Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition: Essays in Memory of Victor Zaslavsky

This book is a tribute to the memory of Victor Zaslavsky (1937–2009), sociologist, émigré from the Soviet Union, Canadian citizen, public intellectual, and keen observer of Eastern Europe. In seventeen essays leading European, American and Russian scholars discuss the theory and the history of totalitarian society with a comparative approach. They revisit and reassess what Zaslavsky considered the most important project in the latter part of his life: the analysis of Eastern European - especially Soviet societies and their difficult “transition” after the fall of communism in 1989–91. The variety of the contributions reflects the diversity of specialists in the volume, but also reveals Zaslavsky's gift: he surrounded himself with talented people from many different fields and disciplines. In line with Zaslavsky's work and scholarly method, the book promotes new theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of totalitarianism for understanding Soviet and East European societies, and the study of fascist and communist regimes in general.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction T. Piffer and V. Zubok PART I: Theory and Debate 2. Movement, Formation, and Maintenance in the Soviet Union Victor Zaslavsky’s Challenge to the Arendtian Theory of Totalitarianism Peter Baehr 3. European Liberalism in the Age of Totalitarianism Giovanni Orsina 4. Totalitarismum ante litteram Vittorio Strada 5. Totalitarian Dictators and Ideological Hubris Vladimir Tismaneanu 6. From Facts to Words From the Party Militia to Fascist Totalitarianism Emilio Gentile PART II: History and Society 7. Stalin as a Statesman A Historian’s Notes Vladimir Pechatnov 8. Stalin’s Dictatorship Priorities, Policies, and Results Oleg Khlevniuk 9. The “National Question” in the Soviet Union Andrea Graziosi 10. The Katyn Case History and Articulation of Official Discourse in Russia Inessa Yazhborovskaia 11. Totalitarianism and Science The Nazi and the Soviet Experience David Holloway 12. From Fascism to Communism The History of a Conversion Maria Teresa Giusti PART III: Beyond Totalitarianism 13. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vasily Grossman Slavophile and Westernizer Against the Totalitarian Soviet State Veljco Vujacic, 14. “Without a free word, there are no free men” Lydia Chukovskaya’s Writings on Terror and Censorship Antonella d’Amelia 15. The Transition from Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism in Russia Lev Gudkov 16. Totalitarianism, Nationalism, and Challenges for Democratic Transition Gail Lapidus 17. Public Memory and the Difficulty of Overcoming the Communist Legacy Poland and Russia in Comparative Perspective Mark Kramer List of Contributors Index

About the Author :
Vladislav Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Among his publications are Anti-Americanism in Russia: From Stalin to Putin (with Eric Shiraev, Palgrave Press, 2000); Zhivago’s Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia (Harvard University Press, 2009); The Idea of Russia. The Life and the Works of Dmitry Likhachev (I. B. Tauris, 2016). Tommaso Piffer is the Bodossakis Research Fellow of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge and an affiliate of the Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.