Making sense of war Weiner, Amir
2001., 20120116, 2012, 2000, c2001., 2001-01-01
eBook
In Making Sense of War, Amir Weiner reconceptualizes the entire historical experience of the Soviet Union from a new perspective, that of World War II. Breaking with the conventional interpretation ...that views World War II as a post-revolutionary addendum, Weiner situates this event at the crux of the development of the Soviet--not just the Stalinist--system. Through a richly detailed look at Soviet society as a whole, and at one Ukrainian region in particular, the author shows how World War II came to define the ways in which members of the political elite as well as ordinary citizens viewed the world and acted upon their beliefs and ideologies.
In fourteen original essays, Baltic scholars offer bold views and fresh empirical perspectives on the events that have shaped the Baltic region throughout the twentieth century from the Great War, to ...ensuing wars of independence and interwar sovereignty, to World War II and post-war Sovietization experiments, to the fall of the Soviet Union.
This essay explores the complex dynamic that fed Soviet anxieties over the border regions.This dynamic involved several interlocking aspects: the dismantling of the Gulag, including most notably the ...release of a significant number of convicted nationalist guerrillas and activists, who were allowed to return to their homes; the conflicting sentiments on the western frontier that led locals to embrace or reject the Gulag returnees based on pre-Soviet memories, the experiences of World War II, and postwar sovietization policies; the impact of the Polish and Hungarian upheavals, foreign radio broadcasts, and increased contacts with the outside world on the authorities and populations of the western republics; and finally, the attempt to counter these problems via the proliferation of communal surveillance and policing, therevival of class-based policies, and the intensified pursuit of ethnonational homogenization of the borderlands. The 1956 crisis raised several key questions for the post-Stalinist Soviet polity, especially on the western frontier: Why did a government as suspicious and seasoned as the Soviet regime consciously let a mass of sworn, unreformed enemies back into its midst? Was the era of social engineering over in the wake of the renunciation of mass terror and, if so, what came in its place? What were the boundaries of reform? What price was the regime willing to pay for the relative loss of control over information flow and communications? What accounted for the wide gap between a confident center and its weary periphery, and what role did the latter play in shaping national policies?
Weiner explores the complex dynamic that fed Soviet anxieties over the border regions. The 1956-1957 events marked an ironic twist in the Soviet borderlands policy. Following decades of experiments ...with ethnonational minorities, ranging from their use as bridgeheads in approaching their diaspora brethren to deportations and eventual territorial and national consolidations, the Soviets found themselves fending off traditional irredentist pressures, only this time from the very satellites they had established in their own image. To make things worse, these pressures came at the delicate moment when they were set on a reformist course at home.
This article explores the complex dynamics that informed Soviet policies on the western frontier – the territories stretching between the Baltic and Black Seas annexed by the Soviets in 1939–40 – and ...involves several interlocking aspects: the permeability of borders prone to irredentist pressures by socialist satellites, mass tourism from the West and the Soviet bloc, and the increasing flow of information from foreign media sources; the conflicting sentiments that led locals to embrace or reject reforms based on different pre-Soviet memories, the experiences of the Second World War, postwar sovietisation policies and the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956; the impact of Romanian and Czechoslovak policies on the authorities and populations of the western republics and the Kremlin's concerns over the region as key factors in the decision to invade Czechoslovakia; and, finally, the domestic and international consequences for an aging, self-styled revolutionary regime choosing between youthful reform and stagnant stability. Cet essai explore les dynamiques complexes qui ont informé les politiques soviétiques sur la frontière occidentale – comprenant les territoires s'étirant de la Mer baltique à la Mer noire, annexés par les Soviétiques dans les années 1939–40. L'analyse croise de nombreux facteurs qui s'entremêlent: la perméabilité des frontières qui prédispose aux pressions irrédentistes des satellites socialistes, les masses touristiques venues de l'Ouest et du Bloc soviétique, et le flux croissant d'informations venant des média étrangers; les sentiments contrastés qui conduisent les acteurs locaux à accepter ou rejeter les réformes, se fondant sur des mémoires différentes de la période pré-soviétique, l'expérience de la seconde guerre mondiale, les politiques de soviétisation dans l'après-guerre et l'écrasement du soulèvement hongrois en 1956; l'impact des politiques roumaines et tchécoslovaques sur les autorités et les populations des républiques de l'Ouest, et l'importance accordée par le Kremlin à la région qui a pesé dans sa décision d'envahir la Tchécoslovaquie; et enfin, les conséquences internes et internationales pour une action menée par un régime s'auto-définissant comme révolutionnaire et ayant à choisir entre des réformes tournées vers l'avenir et une stabilité fondée sur l'immobilisme. Dieser Essay untersucht die komplexe Dynamik der sowjetischen Politik an der westlichen Grenze, d.h. den von den Sowjets von 1939–40 besetzten Gebieten zwischen der Baltischen See und dem Schwarzen Meer. Er verweist auf eine Reihe miteinander verknüpfter Phänomene: die Durchlässigkeit der Grenze für die Unabhängigkeitsbestrebungen der sozialistischen Satellitenstaaten; den Massentourismus aus dem Westen und dem Sowjetblock; den zunehmenden Informationsfluss aus ausländischen Medien; die widersprüchlichen Gefühle, die die Bewohner zur Annahme oder zur Zurückweisung von Reformen führten und die auf unterschiedlichen Erinnerungen an die Zeit vor der Sowjetunion sowie unterschiedliche Erfahrungen mit dem Weltkrieg und der Sowjetisierung beruhten; die Unterdrückung des Ungarnaufstands 1956; der Einfluss der rumänischen und tschechoslowakischen Politik auf die Führung und Bevölkerung der westlichen Republiken und die Bedenken des Kreml in Bezug auf diese Region als zentrales Motiv für den Entschluss zum Einmarsch in die Tschechoslowakei; und schließlich, die innenpolitischen und internationalen Konsequenzen für ein alterndes, selbst-stilisiert revolutionäres Regime zwischen jugendlichem Reformeifer und Stabilität im Stillstand.
The thaw Gilburd, Eleonory; Kozlov, Denis
The thaw,
2013, 20131028, 2013, 2013-09-20, 2013-10-28
eBook
"The period from Stalin's death in 1953 to the end of the 1960s marked a crucial epoch in Soviet history. Though not overtly revolutionary, this era produced significant shifts in policies, ideas, ...language, artistic practices, daily behaviours, and material life. It was also during this time that social, cultural, and intellectual processes in the USSR began to parallel those in the West (and particularly in Europe) as never before. This volume examines in fascinating detail the various facets of Soviet life during the 1950s and 1960s, a period termed the 'Thaw.' Featuring innovative research by historical, literary, and film scholars from across the world, this book helps to answer fundamental questions about the nature and ultimate fortune of the Soviet order - both in its internal dynamics and in its long-term and global perspectives."--Publisher website.
Afterword Weiner, Amir
Making Sense of War,
01/2012
Book Chapter
For the residents of Vinnytsia, like the rest of the Soviet population, World War II was the culmination of a chain of cataclysmic events, each one enough to warrant a lifetime of reflection. It was ...also their most challenging and pervasive experience, one that knew no class, ethnic, or territorial boundaries. The war visited every community, family, and individual in the Union in a manner and magnitude that tested existing commitments, loyalties, and associations. People struggled to make sense of the war and the trials it had in store for them: combat and captivity, occupation and liberation, collaboration and resistance,
In the wake of the 1956 Hungarian crisis, seven years passed before Soviet ideologues finally addressed in public the impact of one of its most sensitive and until then unspoken aspects. Writing on ...Soviet nationality policy in western Ukraine, Valentyn Malanchuk, the future secretary for ideology of the Ukrainian Central Committee, drew a link between Khrushchev’s ‘Secret Speech,’ the Hungarian uprising, and the revival of anti-Soviet activity among Gulag returnees in the region. Beyond the now public vulnerability felt by the Soviets in response to the spillover of unrest into the Soviet interior – especially the western frontier – and
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