History 560
Fall 2004
Prof. Koenker


Discussion questions for the Problem of Stalinism

1. What is the difference between the "Problem" of Stalinism and the "Problem" of Stalin? How well do the authors under discussion distinguish between the two? For which authors are the problems identical?

2. What period do we talk about when we speak of "Stalinism" ? (As in Kotkin's Stalinism as civilization). How would you periodize the entire period of Stalin's rule? Are we giving short shrift to the war and post-war period, and if so, why?

3. What is "essential" Stalinism? What were the social factors that contributed to such a system in the USSR, both to its rise and to its perpetuation?

4. What is the main force behind Stalinism? state, society, or Stalin the man? Would you characterize Lewin's interpretation as "economic determinist"? How does Davies's evidence of popular opinion help to explain the Stalinist phenomenon?

5. What is "Stalinism" NOT? I.e. is it different from "Bolshevism," "communism," "totalitarianism," "Soviet political culture," "Soviet nationalism"?

6. Discuss the "straight-line school of ideological determinism," leading from Lenin to Stalin. Who is part of this school, who is not? Where do Kotkin, Thurston, Getty, and Davies, the younger generation, fit?

7. Was Stalin a Marxist? Did he believe history was the history of class warfare or did he just say he did? What made him tick? How does Gorodetsky's argument about Stalin as real-politician revise the debate about Stalin?

8. What is the argument for the "necessity of Stalin"? What were alternative solutions to the one that made Stalin necessary, and why would they not work, according to the "necessitists"?

9. What is Deutscher's explanation for the purges?

10. Lewin writes (p. 274), "Incidentally, the peculiar factor of haste should be underlined and its influence explored." Discuss.

11. What should the future research agenda on Stalin be like? On Stalinism? Will it be linguistic? Cultural? Or should we busy ourselves with sorting through all those central committee decisions and protocols of discussions?

DPK