Self-determination of peoples was alleged to be a major cornerstone of the Paris Peace Conference that ended World War I and culminated in the Treaty of Versailles, among other treaties. Rather than countries in Central and Eastern Europe consisting of empires, the guiding principle was that of the nation-state, with each nation having its own …
Author Archives: Thames Darwin
Colonialism During the Belle Époque
Here’s my first forum post from the next course: Modern European History. ===== The popular militarism of the Belle Époque is broadly expressed in cultural texts from the period. For the readings for the week, this militarism is expressed within the context of colonialism, but more specifically, the readings provide hints of the conflicts that …
Yeltsin and Putin
Last discussion post for Modern Russia. On deck is Modern Europe, beginning June 11. ===== In assessing the two major leaders of Russia since the end of the Soviet era – Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin – it’s difficult not to see Yeltsin as a failure in his goals and Putin as a success in …
Assessing Gorbachev
In my opinion, Mikhail Gorbachev deserves enormous credit for both the peaceful ending of the dictatorship and cold war and the decline and collapse of the Soviet state because I cannot imagine one happening without the other. Moreover, the see the decline and collapse of the USSR as having been an overwhelmingly positive thing, even …
Stalinism Without Stalin
In the “Secret Speech” from the Twentieth Party Congress, Khrushchev seems to want to both expose Stalinism for its worst excesses and maintain Stalinism, at least ideologically. In some ways, this complex stance exemplifies Khrushchev’s own strengths and weaknesses. On the former point, the selection from the speech is replete with direct attacks on Stalin, …
Nazi Germany and the Great Purges
Among the aspects of the Great Purges in the Soviet Union under I.V. Stalin that have most confused scholars, the purge of the Red Army of some of its highest-ranking and most talented officers must surely rank among the most baffling. The vast majority of scholars agree that the USSR was poorly prepared for the …
Stalinist Intrigue in the Spanish Civil War
I chose this week to discuss the Soviet intervention in the Spanish Civil War under Stalin and the short- and long-term effects that it had on the USSR’s diplomatic strength. The war began on July 17, 1936, with an uprising of anti-republican generals in the Spanish army. Although the Soviets signed an international nonintervention agreement, …
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Catalysts for the Great Purges
I am prepared to state that I think that two factors that caused the process of the Great Purges to expand significantly as they unfolded were: the appointment of N.I. Yezhov as head of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the secret political police, to conduct the purges; and the increasing threat of Nazi …
Source Analysis: Justifying Stalin’s Great Turn
The rule of Stalin over the Soviet Union was enormously costly in terms of lives lost, but with the exception of the war against Germany from 1941 to 1945, perhaps no period was as deadly for the Soviet people as the collectivization of agriculture and industrialization of the economy launched in 1928 with the …
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Succession to Lenin: Trotsky v. Stalin
There were several factors that contributed to Stalin’s victory over Trotsky in the power struggle that followed Lenin’s death. Among the factors that were central, and would continue to be central as Stalin consolidated his power and moved toward collectivization of agriculture and mass industrialization of the USSR was the New Economic Policy (NEP). Although …
Inevitable Historicity 