Overview

Drawing on newly available materials from the Soviet archives, Polly Jones offers an innovative, comprehensive account of de-Stalinization in the Soviet Union during the Khrushchev and early Brezhnev eras. Jones traces the authorities’ initiation and management of the de-Stalinization process and explores a wide range of popular reactions to the new narratives of Stalinism in party statements and in Soviet literature and historiography. Engaging with the dynamic field of memory studies, this book represents the first sustained comparison of this process with other countries’ attempts to rethink their own difficult pasts, and with later Soviet and post-Soviet approaches to Stalinism.

Full Product Details

9780300185126

Table of Contents

Reviews

At every step, Jones presents a nuanced, complex and detailed examination of the attempt to come to terms with Stalin's memory and legacy over two decades. . .Jones has mined a wealth of archival sources to construct her careful, judicious analysis. . .This lucid, elegantly written work is an important contribution to the question of the way nations deal with their difficult and traumatic histories. --Lara Cook, Times Higher Education Supplement --Lara Cook THES (01/16/2014)

"“Jones’ book is an eloquent reminder of the barbarity inflicted during Stalin’s reign and the long shadow which it continues to cast upon societal memory”— Mark Vincent, European History Quarterly ""What a book! Moving deftly between history and literary scholarship, Polly Jones shows how Stalin’s ghost continued to haunt Soviet society after 1953. Prodigiously researched and beautifully written, Myth, Memory, Trauma is bound to become the standard work on the Stalin cult’s long afterlife."" —Jan Plamper, author of The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power (YUP, 2012) ""It’s often assumed that Khrushchev’s Secret Speech initiated a straightforward, natural process of de-Stalinization in the USSR. Polly Jones challenges this commonplace in an interdisciplinary tour de force that rewrites much of the political, cultural and literary history of the period."" - David Brandenberger, author of Propaganda State in Crisis (YUP 2011) ""Jones’ excellent, nuanced, and empirically-rich book requires us to re-think, in important and surprising ways, our understandings of de-Stalinization, of the nature of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, of the relationship between “official” and “popular” memory, and of Soviet exceptionalism."" - Anne Gorsuch, author of All This Is Your World: Soviet Tourism at Home and Abroad (Oxford 2012) ""What a book! Moving deftly between history and literary scholarship, Polly Jones shows how Stalin’s ghost continued to haunt Soviet society after 1953. Prodigiously researched and beautifully written, Myth, Memory, Trauma is bound to become the standard work on the Stalin cult’s long afterlife."" —Jan Plamper, author of The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power (YUP, 2012) -- Jan Plamper ""It’s often assumed that Khrushchev’s Secret Speech initiated a straightforward, natural process of de-Stalinization in the USSR. Polly Jones challenges this commonplace in an interdisciplinary tour de force that rewrites much of the political, cultural and literary history of the period."" - David Brandenberger, author of Propaganda State in Crisis (YUP 2011) -- David Brandenberger ""Jones’ excellent, nuanced, and empirically-rich book requires us to re-think, in important and surprising ways, our understandings of de-Stalinization, of the nature of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, of the relationship between “official” and “popular” memory, and of Soviet exceptionalism."" - Anne Gorsuch, author of All This Is Your World: Soviet Tourism at Home and Abroad (Oxford 2012) -- Anne Gorsuch “At every step, Jones presents a nuanced, complex and detailed examination of the attempt to come to terms with Stalin’s memory and legacy over two decades. . .Jones has mined a wealth of archival sources to construct her careful, judicious analysis. . .This lucid, elegantly written work is an important contribution to the question of the way nations deal with their difficult and traumatic histories.”—Lara Cook, Times Higher Education Supplement -- Lara Cook * THES * ‘Polly Jones’s authoritative and densely detailed new study focuses on the period from 1956 until about 1965, when an intense, fluctuating discussion of Stalinism took place.’—Wendy Slater, TLS -- Wendy Slater * TLS * 'Polly Jones’ brilliantly researched study of de-Stalinisation in the Krushchev and Brezhnev eras. . . provides one of the most sophisticated and nuanced analyses of the complexities of de-Stalinisation currently available.’—History Today * History Today * “[Myth, Memory, Trauma] offers an admirably comprehensive and nuanced picture of the zigzags of Soviet leaders and writers as they sought to construct a usable past in the decade and a half after 1956.”—Phillip Boobbyer, University of Kent -- Phillip Boobbyer * Chicago Journals *"

Jones' excellent, nuanced, and empirically-rich book requires us to re-think, in important and surprising ways, our understandings of de-Stalinization, of the nature of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, of the relationship between official and popular memory, and of Soviet exceptionalism. - Anne Gorsuch, author of All This Is Your World: Soviet Tourism at Home and Abroad (Oxford 2012)

[Myth, Memory, Trauma] offers an admirably comprehensive and nuanced picture of the zigzags of Soviet leaders and writers as they sought to construct a usable past in the decade and a half after 1956. -Phillip Boobbyer, University of Kent -- Phillip Boobbyer * Chicago Journals * 'Polly Jones' brilliantly researched study of de-Stalinisation in the Krushchev and Brezhnev eras. . . provides one of the most sophisticated and nuanced analyses of the complexities of de-Stalinisation currently available.'-History Today * History Today * 'Polly Jones's authoritative and densely detailed new study focuses on the period from 1956 until about 1965, when an intense, fluctuating discussion of Stalinism took place.'-Wendy Slater, TLS -- Wendy Slater * TLS * At every step, Jones presents a nuanced, complex and detailed examination of the attempt to come to terms with Stalin's memory and legacy over two decades. . .Jones has mined a wealth of archival sources to construct her careful, judicious analysis. . .This lucid, elegantly written work is an important contribution to the question of the way nations deal with their difficult and traumatic histories. -Lara Cook, Times Higher Education Supplement -- Lara Cook * THES * Jones' excellent, nuanced, and empirically-rich book requires us to re-think, in important and surprising ways, our understandings of de-Stalinization, of the nature of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, of the relationship between official and popular memory, and of Soviet exceptionalism. - Anne Gorsuch, author of All This Is Your World: Soviet Tourism at Home and Abroad (Oxford 2012) -- Anne Gorsuch It's often assumed that Khrushchev's Secret Speech initiated a straightforward, natural process of de-Stalinization in the USSR. Polly Jones challenges this commonplace in an interdisciplinary tour de force that rewrites much of the political, cultural and literary history of the period. - David Brandenberger, author of Propaganda State in Crisis (YUP 2011) -- David Brandenberger What a book! Moving deftly between history and literary scholarship, Polly Jones shows how Stalin's ghost continued to haunt Soviet society after 1953. Prodigiously researched and beautifully written, Myth, Memory, Trauma is bound to become the standard work on the Stalin cult's long afterlife. -Jan Plamper, author of The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power (YUP, 2012) -- Jan Plamper Jones' book is an eloquent reminder of the barbarity inflicted during Stalin's reign and the long shadow which it continues to cast upon societal memory - Mark Vincent, European History Quarterly What a book! Moving deftly between history and literary scholarship, Polly Jones shows how Stalin's ghost continued to haunt Soviet society after 1953. Prodigiously researched and beautifully written, Myth, Memory, Trauma is bound to become the standard work on the Stalin cult's long afterlife. -Jan Plamper, author of The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power (YUP, 2012) It's often assumed that Khrushchev's Secret Speech initiated a straightforward, natural process of de-Stalinization in the USSR. Polly Jones challenges this commonplace in an interdisciplinary tour de force that rewrites much of the political, cultural and literary history of the period. - David Brandenberger, author of Propaganda State in Crisis (YUP 2011) Jones' excellent, nuanced, and empirically-rich book requires us to re-think, in important and surprising ways, our understandings of de-Stalinization, of the nature of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, of the relationship between official and popular memory, and of Soviet exceptionalism. - Anne Gorsuch, author of All This Is Your World: Soviet Tourism at Home and Abroad (Oxford 2012)

Author Information

Polly Jones is the Schrecker-Barbour Fellow and Associate Professor of Russian at University College, University of Oxford. She lives in Oxford, UK.

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