This book explores how the communist cult of the individual was not
just a Soviet phenomenon but an international one. When Stalin died in
1953, the communists of all countries united in mourning the figure
that was the incarnation of their cause. Though its international
character was one of the distinguishing features of the communist cult
of personality, this is the first extended study to approach the
phenomenon over the longer period of its development in a truly
transnational and comparative perspective. Crucially it is concerned
with the internationalisation of the Soviet cults of Lenin and Stalin.
But it also ranges across different periods and national cases to
consider a wider cast of bureaucrats, tribunes, heroes and martyrs who
symbolised both resistance to oppression and the tyranny of the
party-state. Through studying the disparate ways in which the cults
were manifested, Kevin Morgan not only takes in many of the leading
personalities of the communist movement, but also some of the cultural
luminaries like Picasso and Barbusse who sought to represent them. The
cult of the individual was one of the most fascinating, troubling and
revealing features of Stalinist communism, and as reconstructed here
it offers new insight into one of the defining political movements of
the twentieth century.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781137556677
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
Palgrave Macmillan
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter