Soviet Veterans of the Second World War: A Popular Movement in an Authoritarian Society, 1941-1991Millions of Soviet soldiers died in the USSR's struggle for survival against Nazi Germany but millions more returned to Stalin's state after victory. Mark Edele traces the veterans' story from the early post-war years through to the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. He describes in detail the problems they encountered during demobilization, the dysfunctional bureaucracy they had to deal with once back, and the way their reintegration into civilian life worked in practice in one of the most devastated countries of Europe. He pays particular attention to groups with specific problems such as the disabled, former prisoners of war, women soldiers, and youth. The study analyses the old soldiers' long struggle for recognition and the eventual emergence of an organized movement in the years after Stalin's death. The Soviet state at first refused to recognize veterans as a group worthy of special privileges or as an organization. They were not a group conceived of in Marxist-Leninist theory, there was suspicion about their political loyalty, and the leadership worried about the costs of affording a special status to such a large population group. These preconceptions were overcome only after a long, hard struggle by a popular movement that slowly emerged within the strict confines of the authoritarian Soviet regime. |
Contents
II Victors and Victims | 79 |
III Movement | 151 |
Afterword | 215 |
Notes | 223 |
Chronology | 291 |
Glossary | 294 |
Bibliography | 297 |
Index | 319 |
Other editions - View all
Soviet Veterans of the Second World War: A Popular Movement in an ... Mark Edele Limited preview - 2008 |
Soviet Veterans of the Second World War: A Popular Movement in an ... Mark Edele Limited preview - 2008 |
Soviet Veterans of the Second World War: A Popular Movement in an ... Mark Edele No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
activists administration All-Union arrested Bolshevik cent Central Committee chairman civilian cohorts Communist comrades Council of Ministers D'iakov demobilized soldiers disabled Fieseler filtration former POWs frontline GARF f German Grossen Vaterländischen Krieges History Ibid institutions Invaliden des Grossen invalids istorii Izvestiia July June kolkhoz Komsomol KPK plenipotentiary labour leadership letter living Malenkov Mark Edele military million Moscow movement NKVD obkom obkom secretary oblast officers participants party organizations Patriotic Patriotic War peasants pension political position postwar Pravda privileges problems propaganda province received Red Army region reintegration repatriated resolution RGANI f RGASPI f Rosspen rubles Russian Second World Sept Sheila Fitzpatrick Shorthand report SKVV SKVV Presidium SKVV's Slavic Review social Soviet society Soviet Union Soviet veterans special status Stalin Stalinist Supreme Soviet train TsDOOSO University Press Victors voiny Voronezh war invalids wartime welfare women workers Zhukov Zubkova