The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence, 1931-36 (Annals of Communism Series) [Hardcover]

R. W. Davies (Editor), Oleg V. Khlevniuk PhD - History (Editor), E. A. Rees (Editor), Liudmila P. Kosheleva (Editor), Larisa A. Rogovaya (Editor), Steven Shabad (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Annals of Communism Series | Publication Date: June 10, 2003

From 1931 to 1936, Stalin vacationed at his Black Sea residence for two to three months each year. While away from Moscow, he relied on correspondence with his subordinates to receive information, watch over the work of the Politburo and the government, give orders, and express his opinions. This volume publishes translations of 180 handwritten letters and coded telegrams exchanged during this period between Stalin and his most highly trusted deputy, Lazar Kaganovich. The collection of letters - all previously classified top secret - provides an account of the mainsprings of Soviet policy while Stalin was consolidating his position as personal dictator. The correspondence records his positions on major internal and foreign affairs decisions and reveals his opinions about fellow members of the Politburo and other senior figures. Written during the years of agricultural collectivization, forced industrialization, famine, repression, and Soviet rearmament in the face of threats from Germany and Japan, these letters should be a useful historical resource for all students of the Stalin regime and Soviet history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"These documents are of singular importance to an understanding of Soviet politics, foreign policy, and economic development of the 1930s. There simply is no more illuminating source on Stalin as politician in the first half of the 1930s than these letters." Sheila Fitzpatrick, University of Chicago

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 478 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (June 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300093675
• ISBN-13: 978-0300093674
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,672,513 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful book on how the Soviet working class built socialism, September 30, 2004

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence, 1931-36 (Annals of Communism Series) (Hardcover)

This is an interesting compilation of letters between Joseph Stalin and Lazar Kaganovich. In the 1930s, Kaganovich was Stalin's deputy on party matters, a secretary of the Central Committee, secretary of the Moscow Regional Party Committee, and Stalin's deputy in the Defence Commission. Despite the intentions of the anti-Soviet editors, we can learn much about how the Soviet working class governed the Soviet Union.

During these years, the Soviet working class collectivised agriculture, industrialised the country and hugely expanded the health and education services. The first Five-Year Plan (1928-33) successfully laid the foundations of a heavy industry able to re-equip the national economy. This reconstruction doubled industrial output between 1929 and 1933, while the capitalist world was mired in slump. The Soviet working class built a workers' state in the teeth of hostile encirclement by the capitalist states, and of sharpening class struggle in the country and in the party.

The Soviet Union also, alone, aided the Spanish Republic's heroic struggle against the Hitler-Mussolini invasion. Stalin urged that the Soviet Union sell oil, grain and food to the Republic `on the most favourable terms for them'.

The book shows how the capitalist class used splits in the Bolshevik party, supporting oppositions `left' or `right' to try to defeat socialism and restore capitalism. The party continually struggled to defeat the kulaks (the rural capitalist class) and the Opposition.

The Opposition assisted the Soviet Union's enemies abroad and adopted a strategy of terrorism: Trotsky wrote, "Inside the Party, Stalin has put himself above all criticism and the State. It is impossible to displace him except by assassination. Every oppositionist becomes ipso facto a terrorist."

In 1936, the Soviet Union responded by trying members of the Anti-Soviet United Trotskyite-Zinovievite Centre for their terrorist activities, including the assassination of Sergei Kirov, a member of the Politburo. This focused and open response is surely a better way to fight terrorism than the Bush/Blair method of holding terrorist suspects forever without charge or trial.