This book examines the construction, dissemination, and reception of
the Stalin cult in East Germany from the end of World War II to the
building of the Berlin Wall. By exporting Stalin’s cult to the
Eastern bloc, Moscow aspired to symbolically unite the communist
states in an imagined cult community pivoting around the Soviet
leader. Based on Russian and German archives, this work analyzes the
emergence of the Stalin cult’s transnational dimension. On one hand,
it looks at how Soviet representations of power were transferred and
adapted in the former “enemy’s” country. On the other hand, it
reconstructs “spaces of agency” where different agents and
generations interpreted, manipulated, and used the Stalin cult to
negotiate social identities and everyday life. This study reveals both
the dynamics of Stalinism as a political system after the Cold War
began and the foundations of modern politics through mass
mobilization, emotional bonding, and social engineering in
Soviet-style societies. As an integral part of the global history of
communism, this book opens up a comparative, entangled perspective on
the ways in which veneration of Stalin and other nationalistic cults
were established in socialist states across Europe and beyond.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781666911909
Publisert
2022
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Bloomsbury USA
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter