Life and Death under Stalin

Stalin's rule (1924-1953) marked the most transformational, dramatic, and violent period in Soviet History. The dramatic shifts in Soviet society led both to the long duration of the regime and to its ultimate collapse. The legacies of Stalin and "Stalinism" are still felt today in Russia and the other states of the former Soviet Union. This course is not so much about Stalin the man, as about the society that he helped create and the people who lived and died because of it. Readings focus on ideology, violence, terror, empire, domesticity, resistance, true belief, and the Second World War.