-
Explaining Sheila Fitzpatrick’s Ideas in Everyday Stalinism: A Brief Overview Sheila Fitzpatrick’s book “Everyday Stalinism” is a seminal work that explores the lived experience of ordinary people in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era. Fitzpatrick’s work is based on extensive archival research and oral histories, and provides a nuanced and complex view of life under Stalinism. In her book, Fitzpatrick challenges the prevailing view that Stalinist society was characterized by a rigid and monolithic state apparatus that controlled every aspect of people’s lives. Instead, she argues that Soviet society was much more heterogeneous and dynamic than commonly assumed, with…
-
Robert Conquest’s Perspective on the Soviet Famines: A Description Robert Conquest was a British historian and writer who was known for his extensive research on the Soviet Union. One of his most significant contributions was his analysis of the Soviet famines that occurred in the early 1930s. Conquest’s view of the Soviet famines was controversial and challenged the prevailing narrative of the time, which downplayed the severity of the famines and attributed them to natural causes. Conquest’s research on the Soviet famines led him to conclude that they were not the result of natural disasters or poor harvests, as the…
-
Sheila Fitzpatrick, a renowned historian, has been a prominent figure in the study of the Soviet Union for several decades. One of her most significant contributions to the field is her view on the Soviet famines that ravaged the country in the early 1930s. Fitzpatrick’s perspective on the famines is unique and has sparked debates among scholars and historians. Fitzpatrick argues that the Soviet famines were not a result of a deliberate policy of genocide or mass murder, as some have suggested. Instead, she believes that the famines were caused by a combination of factors, including poor agricultural practices, natural…
-
Timothy Snyder, a historian and professor at Yale University, has extensively researched and written about the Soviet famines of the 1930s. Snyder’s view of the Soviet famines is that they were not simply a result of natural disasters or poor planning, but rather a deliberate policy of the Soviet government to eliminate perceived threats to their power. According to Snyder, the Soviet government intentionally created the famines by seizing grain from farmers and selling it abroad to finance their industrialization efforts. This policy, known as collectivization, led to a massive decrease in food production and a subsequent famine that killed…
-
From late 1929, Stalin’s government forced most peasant households into kolkhozy—collective farms that were formally cooperative but operated under powerful state direction—and expanded sovkhozy, farms directly owned and operated by the state. “Dekulakisation” brought confiscation, deportation and imprisonment against broadly defined class enemies. The policy sought grain for cities, export and industrialisation while destroying independent power in the countryside. The campaign caused immense disruption. Peasant resistance, livestock slaughter, confiscation, forced procurement and administrative disorder damaged production. Mass famine began in Kazakhstan by 1930–31 and continued into 1933; Ukraine, the North Caucasus, the Lower Volga and other regions suffered most severely…
-
This is the second blog post for students studying Nazi Germany that I’ve created. You can read part one, 1918-23 here. The point I made in the previous blog was that by breaking down the period of study into manageable time chunks, it becomes easier to learn. The period 1924-29 was five years where the Weimar regime seemed to stabilise. However, the important question is why this stability was short-lived and whether or not it was merely superficial. 1924-29: The Golden Years of the Weimar Republic Following the chaos and crises of the post-war years, Germany entered a period of…
-
One of the challenges of studying Germany from the end of the First World War to the end of the Second World War is remembering and then navigating the intense and dramatic changes that took place throughout the era. As with previous blog posts helping students to master topic areas, the trick with Germany is to break down the events of the era into understandable phases that can then be connected together. In this blog post we’ll look at the first of five distinct phases and try to avoid a couple of pitfalls along the way. One of the problems…
-
Hi, here’s part two of this little video course on the basics of thinking like an historian. All history writing is an argument of sorts, and your essays or answers are no different. Whether you’re sitting your exams or writing a PhD, the point is to present a perspective/argument. We do this best when we understand what has already been said on the subject. Understanding the arguments of others and finding our own place in the discussion is essential.
-
History is the study of the bits and pieces the past has left us and the competing arguments about what they mean. The first category is finite, the second virtually limitless. There is a tendency to find the one true ‘right’ interpretation of past events but this is based on a flawed premise. There are some facts that are indisputable, D-Day definitely happened on June 6th 1944, for example. However, historians tend to be interested in other questions when it becomes clear that something is a settled fact. Instead of searching for ‘right’ answers as a student, it’s probably more…
-
Britain is abandoning its commitments to human rights and the protection of refugees, established after the Second World War. Brexit has given the extreme right of the Conservative Party an opportunity to persecute the world’s most desperate people.
Explaining History Podcast
Category: Articles
Articles
/ Articles