Soviet Baby Boomers

Soviet Baby Boomers
Author: Donald J. Raleigh
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2012-01-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0199744343

Soviet Baby Boomers traces the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformation of Russia into a modern, highly literate, urban society through the life stories of the country's first post-World War II, Cold War generation. Illuminating a critical generation of people who had remained largely faceless up until now, the book reveals what it meant to "live Soviet" during the twilight of the Soviet empire.

Faustian Bargain

Faustian Bargain
Author: Ian Ona Johnson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2021
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190675144

Pre-publication subtitle: Soviet-German military cooperation in the interwar period.

A History of Education in Modern Russia

A History of Education in Modern Russia
Author: Wayne Dowler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2021-08-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1350101346

A History of Education in Modern Russia is the first book to trace the significance of education in Russia from Peter the Great's reign all the way through to Vladimir Putin and the present day. Individual chapters open with an overview of the political, social, diplomatic and cultural environment of the period in order to orient the reader. Dowler then goes on to analyse the aims of education initiatives in each era before considering the ways in which Russians experienced education, both as students and as teachers. Each chapter concludes with an assessment of the outcomes and consequences of education policies in the period, both the successes and failures as well as the impact of education on the cultural, social, economic and ultimately political environments. The chronologically arranged book also traces and then summarises underlying key themes like the tension between an open system of education and an estate-based system; the push and pull between utility and the broader goal of human development; and the effects of centralized, authoritarian control that for much of the period limited local initiative and starved the regions of adequate resources.

Soviet Schooling in the Second World War

Soviet Schooling in the Second World War
Author: J. Dunstan
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 282
Release: 1997-02-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230373135

This is the first western book on the subject of wartime Soviet schooling. Its theme is set against the background of Soviet educational history and the events preceding and characterising the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. It considers how the war affected the already problematic organisation of schools and their formal curriculum content, and examines their enhanced role as socialising agents. It will appeal to historians, educationists and all interested in the impact of war on civilian populations.

Stalin's Niños

Stalin's Niños
Author: Karl D. Qualls
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2020-01-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1487518293

Stalin’s Niños examines how the Soviet Union raised and educated nearly three thousand child refugees of the Spanish Civil War. An analysis of the archival record and numerous letters, oral histories, and memoirs uncovers a little-known story that describes the Soviet transformation of children into future builders of communism and reveals the educational techniques shared with other modern states. Classroom education taught patriotism for the two homelands and the importance of emulating Spanish and Soviet heroes, scientists, soldiers, and artists. Extra-curricular clubs and activities reinforced classroom experiences and helped discipline the mind, body, and behaviours. Adult mentors, like the heroes studied in the classroom, provided models to emulate and became the tangible expression of the ideal Spaniard and Soviet. The Basque and Spanish children thus were transformed into hybrid Hispano-Soviets fully engaged with their native language, culture, and traditions while also imbued with Russian language and culture and Soviet ideals of hard work, comradery, internationalism, and sacrifice for ideals and others. Throughout their fourteen-year existence and even during the horrific relocation to the Soviet interior during the Second World War, the twenty-two Soviet boarding schools designed specifically for the Spanish refugee children – and better provisioned than those for Soviet children – transformed displaced niños into Red Army heroes, award-winning Soviet athletes and artists, successful educators and workers, and in some cases valuable resources helping to rebuild Cuba after the revolution. Stalin’s Niños also sheds new light on the education of non-Russian Soviet and international students and the process of constructing a supranational Soviet identity.

The Memory of the Second World War in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia

The Memory of the Second World War in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia
Author: David L. Hoffmann
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2021-08-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000430294

This volume showcases important new research on World War II memory, both in the Soviet Union and in Russia today. Through an examination of war remembrance in its various forms—official histories, school textbooks, museums, monuments, literature, films, and Victory Day parades—chapters illustrate how the heroic narrative of the war was established in Soviet times and how it continues to shape war memorialization under Putin. This war narrative resonates with the Russian population due to decades of Soviet commemoration, which continued virtually uninterrupted into the post-Soviet period. Major themes of the volume include the use of World War II memory for political legitimation and patriotic mobilization; the striking continuities between Soviet and post-Soviet commemorative practices; the place of Holocaust memorialization in contemporary Russia; Putin’s invocation of the war to bolster national pride and international prestige; and the relationship between individual memory and collective remembrance. Authored by an international group of distinguished specialists, this collection is ideal for scholars of Russia across a range of disciplines, including history, political science, sociology, and cultural studies.

The Red Army and the Second World War

The Red Army and the Second World War
Author: Alexander Hill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 757
Release: 2019-02-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316720519

In a definitive new account of the Soviet Union at war, Alexander Hill charts the development, successes and failures of the Red Army from the industrialisation of the Soviet Union in the late 1920s through to the end of the Great Patriotic War in May 1945. Setting military strategy and operations within a broader context that includes national mobilisation on a staggering scale, the book presents a comprehensive account of the origins and course of the war from the perspective of this key Allied power. Drawing on the latest archival research and a wealth of eyewitness testimony, Hill portrays the Red Army at war from the perspective of senior leaders and men and women at the front line to reveal how the Red Army triumphed over the forces of Nazi Germany and her allies on the Eastern Front, and why it did so at such great cost.

Motherland in Danger

Motherland in Danger
Author: Karel C. Berkhoff
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2012-04-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674064828

Main description: Much of the story about the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany has yet to be told. In Motherland in Danger, Karel Berkhoff addresses one of the most neglected questions facing historians of the Second World War: how did the Soviet leadership sell the campaign against the Germans to the people on the home front? For Stalin, the obstacles were manifold. Repelling the German invasion would require a mobilization so large that it would test the limits of the Soviet state. Could the USSR marshal the manpower necessary to face the threat? How could the authorities overcome inadequate infrastructure and supplies? Might Stalin's regime fail to survive a sustained conflict with the Germans? Motherland in Danger takes us inside the Stalinist state to witness, from up close, its propaganda machine. Using sources in many languages, including memoirs and documents of the Soviet censor, Berkhoff explores how the Soviet media reflected-and distorted-every aspect of the war, from the successes and blunders on the front lines to the institution of forced labor on farm fields and factory floors. He also details the media's handling of Nazi atrocities and the Holocaust, as well as its stinting treatment of the Allies, particularly the United States, the UK, and Poland. Berkhoff demonstrates not only that propaganda was critical to the Soviet war effort but also that it has colored perceptions of the war to the present day, both inside and outside of Russia.

The Soviet Myth of World War II

The Soviet Myth of World War II
Author: Jonathan Brunstedt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2021-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108498752

Provides a bold new interpretation of the origins and development of World War II's remembrance in the USSR.