Reexamining The Soviet Experience: Essays In Honor Of Alexander Dallin

How did we study the Soviet Union before, and in what ways must we adjust our approaches and habits to take account of new opportunities and pitfalls? How do current developments in the USSRs successor states alter or deepen our understanding of the Soviet experience? These questions are explored here in thorough examinations of specific problems that arose during the authors recent research and writing as well as in the emergence and evolution of the field of Soviet studies and in the development of the Soviet social and political institutions themselves. These stimulating essays, written by some of the fields finest historians and political scientists, invite discussion and reflection on matters of theory and practice in view of the USSRs demise.How did we study the Soviet Union before, and in what ways must we adjust our approaches and habits to take account of new opportunities and pitfalls? How do current developments in the USSRs successor states alter or deepen our understanding of the Soviet experience? These questions are explored here in thorough examinations of specific problems that arose during the contributors recent research and writing as well as in the emergence and evolution of the field of Soviet studies and in the development of the Soviet social and political institutions themselves. Readers will be challenged to take stock of their own preconceptions about and approaches to studying this complex and rapidly changing region.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; (David Holloway and Norman Naimark.); E. H. Carr and the Politics of Soviet Studies in Britain; (Jonathan Haslam.); Revision and Retreat in the Historiography of 1917: Social History and Its Critics; (Ronald Suny.); The Rise and Fall of the Proletarian Sparta: Army, Society, and Reformism in Soviet History; (Mark von Hagen.); The Strange Death of Soviet Communism: The 1921 Version; (Bertrand M. Patenaude.); Psychological Dimensions of the U.S.-Soviet Conflict; (Alexander L. George.); How Gorbachev Sold His Concessionary Foreign Policy; (George W. Breslauer.); Russias Crisis and the Crisis of Russology; (M. Steven Fish.); Revolutionary Transformations in Comparative Perspective: Defining a Post-Communist Research Agenda; (Michael McFaul.); Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian Foreign Policy Processes: A Preliminary Assessment; (William Zimmerman.); Russian Archives, the Soviet Military Administration, and the Question of Stalinism; (N. Naimark.); Beria, Bohr, and the Question of Atomic Intelligence; (D. Holloway.).

About the Author :
David Holloway is professor of political science and codirector of the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University. Norman Naimark is professor of history and director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at Stanford University. David Holloway is professor of political science and codirector of the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University. Norman Naimark is professor of history and director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at Stanford University.