Soviet Karelia
Politics, Planning and Terror in Stalin's Russia, 1920–1939
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:14th Dec '07
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£43.99(9780415545389)
In 1920, Lenin authorised a plan to transform Karelia, a Russian territory adjacent to Finland, into a showcase Soviet autonomous region, to show what could be achieved by socialist nationalities policy and economic planning, and to encourage other countries to follow this example. However, Stalin’s accession to power brought a change of policy towards the periphery - the encouragement of local autonomy which had been a key part of Karelia’s model development was reversed, the state border was sealed to the outside world, and large parts of the republic's territory were given over to Gulag labour camps controlled by the NKVD, the precursor of the KGB. This book traces the evolution of Soviet Karelia in the early Soviet period, discussing amongst other things how political relations between Moscow and the regional leadership changed over time; the nature of its spatial, economic and demographic development; and the origins of the massive repressions launched in 1937 against the local population.
'Baron is majestic in detailing the tortuous paths to this Stalinist outcome...It deserves to be widely read' - Revolutionary Russia
'...a major contribution to the burgeoning scholarly literature on 'centre-periphery' relations...majestic in detailing the tortuous paths to this Stalinist outcome... a significant contribution to the history of interwar Soviet Russia. It deserves to be widely read.'- Kevin McDermott, Sheffield Hallam University; Revolutionary Russia, 21:1 (2008), 101-03
"...this is an impressive work of scholarship based on an astonishing array of archival and published sources, and is recommended reading for specialists in the field."
- K.C. O'Connor, Gonzaga University; Choice
"Nick Baron's excellent Soviet Karelia ...Provides .... an insightful portrait of the Stalinist regime that, while unflinching in its treatment of the system's dictatorial tendencies, sidesteps the timeworn "totalitarian-revisionist" dichotomy in favor of something more innovative .... The book is conceptually sophisticated without being opaque or jargon-ridden, and it benefits from effective cross-fertilization with the field of geography." - John McCannon, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Slavic Review, Spring 2008
"This superb analysis of the relationship between Moscow and the frontier in the 1920s and 1930s refracts politics and economics through geography, benefiting from the author’s prodigious archival research and knowledge of the admirable secondary literature in Russian and Finnish of the last twenty years [...] The book is a must for anyone concerned with the role of interests in shaping Soviet politics, the processes by which economic and political life came under ever tighter control by the Stalinist leadership, how interests continued nevertheless to find reflection in Soviet politics, and the ways in which local peculiarities similarly continued to affect the experience of space within the Soviet realm." - Michael Gelb, The Russian Review, Volume 68, Issue 1 (p 163-64)
"...Baron's book is an important contribution to the field. It analyzes in detail political relations and controversies over the economy between Moscow and the regional leadership. The book is based on recently declassified party, state, and security police documents; its empirical base is exceptionally solid...Baron's book is a major contribution to the scholarly literature on Soviet Karelia and on center-periphery relations in the Soviet empire. In short, it is an impressive masterpiece in its own field." - Sune Jungar, Abo Akademi University, American Historical Review, June 2009
ISBN: 9780415312165
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 810g
352 pages