On the eve of the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the communist movement had reached their lowest point in terms of prestige, support and ideological influence. The pact between Stalin and Hitler of August 1939 cancelled what was left of the anti-fascist legitimacy after defeat in Spain. Relations between communists and socialists - already jeopardized by the Great Terror and by anti-Trotskyite persecutions in Spain - were in ruins. The honeymoon between many intellectuals and the Soviet Union of the mid- 1930 s seemed lost forever. Even Marxist dissidents, former communists and left-oriented intellectuals increasingly labelled Stalin’s USSR as a totalitarian power. By the end of the war, all this had changed and the situation seemed largely reversed. Stalin’s personal prestige and the Soviet Union’s role as a great power were internationally acknowledged far beyond the communist ranks. Soviet socialism embodied an alternative model and a major challenge to liberal capitalism, both in Europe and in the non- European world. The communist movement achieved spectacular growth in Europe and China. In East Central Europe, socialist transformation could be enforced by the presence of the Red Army. The communists seemed ready to overcome the minority positions they held in the interwar period, when compared with the main socialist parties. The main purpose of this chapter is to assess how such a dramatic change took place during the war, and to show how its ideological and political bases were consistent and durable at the start of the post-war era. The aftermath of the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact: One year before the outbreak of the war, the bases of Soviet ideology and political culture were fixed in the Short Course of History of the VKP(b) - a new handbook published in the autumn of 1938 and the tool of a gigantic propaganda campaign, establishing the orthodox Stalinist version of Marxism-Leninism and Soviet history.

Pons, S. (2015). The soviet union and the international left. In R. Bosworth (a cura di), The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Vol. 2, Politics and Ideology (pp. 68-90). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press [10.1017/CHO9781139524377.005].

The soviet union and the international left

PONS, SILVIO
2015-01-01

Abstract

On the eve of the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the communist movement had reached their lowest point in terms of prestige, support and ideological influence. The pact between Stalin and Hitler of August 1939 cancelled what was left of the anti-fascist legitimacy after defeat in Spain. Relations between communists and socialists - already jeopardized by the Great Terror and by anti-Trotskyite persecutions in Spain - were in ruins. The honeymoon between many intellectuals and the Soviet Union of the mid- 1930 s seemed lost forever. Even Marxist dissidents, former communists and left-oriented intellectuals increasingly labelled Stalin’s USSR as a totalitarian power. By the end of the war, all this had changed and the situation seemed largely reversed. Stalin’s personal prestige and the Soviet Union’s role as a great power were internationally acknowledged far beyond the communist ranks. Soviet socialism embodied an alternative model and a major challenge to liberal capitalism, both in Europe and in the non- European world. The communist movement achieved spectacular growth in Europe and China. In East Central Europe, socialist transformation could be enforced by the presence of the Red Army. The communists seemed ready to overcome the minority positions they held in the interwar period, when compared with the main socialist parties. The main purpose of this chapter is to assess how such a dramatic change took place during the war, and to show how its ideological and political bases were consistent and durable at the start of the post-war era. The aftermath of the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact: One year before the outbreak of the war, the bases of Soviet ideology and political culture were fixed in the Short Course of History of the VKP(b) - a new handbook published in the autumn of 1938 and the tool of a gigantic propaganda campaign, establishing the orthodox Stalinist version of Marxism-Leninism and Soviet history.
2015
English
Rilevanza internazionale
Capitolo o saggio
International Left Second World War Soviet Union Stalin
Pons, S. (2015). The soviet union and the international left. In R. Bosworth (a cura di), The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Vol. 2, Politics and Ideology (pp. 68-90). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press [10.1017/CHO9781139524377.005].
Pons, S
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2108/172576
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