Everyday Stalinism:Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s

Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Government, Communism & Socialism, History, Modern, 20th Century
Cover of the book Everyday Stalinism:Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s by Sheila Fitzpatrick, Oxford University Press, USA
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sheila Fitzpatrick ISBN: 9780199839247
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Publication: March 4, 1999
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Sheila Fitzpatrick
ISBN: 9780199839247
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication: March 4, 1999
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by one of our foremost authorities on modern Russian history. Focusing on urban areas in the 1930s, Sheila Fitzpatrick shows that with the adoption of collectivization and the first Five-Year Plan, everyday life was utterly transformed. With the abolition of the market, shortages of food, clothing, and all kinds of consumer goods became endemic. As peasants fled the collectivized villages, major cities were soon in the grip of an acute housing crisis, with families jammed for decades in tiny single rooms in communal apartments, counting living space in square meters. It was a world of privation, overcrowding, endless queues, and broken families, in which the regime's promises of future socialist abundance rang hollowly. We read of a government bureaucracy that often turned everyday life into a nightmare, and of the ways that ordinary citizens tried to circumvent it, primarily by patronage and the ubiquitous system of personal connections known as blat. And we read of the police surveillance that was endemic to this society, and the waves of terror like the Great Purges of 1937, that periodically cast this world into turmoil. Fitzpatrick illuminates the ways that Soviet city-dwellers coped with this world, examining such diverse activities as shopping, traveling, telling jokes, finding an apartment, getting an education, landing a job, cultivating patrons and connections, marrying and raising a family, writing complaints and denunciations, voting, and trying to steer clear of the secret police. Based on extensive research in Soviet archives only recently opened to historians, this superb book illuminates the ways ordinary people tried to live normal lives under extraordinary circumstances.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by one of our foremost authorities on modern Russian history. Focusing on urban areas in the 1930s, Sheila Fitzpatrick shows that with the adoption of collectivization and the first Five-Year Plan, everyday life was utterly transformed. With the abolition of the market, shortages of food, clothing, and all kinds of consumer goods became endemic. As peasants fled the collectivized villages, major cities were soon in the grip of an acute housing crisis, with families jammed for decades in tiny single rooms in communal apartments, counting living space in square meters. It was a world of privation, overcrowding, endless queues, and broken families, in which the regime's promises of future socialist abundance rang hollowly. We read of a government bureaucracy that often turned everyday life into a nightmare, and of the ways that ordinary citizens tried to circumvent it, primarily by patronage and the ubiquitous system of personal connections known as blat. And we read of the police surveillance that was endemic to this society, and the waves of terror like the Great Purges of 1937, that periodically cast this world into turmoil. Fitzpatrick illuminates the ways that Soviet city-dwellers coped with this world, examining such diverse activities as shopping, traveling, telling jokes, finding an apartment, getting an education, landing a job, cultivating patrons and connections, marrying and raising a family, writing complaints and denunciations, voting, and trying to steer clear of the secret police. Based on extensive research in Soviet archives only recently opened to historians, this superb book illuminates the ways ordinary people tried to live normal lives under extraordinary circumstances.

More books from Oxford University Press, USA

Cover of the book The Works of Alain Locke by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book The Invisible Constitution by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book The New American Militarism : How Americans Are Seduced By War by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book The Oxford Companion To The History Of Modern Science by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Democrat and Diplomat: The Life of William E. Dodd by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Marc Blitzstein:His Life, His Work, His World by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book American Psychosis: How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Fire in the City:Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Paul Revere's Ride by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Saint Augustine of Hippo: An Intellectual Biography by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Cuba : What Everyone Needs To Know by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Abraham Lincoln by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Cover of the book Trading And Exchanges : Market Microstructure For Practitioners by Sheila Fitzpatrick
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy