CFP: 'The relaunch of the Soviet project, 1945-64'

[Polly Jones]

Dear all

Please find below a call for papers for the conference 'The relaunch of the
Soviet project, 1945-64', to be held at UCL-SSEES in September 2006.

best wishes

Polly Jones



----------------------
Dr Polly Jones
Lecturer, Department of Russian
School of Slavonic and East European Studies,
University College London
-----------------------




CALL FOR PAPERS



'The relaunch of the Soviet project, 1945-1964'

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies

London

14-16 September 2006





Convenors: Geoffrey Hosking (SSEES), Polly Jones (SSEES), Susan Morrissey
(SSEES), Miriam Dobson (Sheffield), Juliane Furst (Oxford)



Contact: sovietproject at gmail.com







Victory in 1945 and then Stalin's death in 1953 compelled Soviet leaders
and - to some extent - ordinary Soviet citizens to reassess their past and
to re-imagine their future. Despite many differences, the post-war era
(1945-53) and the Khrushchev era (1953-64) thus shared a sense of urgency
and ambition. Consequently, it is necessary to consider elements of
continuity as well as change, of ideas as well as practices, across the
period 1945-64.





This conference, which marks the 50th anniversary of one of the key moments
in this process - Khrushchev's Secret Speech - seeks to explore these
different visions of past and future. As recently opened Soviet archives
have propelled an unprecedented scholarly engagement with this period, it
has now become possible to research a wide range of issues: the development
of party policy, its practical implementation, and the ways these were
experienced and understood by the Soviet people. We seek papers addressing
any of the themes outlined below.





The tasks facing the Soviet Union in 1945 bore little resemblance to those
of 1941. On the one hand, the Soviet Union had won a great victory and would
shortly acquire an outer empire in Central and Eastern Europe as well as an
ally in Communist China. As a superpower, the USSR aspired to equality with
the USA and soon engaged in 'cold war' with it. With party theorists
beginning to plan for the Soviet bloc's progression towards the next stage
on the revolutionary timeline, they promised the coming transition from
socialism to full-blown communism. On the other hand, however, this glorious
projection of Russian-Soviet imperial supremacy occurred at a time of
enormous material and social hardship for ordinary people. Once again, they
were mobilized for a super-human effort of all-out industrialization, and
the human costs of the war were papered over in the rhetoric of victory.
Conducted within an atmosphere of xenophobia and fear, the huge task of
reconstruction - accompanied by wide-spread shortages and hunger - placed
significant strain upon the population.





The contradictions and hardships of the post-war era left important legacies
after 1953, when Soviet leaders once again began to reassess the past and to
re-imagine the future. By denouncing some of Stalin's crimes, Khrushchev
tried to draw a line between the Stalinist past and the Leninist present and
thereby to re-launch the Communist project. One of his aims was to find a
means to rule the country without relying upon indiscriminate terror.
However, Khrushchev was not only reassessing the past but also imagining a
future: the new party programme thus promised a whole range of benefits for
the population. Returning to the idea that Communism was imminent, he now
dared to put a date on its creation, promising it could be built by 1980. To
pursue this vision, he launched a range of welfare projects and urged
greater civic participation in a variety of spheres. This attempt to
revitalize the Soviet project was also intended to transform the
relationship between party and people. Yet the tensions and challenges
bequeathed by late Stalinism did not make the process of reform a simple
one.





This conference invites papers that explore not only the ideological and
political ambitions of the Soviet state in the period 1945-64 but also the
social and cultural history of these projects as they were implemented on
the ground.



Please submit paper proposals of between 200 and 300 words to
sovietproject at gmail.com by 10 January 2006. Decisions on paper proposals
will be communicated by the end of January 2006.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------