Email Interview with James Harris
Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Leeds
Author of The Anatomy of Terror: Political Violence under Stalin
April 17, 2015
What was the life of a normal Soviet citizen during the 1930s like? Were many people aware of the terror and purges that were occurring in profusion around them at this time? Around this time period, were many people able to see past Joseph Stalin’s propaganda to realize the true brutality of their leader?
Back in the 1950s, people like Hannah Arendt, Carl Friedrich, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Merle Fainsod argued that terror was a "system of power"—that the regime wanted people to live in fear because that was the only way they were going to overcome resistance and complete their programs of revolutionary change. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Terror was thought to be the culmination of Stalin's drive to build a personal dictatorship. The latter tended to emphasize an elite terror versus a mass terror. In the 1980s, social historians got into the game and started to look at things from the "bottom up". The more extreme ones insisted that the regime was popular, and that no one feared terror (R. Thurston, Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia). We've had access to the archives since 1991, and we've learned a lot from them. Terror as a "system of power" is far too simple. The regime felt besieged by enemies—wreckers, saboteurs, spies, former oppositionists, disloyal officials, and some non-Russian nationalities. It felt it needed to deal with a potential fifth column before the Nazis invaded.
Now this is a roundabout way of coming to your question. But it's necessary background to explain the diversity of responses to terror. Somewhat more than two million people were arrested, exiled, or executed between 1936 and 1938, but the incidence of repression varied widely from group to group. Engineers had more to fear than kolkhoz workers. Writers had more to fear than school teachers. Senior party officials, factory directors, and former oppositionists had perhaps most to fear. For some, the period of 1936-1938 passed without incident of particular stress, but there was an awareness of terror nevertheless. The presence of "enemies" was conveyed in regime propaganda, on radio, in film, in novels, and in newspapers. A lot of people believed what they were told and participated in "campaigns of vigilance". They loyally denounced those whom they thought were hiding something, or were just a bit suspicious. But the other thing you have to understand is that the super-pressurized plans forced a lot of people into patterns of adaptive behavior that the regime considered wholly unacceptable. There actually were foreign powers conspiring against the USSR. Trotsky appeared to be conspiring against the regime too. There were, of course, those who did see beyond the propaganda, and judged Stalin for his brutality. But that was a tiny minority. For the overwhelming majority, Stalin was the savior protecting the revolution from the forces that would undermine it.
There's a great primary source you can use to investigate this yourself. Google “HPSSS”. It's a series of interviews (350+)—all keyword searchable—with Soviet citizens who were dragged out of the USSR by the Nazis in the early 1940s, and who found themselves in British and American zones of occupation after the war. They all remember the Terror, and each in their own way.
How did what was ‘promised’ to the citizens of the Soviet Union prior to and soon after its creation differ from how the country was actually managed? Was the ‘socialist utopia’ and ‘workers’ dream’ ever achieved in any regard within the U.S.S.R?
We gained access to Stalin's personal archive in 2000. We discovered pretty much immediately that there was no difference between Stalin's private correspondence and his public pronouncements. He wasn't hiding anything. Whether the workers utopia was ever achieved...well...no...but generations of Soviet citizens grew up feeling very proud and lucky to have been born in a country that provided cradle-to-grave medical care, free education, and the guarantee of employment and housing. They won loads of Olympic medals and put a man into space first—the 50s and 60s were remembered well.
In your research, what conclusions have you drawn in regards to the political views and values of Joseph Stalin?
Read The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin by Erik van Ree. Sarah Davies and I have also written a bit about that in Stalin's World (Yale 2014). It's too big a subject to address in a short answer, except the big point is that Stalin did not self-consciously betray the ideals of the revolution. He felt, to the end, that he was doing everything in his power to build socialism and spread world revolution.
Back in the 1950s, people like Hannah Arendt, Carl Friedrich, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Merle Fainsod argued that terror was a "system of power"—that the regime wanted people to live in fear because that was the only way they were going to overcome resistance and complete their programs of revolutionary change. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Terror was thought to be the culmination of Stalin's drive to build a personal dictatorship. The latter tended to emphasize an elite terror versus a mass terror. In the 1980s, social historians got into the game and started to look at things from the "bottom up". The more extreme ones insisted that the regime was popular, and that no one feared terror (R. Thurston, Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia). We've had access to the archives since 1991, and we've learned a lot from them. Terror as a "system of power" is far too simple. The regime felt besieged by enemies—wreckers, saboteurs, spies, former oppositionists, disloyal officials, and some non-Russian nationalities. It felt it needed to deal with a potential fifth column before the Nazis invaded.
Now this is a roundabout way of coming to your question. But it's necessary background to explain the diversity of responses to terror. Somewhat more than two million people were arrested, exiled, or executed between 1936 and 1938, but the incidence of repression varied widely from group to group. Engineers had more to fear than kolkhoz workers. Writers had more to fear than school teachers. Senior party officials, factory directors, and former oppositionists had perhaps most to fear. For some, the period of 1936-1938 passed without incident of particular stress, but there was an awareness of terror nevertheless. The presence of "enemies" was conveyed in regime propaganda, on radio, in film, in novels, and in newspapers. A lot of people believed what they were told and participated in "campaigns of vigilance". They loyally denounced those whom they thought were hiding something, or were just a bit suspicious. But the other thing you have to understand is that the super-pressurized plans forced a lot of people into patterns of adaptive behavior that the regime considered wholly unacceptable. There actually were foreign powers conspiring against the USSR. Trotsky appeared to be conspiring against the regime too. There were, of course, those who did see beyond the propaganda, and judged Stalin for his brutality. But that was a tiny minority. For the overwhelming majority, Stalin was the savior protecting the revolution from the forces that would undermine it.
There's a great primary source you can use to investigate this yourself. Google “HPSSS”. It's a series of interviews (350+)—all keyword searchable—with Soviet citizens who were dragged out of the USSR by the Nazis in the early 1940s, and who found themselves in British and American zones of occupation after the war. They all remember the Terror, and each in their own way.
How did what was ‘promised’ to the citizens of the Soviet Union prior to and soon after its creation differ from how the country was actually managed? Was the ‘socialist utopia’ and ‘workers’ dream’ ever achieved in any regard within the U.S.S.R?
We gained access to Stalin's personal archive in 2000. We discovered pretty much immediately that there was no difference between Stalin's private correspondence and his public pronouncements. He wasn't hiding anything. Whether the workers utopia was ever achieved...well...no...but generations of Soviet citizens grew up feeling very proud and lucky to have been born in a country that provided cradle-to-grave medical care, free education, and the guarantee of employment and housing. They won loads of Olympic medals and put a man into space first—the 50s and 60s were remembered well.
In your research, what conclusions have you drawn in regards to the political views and values of Joseph Stalin?
Read The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin by Erik van Ree. Sarah Davies and I have also written a bit about that in Stalin's World (Yale 2014). It's too big a subject to address in a short answer, except the big point is that Stalin did not self-consciously betray the ideals of the revolution. He felt, to the end, that he was doing everything in his power to build socialism and spread world revolution.