Soviet Union

Stalin and the Communist Party in the 1920s

Did the system spawn a monster - or a monster the system? Norman Pereira re-evaluates the road to totalitarianism in the Soviet Union after the Revolution, and Stalin's part in it.

Soviet Marxism's Obituary?

Robert Service looks at how Gorbachev's revolution has left an open agenda for Soviet historians.

The Soviet Empire: flags and anthems

John Crowfoot considers the role flags and anthems have played in defining Soviet and Russian identities, past and present.

Soviet Cinema - The Path to Stalin

In the light of the revised interest in the Soviet cinema Richard Taylor questions whether our traditional view of its output after 1917 as mere uplift (dreary or otherwise) is justified.

'You played your hand well. Well done.' High praise indeed from Stalin to an uneasy ally, as John Young describes in this account of the one and only meeting of 'Uncle Joe' and France's 'Man of Destiny'.

Rewriting Russia's Revolution

Evan Mawdsley discusses how scholarship both inside and outside the Soviet Union, spurred on by the political somersaults in the East, is revising our view of Lenin, the events of 1917 and after.

Vietnam 'Vets' and the Soviet Experience

Ben Shephard examines the comparisons between American Vietnam veterans and Soviets who served in Afghanistan

Filling in the Blank Spots in Soviet History

Yuri Afanasyev, one of the leading popular advocates of the revaluation of domestic and world history in the Soviet Union, takes his argument further, in an interview for History Today with Albert Sirotkin of Novosti.