuals and communism
after 1917 calls to mind two topics long treated as almost entirely distinct.
The first concerns non-Soviet, generally noncommunist intellectuals
around the world and, in particular, intense twentieth-century debates
over the pro-Soviet “fellow travelers” in the…[Read more]

First para: Do new biographies of the dictator provoke deeper analysis of the Soviet
system? Will the life of Stalin open up new ways of understanding Stalinism?
Past experience, it has to be said, raises doubts. Of all the biographies of Stalin,
few have integrated, much less altered, the state of the art in Soviet history.1
The main reason…[Read more]

First para: The German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941 brought with it the most
extreme conditions of the short twentieth century. Suddenly, the existence of
the Soviet state was no longer assured. What the regime did in response tells
us much about Stalinism and the Soviet order. In an enormous swathe of territory
from the western and…[Read more]