The History Faculty

Fantastic interview of Stalin and Great Terror expert Professor J. Arch Getty, University of California, Los Angeles, conducted by Dr. James Harris, University of Leeds, editor of Stalin: A New History.This insightful conversation traces Professor Getty’s own interest in history, through his intellectual development, considering his major contributions to the study of Josef Stalin.

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“Stalin and The Great Terror’ by Professor J. Arch Getty, Professor of Modern Russian History, University of California, Los Angeles.

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Soviet and Western historiography has for long identified Lenin as the most influential figure in explaining how the October Revolution of 1917 took place. This follows a comment in Trotsky’s diary of 1935 that the October Revolution would have occurred without him but only on condition that Lenin was present. This talk outlines how recent scholarship has re-evaluated Lenin’s role: he failed to prevent the February Revolution, the April Theses joined an already existing debate rather than marked a completely new point of view, State and Revolution is no guide to how the Bolshevik government developed, and it is Trotsky not Lenin who organised the October Revolution. It is only be demolishing the Lenin myth that we move closer to understanding the Russian Revolution of 1917.

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Stalin is famous above all for a remarkable programme of economic development – the establishment of a ‘command-administrative system’ that set targets for the transformation of the USSR’s economy in the form of five-year plans. This economic revolution also carried profound consequences for Soviet society. This talk outlines how Stalin’s changes ripped social ties apart in both the urban and rural environments. The purpose of culture, it is argued, was to try and put society back together again, whether by building families, resorting to traditional schooling, by being more tolerant of religion, or by combining socialist realism with popular entertainment.

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Causes, Course, Consequences: In 1905 Russia became famous as a centre of Revolution. The eyes of Europe were focused upon modern forms of discontent, especially the mass strike, in an old political order. This talk covers the beginnings, development and end of this remarkable period in late imperial Russia history. Was this an opportunity for Tsarism to reform itself, or was 1905 simply a foretaste of what was to come in 1917?

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