Stalin's Master Narrative
A Critical Edition of the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), Short Course
Edited by David Brandenberger and Mikhail Zelenov
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Price: $65.00
March 26, 2019
760 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
21 b/w illus.
ISBN: 9780300155365
Hardcover
A critical edition of the text that defined communist party ideology in Stalin’s Soviet Union
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.
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.
David Brandenberger is professor of history at the University of Richmond and the author of Propaganda State in Crisis. Mikhail Zelenov is professor of history and main specialist at the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI).
"The single most important text produced under Stalin’s rule. Remarkably, nobody has ever made a thorough study of the Short Course before, and this book fills a real lacuna and is long overdue."—Erik van Ree, author of The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin
"This critical edition of Stalin’s Short Course presents an important, indeed crucial, archival discovery in impeccable fashion."—Lars T. Lih, editor of Stalin's Letters to Molotov
“Stalin’s Master Narrative . . . gives tremendous insight into Stalin’s world view.”—R. K. Byczkiewicz, Choice
“Brandenberger and Zelenov have made an invaluable contribution to scholarship on Stalinism and offered a unique view of the mind of the dictator himself.”—T. Clayton Black, Russian Review
Sales Restrictions: World excluding the Russian Federation
