The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe

by Kristen Ghodsee

Overview

In The Left Side of History Kristen Ghodsee tells the stories of partisans fighting behind the lines in Nazi-allied Bulgaria during World War II: British officer Frank Thompson, brother of the great historian E.P. Thompson, and fourteen-year-old Elena Lagadinova, the youngest female member of the armed anti-fascist resistance. But these people were not merely anti-fascist; they were pro-communist, idealists moved by their socialist principles to fight and sometimes die for a cause they believed to be right. Victory brought forty years of communist dictatorship followed by unbridled capitalism after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today in democratic Eastern Europe there is ever-increasing despair, disenchantment with the post-communist present, and growing nostalgia for the communist past. These phenomena are difficult to understand in the West, where "communism" is a dirty word that is quickly equated with Stalin and Soviet labor camps. By starting with the stories of people like Thompson and Lagadinova, Ghodsee provides a more nuanced understanding of how communist ideals could inspire ordinary people to make extraordinary sacrifices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822358350
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	02/20/2015
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Kristen Ghodsee is Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College and a former Guggenheim Fellow. She is the author of Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life after Communism, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations ix

Prologue. Communism 2.0? xi

A Note on Transliteration xxi

Part I. The Way We Remember the Past Determines Our Dreams for the Future

 1. The Mysterious Major Frank Thompson 3

2. A Communist by Any Other Name . . . 11

3. "I Simply Want to Fight" 21

4. The Brothers Lagadinov 34

5. A Failed Petition 41

6. Lawrence of Bulgaria? 49

7. Ambushed in Batuliya 57

8. Guerillas in the Mist 63

9. Everyday Life as a Partisan 69

10. Blood of a Poet 84

11. The Head Hunted 90

12. Words of One Brother on the Death of Another 97

Part II. The Remains of the Regime

13. The Retired Partisan 101

14. A Woman's Work Is Never Done 113

15. History Is Written by the Victors 126

16. On Censorship and the Secret Police 134

17. The Politics of Truth 144

18. Cassandra's Curse 151

19. The Red Samaritan 155

20. The Past Is a Foreign Country 165

21. A Moment of Redemption 176

Conclusion. On the Outskirts of Litakovo 187

Acknowledgments 201

Notes 205

Selected Bibliography 219

Index 225

What People are Saying About This

Louise Bogan: A Portrait - Elizabeth Frank

"The Left Side of History bears witness to Kristen Ghodsee's intellectual courage, analytic gifts, and profound compassion. She offers portraits of people for whom communism was a living ideology, a belief system that compelled self-sacrifice and nobility, and she does this by looking at their actions rather than criticizing or deconstructing their beliefs."

Joan W. Scott

"The marvel of this beautifully written book is to address a complex set of historical questions in intimate and personal terms. It's stunning as ethnography, but also part memoir—an account of Kristen Ghodsee's quest to satisfy her curiosity about the fate of Frank Thompson, a British partisan killed fighting the Nazis in Bulgaria in 1944. The story she ends up telling is much larger: about communism as an aspiration and a political system; about the economic and social impacts of democracy and free markets after 1989; about the preservation and erasure of public memory; about the relationship of individuals to history. It's a small story with vivid characters and a very large resonance. Best of all, it's a gripping and compelling read."

Editorial Reviews

"The Left Side of History is a stimulating study and a delightful read. It should provoke other fearless ones to collaborate in solving the major mysteries of our time: what was communism really like, and why did it end in an array of countries, but not everywhere?"--Joan Roelofs "Counterpunch"

"History meets ethnography, all delivered in an absorbing, novelistic style."--Donny Gluckstein "Socialist Review"

"The Left Side of History is ... not a typical academic book in so far as it is highly readable, and at times hard to put down."
--Rachel Applebaum "Social History" (8/1/2016 12:00:00 AM)

"[A] beautifully written and passionately argued narrative.... The book does not romanticize the Communist regime. Instead, it presents us with biographies of extraordinary individuals who sacrificed a great deal, including their own lives, for ideas that were transformed into policy and practice sometimes at odds with those ideas. It is a call to reengage with the memory and legacies of the Communist regime through a more nuanced framework that allows for both a critical and an appreciative analysis of its accomplishments."
--Maria Bucur "Nationalities Papers" (9/1/2016 12:00:00 AM)

"[Ghodsee's] skills as a seasoned ethnographer and "part-time" Bulgarian resident shine in her astute analysis of the cultural and social circumstances that account for what has become the convoluted and highly controversial history of communism. ... The Left Side of History is a remarkable account of Bulgaria's current history of triumph and despairs, wrapped in the aspirations, hopes, and tragic failures of humans. It is told with astute historical accuracy and striking intimacy concerning the personal stories of Bulgarian communist activists, as well as ordinary people whose lives were indelibly marked by the rise and demise of communism."--Elza Ibroscheva "H-SAE, H-Net Reviews" (9/1/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Ghodsee turns Thompson's life and the equally heroic story of three Bulgarian brothers and their 14-year-old sister, who were also part of the resistance, into a gentle, reflective exploration of the idealism that drove them, despite the barbarity that many communists had already glimpsed in Stalin's Soviet Union."--Robert Legvold "Foreign Affairs"

"Kristen Ghodsee tells a tragic and beautiful story. She leaves aside broader political and diplomatic history and concentrates on personal stories. In this way she makes interesting contributions to the existing academic studies regarding the resistance movement in Bulgaria and the period of communist rule."--Vasil Paraskevov "History" (1/24/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"This book benefits from Ghodsee's creativity and raconteurism. It reads less like a traditional history book and more like a captivating piece of fiction. Ghodsee's seamless and engaging writing allows the reader to become so invested in each of the people she writes about to the extent that one is moved when any one of them experience misfortune or success. Moreover, this book is a credit to Ghodsee's career as a social and gender historian as it sheds an important light on the role of women in the communist Eastern Bloc."
--Matthew Martin "Slovo" (4/1/2016 12:00:00 AM)

"Wonderful.... History looks very different if you fought for national liberation and human progress under the banner of Communism.... To understand ... modern Bulgarians ..., you must enter their world of human self-sacrifice."--Freeman Dyson "New York Times Book Review" (4/19/2015 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

"Wonderful.... History looks very different if you fought for national liberation and human progress under the banner of Communism.... To understand ... modern Bulgarians ..., you must enter their world of human self-sacrifice."

New York Times Book Review - Freeman Dyson

[Ghodsee’s] skills as a seasoned ethnographer and “part-time” Bulgarian resident shine in her astute analysis of the cultural and social circumstances that account for what has become the convoluted and highly controversial history of communism. … The Left Side of History is a remarkable account of Bulgaria’s current history of triumph and despairs, wrapped in the aspirations, hopes, and tragic failures of humans. It is told with astute historical accuracy and striking intimacy concerning the personal stories of Bulgarian communist activists, as well as ordinary people whose lives were indelibly marked by the rise and demise of communism.

H-SAE, H-Net Reviews - Elza Ibroscheva

"[A] beautifully written and passionately argued narrative.... The book does not romanticize the Communist regime. Instead, it presents us with biographies of extraordinary individuals who sacrificed a great deal, including their own lives, for ideas that were transformed into policy and practice sometimes at odds with those ideas. It is a call to reengage with the memory and legacies of the Communist regime through a more nuanced framework that allows for both a critical and an appreciative analysis of its accomplishments."
 

Nationalities Papers - Maria Bucur

The Left Side of History is a stimulating study and a delightful read. It should provoke other fearless ones to collaborate in solving the major mysteries of our time: what was communism really like, and why did it end in an array of countries, but not everywhere?

Counterpunch - Joan Roelofs

History meets ethnography, all delivered in an absorbing, novelistic style.

Socialist Review - Donny Gluckstein

"This book benefits from Ghodsee’s creativity and raconteurism. It reads less like a traditional history book and more like a captivating piece of fiction. Ghodsee’s seamless and engaging writing allows the reader to become so invested in each of the people she writes about to the extent that one is moved when any one of them experience misfortune or success. Moreover, this book is a credit to Ghodsee’s career as a social and gender historian as it sheds an important light on the role of women in the communist Eastern Bloc."
 

Slovo - Matthew Martin

"The Left Side of History is ... not a typical academic book in so far as it is highly readable, and at times hard to put down."
 

Social History - Rachel Applebaum

Ghodsee turns Thompson’s life and the equally heroic story of three Bulgarian brothers and their 14-year-old sister, who were also part of the resistance, into a gentle, reflective exploration of the idealism that drove them, despite the barbarity that many communists had already glimpsed in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

Foreign Affairs - Robert Legvold

"Kristen Ghodsee tells a tragic and beautiful story. She leaves aside broader political and diplomatic history and concentrates on personal stories. In this way she makes interesting contributions to the existing academic studies regarding the resistance movement in Bulgaria and the period of communist rule."

History - Vasil Paraskevov

"The marvel of this beautifully written book is to address a complex set of historical questions in intimate and personal terms. It's stunning as ethnography, but also part memoir—an account of Kristen Ghodsee's quest to satisfy her curiosity about the fate of Frank Thompson, a British partisan killed fighting the Nazis in Bulgaria in 1944. The story she ends up telling is much larger: about communism as an aspiration and a political system; about the economic and social impacts of democracy and free markets after 1989; about the preservation and erasure of public memory; about the relationship of individuals to history. It's a small story with vivid characters and a very large resonance. Best of all, it's a gripping and compelling read."

Joan W. Scott

"The Left Side of History bears witness to Kristen Ghodsee's intellectual courage, analytic gifts, and profound compassion. She offers portraits of people for whom communism was a living ideology, a belief system that compelled self-sacrifice and nobility, and she does this by looking at their actions rather than criticizing or deconstructing their beliefs."

Louise Bogan: A Portrait - Elizabeth Frank