Soviet Union Historiography

What is a quote about collectivisation?

Orlando Figes – Collectivisation a “war on the peasantry.”

What is an orthodox revisionist pairing about Stalin’s impact

Richard Pipes – Stalinist terror a natural extension of Leninism.

Isaac Deutscher – Stalin’s success contingent, opportunism not inevitability.

What are two post revisionist takes for the Soviet Union?

Stephen Kotkin – Stalin’s “personal dictatorship” rooted in ideology + bureaucracy.

Moshe Lewin – Industrialisation modernised USSR at immense human cost.

What is a totalitarian / revisionist pairing for Stalin post-War era

Norman Naimark – Soviet domination of Eastern Europe = deliberate Stalinist empire.

Sheila Fitzpatrick – Postwar reconstruction achieved recovery, but ignored consumer needs.

What are two post-revisionist takes about WW2 and after

Richard Overy – Victory owed to Soviet industry + sacrifice as much as Stalin.

Evan Mawdsley – USSR after 1945: strengthened geopolitically, weakened economically.

What is a duo on Khrushchev’s reforms?

William Taubman – Khrushchev impulsive, contradictory, but genuinely reformist.

Geoffrey Hosking – Khrushchev’s reforms destabilised elites, prompting his fall.

What is a duo for Brezhenev’s reforms

Mark Galeotti – Brezhnev’s USSR corrupt but stable; a “gerontocracy of privilege.”

Archie Brown – Brezhnev Doctrine epitomised rigidity: socialism “irreversible.

Brezhnev and Kruschev’s foreign policy? (2)

Zubok & Pleshakov – Afghanistan = “the beginning of the end” of Soviet global ambitions.

Vojtech Mastny – Khrushchev’s foreign policy swung from brinkmanship to retreat, eroding credibility.

What are two structuralist analysis for Gorbachev?

Martin McCauley – Perestroika too little, too late; systemic weaknesses irreversible.

Stephen Kotkin – Economic crisis, not reform alone, doomed USSR: “economy collapsed, state followed.”

What are two intentionalist analysis for Gorbachev?

Archie Brown – Reforms genuine but destabilising: “without Gorbachev, no collapse.”

Richard Sakwa – Gorbachev trapped between conservatives + radicals, alienating both.

Structuralist analysis for Yeltsin?

Stephen Kotkin – USSR collapsed because economy imploded; politics followed.

intentionalist for Yeltsin? 

Robert Service – Collapse not inevitable, but Yeltsin’s choices accelerated it.

Reformist for Yeltsin?

Lilia Shevtsova – By 2000, Russia a “managed democracy” paving way for Putin.

Martin McCauley – Shock therapy created oligarchs + inequality, destroying faith in reform.