Exit Stalin: The Soviet Union as a Civilization, 1953-1991

To those of us in the West, the Soviet Union is synonymous with Stalinism. The common view of the USSR is of a brutal regime that squelched dissent and oversaw a drab, terrified society. Yet as Cambridge historian Mark B. Smith demonstrates in Exit Stalin, after the death of the murderous Joseph Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union was at a crossroads. Would it break from the dictator’s reign or continue his campaign of violence and fear? The answer was both. The USSR remained harsh and authoritarian, yet it also earnestly sought to fulfill the Russian Revolution’s promise of an egalitarian, progressive future. Smith shows how vacation resorts, Pioneer camps, and new opportunities for private life coexisted with corruption scandals, KGB surveillance, and censorship. Re-creating the everyday rhythms of the country, he takes us into the Soviet Union’s culture, including TV shows and films that were little-known in the West. Ordinary citizens navigated the contradictions of existence under Khrushchev and his successors, building lives within a system they often accepted, believed in, or could not imagine abandoning. The result was the emergence of a distinctive and functioning civilization, a far cry from the vicious dictatorship of the West’s imagination. A brilliantly original narrative of ordinary life in the late Soviet Union, Exit Stalin also presents a new account of its end, showing how a series of unexpected decisions unraveled the entire project. Ultimately, Smith reveals that the shortages, coercion, and incompetence that underlaid the USSR—and that by the late 1980s would doom it—have to be understood alongside the acceptance it always had from most of its citizens. And this reality, in turn, is crucial for understanding Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union in the twenty-first century.

About the Author :
Mark B. Smith is an associate professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge. His scholarship focuses on Soviet and modern Russian history. He is the author of The Russia Anxiety: And How History Can Resolve It.

Review :
"An essential and accessible addition to the library of Soviet and post-Soviet studies." "Richly detailed…Mark Smith’s impressive history gives readers a powerful sense of what it was like to live under communism in the four decades between Stalin’s death and the country’s disintegration at the end of the cold war." "Deeply informed…A significant book for anybody who seeks to understand modern Russia." "No single volume can adequately explain the Soviet state’s collapse, but Exit Stalin is a valiant attempt." "Superb…careful and vivid.…this is a tragic story, and Smith tells it magnificently…This immensely important book charts a history of idealism that failed." "Exit Stalin asks a timely question: what is life in a non-democratic modern society actually like? Smith builds up a picture of an entire culture, a way of life, a vivid sense of an entire disappeared world and forces the question: would you accept the price" "Accessible and comprehensive…Smith’s authentic account of Soviet life is enlivened by biographical sketches and his deep understanding of Russian culture and society." "His [Smith's] writing is fluent, unorthodox, emotional, and spirited." "The most insightful and accurate cultural history of the Soviet Union that I have encountered, and a very good read, to boot." "To this enthralling journey across an archipelago of twentieth-century Russian people and situations, Mark B. Smith brings deep historical knowledge, analytical prowess, and formidable emotional intelligence. At the end of it you have not just learned something, you have been somewhere. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in contemporary Russia and its people." "Although it died less than half a century ago, the Soviet Union, even to many who experienced firsthand its complexities, contradictions, cruelties, and moments of creativity, can seem as if it belongs to ancient history. Mark B. Smith brings this lost world to life through a powerful combination of exhaustive scholarship, lucid prose, and subtle insight."