Böcker av R. W. Davies

The author of the acclaimed Soviet History in the Gorbachev Revolution now examines the impact of the collapse of Communism and of the subsequent disillusionment with capitalism on Soviet history. Part two evaluates the unfinished revolution which has partly opened the archives, while part three offers reflections on the future of the Soviet past.

This book concludes The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia, an authoritative account of the Soviet Union's industrial transformation between 1929 and 1939. During that time, Soviet society was repeatedly mobilised against internal and external enemies, and the economy provided one of the main arenas for the struggle.

From 1931 to 1936, Stalin vacationed at his Black Sea residence for two to three months each year, relying on his subordinates to send him information. This volume publishes translations of 180 letters and coded telegrams exchanged during this time between Stalin and his deputy, Lazar Kaganovich.

By the summer of 1929 Soviet industrialisation was well under way, but agriculture was in a profound crisis: in 1928 and 1929 grain to feed the towns was wrested from the peasants by force, and the twenty-five million individual peasant households lost the stimulus to extend or even to maintain their production.

In 1929-30, the 'spinal year' of the first five-year plan, a vast investment programme began the transformation of the Soviet Union from a peasant country into a great industrial power. It sheds new light on a dramatic moment in Soviet history and in the formation of the Soviet system.

Since Gorbachev took office in 1985, every aspect of the Soviet past has been under scrutiny. Tens of millions of Soviet citizens are eagerly absorbing and debating the vast outpouring of novels, books and articles, and films and TV programmes, about their past.

The profound economic crisis of 1931-33 undermined the process of industrialisation and the stability of the regime.