The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships: Stalin and the Eastern Bloc

by B. Apor (Editor), J. Behrends (Editor), P. Jones (Editor), E. Rees (Editor)

Overview

The first book to analyze the distinct leader cults that flourished in the era of 'High Stalinism' as an integral part of the system of dictatorial rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Fifteen studies explore the way in which these cults were established, their function and operation, their dissemination and reception, the place of the cults in art and literature, the exportation of the Stalin cult and its implantment in the communist states of Eastern Europe, and the impact which de-Stalinisation had on these cults.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349517145
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	10/11/2004
Edition description:	1st ed. 2004
Pages:	298
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

S. DAVIES Senior Lecturer, University of Durham, UK B. ENNKER Professor of History, University of Tübingen, Germany C. KELLY Professor of History, New College Oxford, UK A.V. KLIMO Visiting Professor, International University, Bremen, Germany I. MAIN Researcher A. MOCANESCU Researcher, University of Durham, UK J. PLAMPER Research Fellow, University of Tübingen, Germany A. PUTO Researcher, European University Institut, Florence, Italy M. ROLF Assistant Lecturer, Department of History, Humbolt University, Berlin S. SRETENOVIC Researcher, European University Institut, Florence, Italy M. WIEN Researcher, European University Institut, Florence, Italy M. ZAREMBA Professor, University of Warsaw, Poland

Table of Contents

Introduction: Leader Cults, Varieties and Preconditions; E.A.Rees PART I: THE MAKING OF THE CULT: METHODS AND INDIVIDUALS Stalin and the Making of the Stalin Cult in the 1930s; S.Davies 'A Very Modest Man': Béla Illés or How to Make a Career through the Leader Cult; Á.V.Klimó Leader in the Making: The Role of Biographies in Constructing the Cult of Mátyás Rákosi; B.Apor PART II: THE FUNCTIONS OF THE LEADER CULT The Stalin Cult, Bolshevik Rule and Kremlin Interactions in the 1930s; B.Ennker Grandpa Lenin and Uncle Stalin: Soviet Leader Cults for Little Children; C.Kelly Georgian Koba or Soviet 'Father of the Peoples'? The Stalin Cult and Ethnicity; J.Plamper Working Towards the Centre: Leader Cults and Spatial Politics in Pre-war Stalinism; M.Rolf PART III: BEYOND MOSCOW: THE CULT'S PERIPHERIES Exporting the Leader: The Stalin Cult in Poland and East Germany (1944/45-1956); J.C.Behrends President of Poland or 'Stalin's Most Faithfull Pupil'? The Cult of Boleslaw Bierut in Stalinist Poland; I.Main Georgi Dimitrov: Three Manifestations of his Cult; M.Wien Leader Cults in the Western Balkans (1945-1990): Josip Broz Tito and Enver Hoxha; S.Sretenovic & A.Puto PART IV: THE DILEMMAS OF DE-STALINISATION: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN LEADER CULT PATTERNS IN THE POST-STALIN PERIOD 'I've Held, and I Still Hold Stalin in the Highest Esteem': Discourses and Strategies of Resistance to De-Stalinisation in the USSR, 1953-1962; P.Jones Surviving 1956: Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and 'The Cult of Personality' in Romania; A.Mocanescu The Second Step of a Ladder: The Cult of the First Secretaries in Poland; M.Zaremba