Peace In Their Time

Episode 169 - FDR, Part I

The time has finally come to return to the United States and kickoff the history of the New Deal. But what would the New Deal be without the blue-blooded president with the gumption to defy convention? Today starts a quick two-parter covering the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt up to his election to the presidency in 1932. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Smith, Jean Edward FDR Random House 2008
2. Dallek, Robert Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life Viking 2017
3. Simon, James F. FDR and Chief Justice Hughes: The President, the Supreme Court, and the Epic Battle Over the New Deal Simon & Schuster 2012

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Episode 168 - Speak Softly and Carry a Big Industrial Sector

To close out this miniseries on the First Five-Year Plan I'm covering Soviet diplomacy during the early 30s. The Great Depression came at a good time for the USSR and covered up much of its weakness during the dislocations of the period, but there was still threats that needed addressing. 

 

1. Haslam, Jonathan Soviet Foreign Policy 1930-33: The Impact of the Depression Macmillan Press Ltd 1983
2. Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 Penguin Press 2017
3. Suny, Ronald Grigor The Cambridge History of Russia Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2006
4. Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press 2006

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Episode 167 - It's a Hard Knock Soviet Life

Life in the Soviet cities might not have wracked up the fatality count during the early 1930s that the countryside did, but it had its share of suffering all the same. Food shortages, goods shortages, black markets, all became painful facts of life that urban Soviets acclimated to. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Fitzpatrick, Sheila Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s Oxford University Press 2000
2. Lewin, Moshe Making the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia Pantheon Books 1985
3. Lewin, Moshe The Soviet Century Verso 2016
4. Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 Penguin Press 2017
5. Suny, Ronald Grigor The Cambridge History of Russia Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2006
6. Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press 2006

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Episode 166 - Stalin's Revolution

Turning more towards the culture of the Soviet Union during the early 30s, I take a look at the Cultural Revolution carried in the USSR from 1928-1931. It was a brief, but critical event that brought the most active and passionate in the Party into Stalin's camp. Which in turn gave him the foot soldiers necessary to bring the bureaucracy and intelligentsia into line.

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Fitzpatrick, Sheila Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s Oxford University Press 2000
2. Lewin, Moshe Making the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia Pantheon Books 1985
3. Lewin, Moshe The Soviet Century Verso 2016
4. Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 Penguin Press 2017
5. Suny, Ronald Grigor The Cambridge History of Russia Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2006
6. Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press 2006

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Episode 165 - Magnitogorsk Steel

Taking a break from the thrilling world of statistics, today I zero in on the crown jewel of Soviet industrial expansion, the construction of the industrial city of Magnitogorsk. From an empty steppe there was built an entire city with the purpose of cranking out the steel and iron that would help fuel Soviet industry. It was no small task, and the eventual success of the project stands as a testament to the perseverance of the Soviet workers who made it happen.

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Kotkin, Stephen Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization University of California Press 1997
2. Allen, Robert C. Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution Princeton University Press 2003

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Episode 164 - Brakes Not Included

If collectivization was the great failure of the 1st Five-Year-Plan, then rapid industrialization was its great success. But don't worry, there was still enough mayhem during those days to make the story of building factories an interesting one. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Allen, Robert C. Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution Princeton University Press 2003
2. Lewin, Moshe Making the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia Pantheon Books 1985
3. Lewin, Moshe The Soviet Century Verso 2016
4. Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 Penguin Press 2017
5. Suny, Ronald Grigor The Cambridge History of Russia Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2006
6. Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press 2006

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Episode 163 - Kolkhoz, Part III

To wrap up this look at collectivization in the USSR, I focus in on the famine years of 1932-33. Why it happened, how it affected people, how the state responded. Really kind of hard to describe the scale of it, although I give it a shot. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Fitzpatrick, Sheila Stalin's Peasants: Resistance & Survival in the Russian Village After Collectivization Oxford University Press 1994
2. Viola, Lynne Peasant Rebels Under Stalin: Collectivization and the Culture of Peasant Resistance Oxford University Press 1996
3. Lewin, Moshe Making the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia Pantheon Books 1985
4. Lewin, Moshe The Soviet Century Verso 2016
5. Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 Penguin Press 2017
6. Suny, Ronald Grigor The Cambridge History of Russia Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2006
7. Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press 2006

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Episode 162 - Kolkhoz, Part II

The first year of collectivization was a wild time, even before the massive famine of 1932-33. The world of the peasantry was turned upside down, and modes of life that had predominated for generations were changed forever. And a bunch of people got deported and a band of Communist faithful showed up to lend a hand. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Fitzpatrick, Sheila Stalin's Peasants: Resistance & Survival in the Russian Village After Collectivization Oxford University Press 1994
2. Lewin, Moshe Making the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia Pantheon Books 1985
3. Viola, Lynne The Best Sons of the Fatherland: Workers in the Vanguard of Soviet Collectivization Oxford University Press 1987
4. Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press 2006

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Episode 161 - Kolkhoz, Part I

The massive swing towards collectivized agriculture during the 1930s was one of the Soviet Union's most defining moments. Where the state had been previously weak in the countryside, the movement of the peasants onto the collective farms (the kolkhoz) changed that for the rest of the USSR's history. It also created dislocations and conflicts that will be at the heart of the next few weeks' worth of episodes. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Allen, Robert C. Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution Princeton University Press 2003
2. Fitzpatrick, Sheila Stalin's Peasants: Resistance & Survival in the Russian Village After Collectivization Oxford University Press 1994
3. Lewin, Moshe Making the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia Pantheon Books 1985
4. Lewin, Moshe The Soviet Century Verso 2016
5. Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 Penguin Press 2017
6. Suny, Ronald Grigor The Cambridge History of Russia Volume III: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 2006
7. Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press 2006

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

 

Episode 160 - Decisions, Decisions

The commencement of the 1st Five Year Plan in the USSR signaled quite a break from state policy as it was in the 20s. And by that, I mean kicking the NEP to the curb. This shift caused no small debate within the Soviet hierarchy, and Stalin would use the divisions as a wedge against his enemies. 

 

Bibliography for this episode: 

 

1. Allen, Robert C. Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution Princeton University Press 2003
2. Cohen, Stephen F. Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888-1938 Oxford University Press 1980
3. Lewin, Moshe Making the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia Pantheon Books 1985
4. Lewin, Moshe The Soviet Century Verso 2016
5. Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 Penguin Press 2017

 

Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com