"Stalin's massive impact on Soviet history is often explained in terms of his inherent evil, personality defects and power lust. While not rejecting these notions, Kevin McDermott argues that Stalin's thoughts and actions are best contextualised in the inter-relationship between…
To most Americans, Russia remains as enigmatic today as it was during the Iron Curtain era. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country had an opportunity to confront its tortured past. In Inside the Stalin Archives, Jonathan Brent asks why this didn't happen. Why are the…
The Trotsky reappraisal
by Pearce, Brian, Dukes, Paul, Brotherstone, Terry, Brine, J. J., Drummond, Andrew
In 1988 the Director of State Archives in Moscow, Yuri Afanasyev, declared that in the vital process of re-examining Soviet history Trotsky is 'the biggest blank spot'. Leon Trotsky is certainly one of the most important, talented and enigmatic figures in twentieth-century world…
