The "Special" World: Stalin’s Power Apparatus and the Soviet System’s Secret Structures of Communication
Autor Niels Erik Rosenfeldten Limba Engleză Hardback – 13 ian 2009
This groundbreaking two-volume study offers a comprehensive examination of some of the most secret structures of Soviet society–and in particular of Stalin’s power and control mechaninsms. Having gained personal access to formerly closed archives in the 1990s–partly opened in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union but subsequently subject to restricted access due to the new Russian leadership–Niels Erik Rosenfeldt presents a detailed description of the principles and procedures for secrecy in the Soviet System of the 1920s. Leaving no stone unturned, Rosenfeldt investigates and discloses a labyrinthine development of Stalin’s secret chancellery–the “Secret Department,” the “Special Sector”–from the early 1920s to the death of Stalin in 1953.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9788763507738
ISBN-10: 8763507730
Pagini: 1153
Ilustrații: 2 volume set
Dimensiuni: 171 x 248 x 79 mm
Greutate: 2.52 kg
Editura: Museum Tusculanum Press
Colecția Museum Tusculanum Press
ISBN-10: 8763507730
Pagini: 1153
Ilustrații: 2 volume set
Dimensiuni: 171 x 248 x 79 mm
Greutate: 2.52 kg
Editura: Museum Tusculanum Press
Colecția Museum Tusculanum Press
Recenzii
This work represents more than 30 years of Rosenfeldt’s research into the secret structures and bases of Stalin’s power. As such this is truly a life’s work; but it may also fairly be described as a masterwork, for nobody has described, let alone analysed in such overpowering and meticulous detail, the comprehensive sweep of the Stalinist control mechanisms from their inception to the death of Stalin and in some cases beyond that. So we are not likely to have any more comprehensive view of knowledge of these organisations and of the bases of Stalin’s power anytime soon. For these reasons this work is going to be indispensable to any serious effort to analyse Stalin and his state for years to come. While it is probable that new discoveries and arguments will come to challenge this work, so that it cannot be considered the last word on the subject, it will be the first, if not the only word on many of the issues and agencies analysed here for the foreseeable future. - Stephen J. Blank, Europa-Asia Studies, vol. 63, Issue 1.
[An] impressive study ... the achievement is admirable. This kind of information on the special apparatus has never been brought together before. The study is very well researched, critically combining as it does long-available information from Soviet officials who deserted to the West with newly dug up Moscow archival materials. Rosenfeldt’s theoretical approach is sound and promising.- Erik van Ree, Revolutionary Russia, Vol. 23, no. 1, June 2010.
These incredibly well-researched and persuasive volumes contribute to our understanding of Bolshevism in general and of Stalin and Stalinism in particular. ... If one cannot therefore understand Stalinism without knowledge of the special secret apparatus, then Rosenfeldt can be congratulated for offering as detailed an account as is currently possible of the numerous personal and institutional ‘special sections’ which were littered across the Soviet party, state and Comintern structures.. …The introductory chapter could easily be set as required reading for a seminar on the historian’s craft. It is also interesting to read the author’s account of how previous endeavours have been misunderstood or misrepresented. The debate with the scholarly literature runs to a consideration of key works published after the conclusion of this manuscript.- Ian D. Thatcher, European History Quarterly, Vol. 40, no. 2.
Notă biografică
Niels Erik Rosenfeldt is Associate Professor at the East European Section of the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Stalin and Russia/the Soviet Union.
Cuprins
Volume I
Foreword
Translator's note
I. Introduction
Previous studies
The present challenge
General problems
A question of information
II. Secrecy: Principles and Procedures
The general significance of "conspiracy"
The bureaucratic system
Basic characteristics of the secret system
III. The Top of the Pyramid
The background
The secret Party chancellery: identifying the object of research
New sources and problems of interpretation
Stalin and the secret apparatus
The basic service apparatus
The Secretary General's men and women
The secret apparatus seen from inside
The Information Bureau
Control of cadres
The key features of the secret chancellery
IV. New Bureaucratic Constellations
Unrest in the secret apparatus
Mobilisation preparedness and consolidation of the "rear"
Mobilisation preparedness and the Communist Party's secret apparatus
A "special" Party office?
V. The Special Sector and its Sister Institutions
The prelude
The Special Sector in action
The internal structure of the Special Sector
The Organisation Bureau's technical secretariat
The Bureau of International Information—and the institutional context
The secret Party apparatus and the organisation of the Terror
Old and new faces
Changes in the secret apparatus
The red threads
VI. Patterns in the Decision-Making Process
The framework
The decision-making
The government apparatus versus the Special Sector: developments
The government apparatus versus the Special Sector: endgame
The overall picture
Volume 2
VII. Special Departments and Other Special Organs at the Headquarters of the State Security Service
The Special Department for coded communications and secret administration
The First Special Department
The Second Special Department (for operative techniques) and the Fourth Special Department (for laboratories)
Other special departments
Other "special" apparatuses
The position of the special departments
A related apparatus: the state security service's First Department (the Special Section)
The total complex
VIII. The Comintern's Secret Apparatus
The basic rules for conspiracy
Central chancellery functions at Comintern headquarters
The secret international communications apparatus
The "Secret Department" and the "Special Department"
Basic features of the Comintern's secret apparatus
Conclusion
The Central Structures
The "Special" List
Summary in Danish
Notes
Bibliography and Bibliographic Addendum
List of Abbreviations
Index of Names
Foreword
Translator's note
I. Introduction
Previous studies
The present challenge
General problems
A question of information
II. Secrecy: Principles and Procedures
The general significance of "conspiracy"
The bureaucratic system
Basic characteristics of the secret system
III. The Top of the Pyramid
The background
The secret Party chancellery: identifying the object of research
New sources and problems of interpretation
Stalin and the secret apparatus
The basic service apparatus
The Secretary General's men and women
The secret apparatus seen from inside
The Information Bureau
Control of cadres
The key features of the secret chancellery
IV. New Bureaucratic Constellations
Unrest in the secret apparatus
Mobilisation preparedness and consolidation of the "rear"
Mobilisation preparedness and the Communist Party's secret apparatus
A "special" Party office?
V. The Special Sector and its Sister Institutions
The prelude
The Special Sector in action
The internal structure of the Special Sector
The Organisation Bureau's technical secretariat
The Bureau of International Information—and the institutional context
The secret Party apparatus and the organisation of the Terror
Old and new faces
Changes in the secret apparatus
The red threads
VI. Patterns in the Decision-Making Process
The framework
The decision-making
The government apparatus versus the Special Sector: developments
The government apparatus versus the Special Sector: endgame
The overall picture
Volume 2
VII. Special Departments and Other Special Organs at the Headquarters of the State Security Service
The Special Department for coded communications and secret administration
The First Special Department
The Second Special Department (for operative techniques) and the Fourth Special Department (for laboratories)
Other special departments
Other "special" apparatuses
The position of the special departments
A related apparatus: the state security service's First Department (the Special Section)
The total complex
VIII. The Comintern's Secret Apparatus
The basic rules for conspiracy
Central chancellery functions at Comintern headquarters
The secret international communications apparatus
The "Secret Department" and the "Special Department"
Basic features of the Comintern's secret apparatus
Conclusion
The Central Structures
The "Special" List
Summary in Danish
Notes
Bibliography and Bibliographic Addendum
List of Abbreviations
Index of Names