Bringing Stalin Back In: Memory Politics and the Creation of a Useable Past in Putins Russia

(Hardback)

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While Joseph Stalin is commonly reviled in the West as a murderous tyrant who committed egregious human rights abuses against his own people, in Russia he is often positively viewed as the symbol of Soviet-era stability and state power. How can there be such a disparity in perspectives Utilizing an ethnographic approach, extensive interview data, and critical discourse analysis, this book examines the ways that the political elite in Russia are able to control and manipulate historical discourse about the Stalin period in order to advance their own political objectives. Appropriating the Stalinist discourse, they minimize or ignore outright crimes of the Soviet period, and instead focus on positive aspects of Stalins rule, especially his role in leading the Soviet Union to victory in the Second World War. Advancing the concepts of preventive and complex co-optation, this book analyzes how elites in Russia inhibit the emergence of groups that espouse alternative narratives, while promoting message-friendly groups that are in line with the Kremlins agenda. Bringing the resources of the state to bear, the Russian elite are able to co-opt multiple avenues of discourse formulation and dissemination. Elite-sponsored discourse positions Stalin as the symbol of a strong, centralized state that was capable of great achievements, despite great cost, enabling favorably portrayals of Stalin as part of a tradition of harsh but effective rulers in Russian history, such as Peter the Great. This strong state discourse is used to legitimize the return of authoritarianism in Russia today.

Reviews

Under the Soviet regime, Russians liked to joke that theirs was the only country with an unpredictable past. In this insightful, well-researched work, Todd Nelson shows how Vladimir Putin has modernized Soviet techniques to tighten his grip on the politics of memory in todays Russia. -- John Beyrle, United States Ambassador to Russia (2008-2012)
In Russia, Stalin is the focal point of the memory; and memory is the central issue of contemporary politics. Moreover, conversations about Stalin in Russia are at the same time discussions about Russias present and future. In this book Todd H. Nelson provides the reader with a deep analysis of that main controversy, demonstrates the difficult crossings of the memories of war victory and memories of terror, and suggests a framework for the future study of Russias dealing with its past. -- Ivan Kurilla, European University at St. Petersburg
Joseph Stalins long reign as the leader of the Soviet Union was marked by violent terror and repression that caused the deaths of millions, and though he has been dead for nearly 70 years, his malevolent shadow still looms large over Russia. Far too often, Russian President Vladimir Putin has associated Stalin with images of Russian glory, while glossing over the Stalinist terror. In this important book, Todd Nelson makes excellent use of discourse analysis to examine how various types of official texts in Russia have shaped official and public memories of Stalin through a process of complex co-optation.Bringing Stalin Back In is crucial for those who want to understand why millions of Russians nowadays, including many whose relatives were murdered by Stalins security apparatus, tell public opinion pollsters that Stalin was one of the greatest leaders in Russia's history. -- Mark Kramer, Harvard University

Author Bio

Todd H. Nelson is assistant professor at Cleveland State University.