The leader cult in communist dictatorships : Stalin and the Eastern Bloc / edited by Balázs Apor ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Apor, Balázs.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stalin, Joseph, 1878-1953.

Stalin, Joseph.

Dictatorship--Europe, Eastern--History--20th century.

Dictatorship.

Totalitarianism--History--20th century.

Totalitarianism.

History.

Soviet Union--Politics and government--1917-1936.

Soviet Union.

Politics and government.

Soviet Union--Politics and government--1936-1953.

Europe, Eastern--Politics and government--20th century.

Europe, Eastern.

Eastern Europe.

Physical Description:

ix, 298 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Summary:

This is the first book to examine the nature of the highly distinctive leader cults of 'High Stalinism' in the USSR and Eastern Europe as a political, sociological and cultural phenomenon. It explores the way the leader cult was established and its operation and function within these states. It examines the way in which the cults were produced and disseminated, their place in art and literature, the reception of the cult and its adaptation for different audiences, including children and different national groups. It looks at the way the Stalin cult was exported to the communist states of Eastern Europe, and examines the highly distinctive cults which developed around figures such as Rakosi in Hungary, Bierut in Poland, Tito in Yugoslavia and Hoxha in Albania. The book examines the impact of de-Stalinisation on these cults, the conflicting responses to this process, and the survival of aspects of the cult.

Contents:

1 Leader Cults: Varieties, Preconditions and Functions / E. A. Rees 3

Part I The Making of the Cult: Methods and Individuals

2 Stalin and the Making of the Leader Cult in the 1930s / Sarah Davies 29

3 'A Very Modest Man': Bela Illes, or How to Make a Career Through the Leader Cult / Arpad von Klimo 47

4 Leader in the Making: The Role of Biographies in Constructing the Cult of Matyas Rakosi / Balazs Apor 63

Part II The Functions of the Leader Cult

5 The Stalin Cult, Bolshevik Rule and Kremlin Interaction in the 1930s / Benno Ennker 83

6 Grandpa Lenin and Uncle Stalin: Soviet Leader Cults for Little Children / Catriona Kelly 102

7 Georgian Koba or Soviet 'Father of Peoples'? The Stalin Cult and Ethnicity / Jan Plamper 123

8 Working Towards the Centre: Leader Cults and Spatial Politics in Pre-war Stalinism / Malte Rolf 141

Part III Beyond Moscow: The Cult's Peripheries

9 Exporting the Leader: The Stalin Cult in Poland and East Germany (1944/45-56) / Jan C. Behrends 161

10 President of Poland or 'Stalin's Most Faithful Pupil'? The Cult of Boleslaw Bierut in Stalinist Poland / Izabella Main 179

11 Georgi Dimitrov: Three Manifestations of His Cult / Markus Wien 194

12 Leader Cults in the Western Balkans (1945-90): Josip Broz Tito and Enver Hoxha / Stanislav Sretenovic, Artan Puto 208

Part IV The Dilemmas of De-Stalinisation: Change and Continuity in Leader Cult Patterns in the Post-Stalin Period

13 'I've Held, and I Still Hold, Stalin the Highest Esteem': Discourses and Strategies of Resistance to De-Stalinisation in the USSR, 1953-62 / Polly Jones 227

14 Surviving 1956: Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and the 'Cult of Personality' in Romania / Alice Mocanescu 246

15 The Second Step of a Ladder: The Cult of the First Secretaries in Poland / Marcin Zaremba 261.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-289) and indexes.

ISBN:

1403934436

OCLC:

54913635