Category: Motherblog Central

7th Blog Post Guidelines – The Great Patriotic War

This week we turn our attention to The Great Patriotic War (aka World War II) and the immediate post-war period.  Please use one of the modules from 1943 or 1947 in Seventeen Moments in Soviet History on-line archive. You may also use the module on Soviet Territorial Annexations from 1939.  You should consult  Ch. 12 in the Freeze text. If you are writing about something specific to the war, it would be worth considering William C. Fuller’s discussion on pp. 383-392 of Freeze about the reasons for Soviet victory.

5th Blog Post Guidelines – The Great Turn

Join Us On the Collective Farm (1930)

The end of the twenties marked a dramatic shift in the tenor and substance of political, social and economic life in the Soviet Union. Indeed the “Great Turn” brought changes so profound and wide-reaching that this period is often seen as a “second” revolution. For this week’s post, please choose a topic in the “1929”…

From Waging War to Winning the Peace

Victorious in the Civil War, the Bolsheviks faced a series of challenges as they moved to secure the peace, consolidate their gains on the home front, and advance their agenda for transforming society. This week’s posts engaged many of these issues, from the ideologically compromised but politically necessary New Economic Policy, to the campaign against the church, and grand plans to bring electrification to the entire country. The cultural front was similarly fraught, which made the twenties a vibrant decade for literature and for the Cinema, which Lenin considered the “most important” of the arts. Our student’s choice award goes to the wonderfully titled, “All of Russia Do the Electric Slide.”

Enjoy this weekly edition while we get through mid-terms. We’ll back in a couple of weeks!

From War to Revolution

One of Lenin’s favorite sayings was “better fewer, but better,” and that certainly applies to this week’s posts.
From Bagmen to “hangry” women standing on line for bread — this weekly edition hits many of the key developments in the turbulent months around the Revolution of February, 1917. We will be filling out this portrait more completely next week, but offer this limited edition of fine posts on for your consideration now. Вперед!

Revolutionary 1905

Members of the Jewish Bund with Bodies of Their Comrades Killed during the 1905 Revolution. Public Domain, Link

Welcome to the second weekly digest of our Soviet History course. Here you will find articles on a range of topics, with many focusing on the tragedies of “Bloody Sunday” and the contradictory implications of the October Manifesto. These topics are taken up by authors with posts featured in the slider, where you will also find a discussion of Lenin’s conception of the vanguard party and the perils of underground political activity in the late Imperial period. Among the gems our researchers uncovered this week, this virtual museum of an underground printing press is certainly a stand out. Check it out if you want to get a feel for the physical spaces where revolutionaries worked.