Author: nschuff7

Comment on Countering the Counterculture by nschuff7

Did rock artists commonly criticize the government in their music while the rock was still underground or was it purely a show of resistance more than criticism? I would imagine that if they continued to voice discontent even after coming “above ground” so to speak, that they would continue to appeal to the counterculture.

Comment on Physical Sports & Politics by nschuff7

Out of curiosity, I looked up the list of nations that boycotted the Olympics along with the United States. One thing that stood out to me was that China didn’t participate. I wonder if in your research you found an answer as to why this happened. Did the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan further strain Sino-Soviet relations because the Soviets saw Central Asia and the Middle East as within their sphere of influence?

Comment on Fighting in Afghanistan Never Works by nschuff7

I really enjoyed how you paralleled the invasion with the US invasion of Vietnam. I find it interesting that both of these countries featured different, but equally harsh and challenging geography that made it hard and, in the end, impossible for the invaders to fully control the country.

Comment on The Sino-Soviet Split by nschuff7

Excellently written post on an interesting topic, Anderson. It is odd to me that the Chinese considered Khrushchev’s reversion to a more Marxist-Leninist conception of communism a case of historical revisionism when, if anybody, Stalin was the one guilty of such a thing. Part of me thinks that perhaps the main reason Mao was preferential towards Stalin’s methods was that he himself, was in many ways a tyrannical strongman, much like Stalin. Do you agree or do you think the difference of opinion is rooted in much more complex sociocultural or other factors?

Comment on Let the games begin! by nschuff7

It is interesting to learn about the Soviets’ first real foray into the international sports arena. They promoted sports and spectatorship as a way to increase national pride, something the Russian Federation continues to do today. But, I wonder if you learned anything about how the government organized sports from the bottom up? Clearly, they were successful in cultivating talented athletes as seen in their success in the 1980 Olympics.

Comment on A Long Way Home by nschuff7

If I remember right, someone posted a blog last week about how veterans were left out to dry in many cases after the war. I wonder if the plans in the Demobilization Order were not sufficient to take care of the enormous amount of returning soldiers or if they simply didn’t follow through on many of their promises. Or perhaps the veterans’ struggles were more a result of them returning to a Soviet economy that was still dysfunctional, with extraordinarily high unemployment and shortages of food and other essentials.

Comment on Soviet Successors by nschuff7

Great post, Taylor! I like how you highlighted how up in the air the succession was initially. It’s crazy to think about how differently (for better or for worse) things could have gone had Beria or Malenkov taken power instead of Khrushchev.

Comment on Vasily Aksyonov and the stilyagi movement by nschuff7

It was interesting to hear about Aksyonov’s personal life, especially concerning his parents. I had never thought about what might happen to children whose parents were executed or exiled. I would think there would be hundreds if not thousands of children with similar stories as Aksyonov who became disillusioned with the party and the state as a result. I also wonder if the party made any efforts to take care of children orphaned by purges so as to not create dissidents.

Comment on Religious Return by nschuff7

Interesting how Stalin re-instituted the Church only after realizing it could be of some utility to the country’s war effort. He really was a shrewd politician!

Comment on Literally the Only Time the US and the USSR Didn’t Hate Each Other by nschuff7

I know that soon after the war that both culturally with the Red Scare and foreign-policy wise the United States was obsessed with preventing communism from spreading, but I wonder what we thought of communism and the Soviets before and during the war. As you point out in your post it seems that at least during the war any reservations we might have had about them were trumped by the need to stop the Nazis from taking over Europe.