A text for the student to gain knowledge about primary sources in the study of history.

Revised and updated for the 2008 AQA and Edexcel AS specifications.

Policing Stalin's Socialism is one of the first books to emphasize the importance of social order repression by Stalin's Soviet regime in contrast to the traditional emphasis of historians on political repression. Based on extensive examination of new archival materials, David Shearer finds that most repression during the Stalinist dictatorship of the 1930s was against marginal social groups such as petty criminals, deviant youth, sectarians, and the unemployed and unproductive. It was because Soviet leaders regarded social disorder as more of a danger to the state than political opposition that they instituted a new form of class war to defend themselves against this perceived threat. Despite the combined work of the political and civil police the efforts to cleanse society failed; this failure set the stage for the massive purges that decimated the country in the late 1930s.

A chilling, riveting account based on newly released Russian documentation that reveals Joseph Stalin’s true motives—and the extent of his enduring commitment to expanding the Soviet empire—during the years in which he seemingly collaborated with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the capitalist West. At the Big Three conferences of World War II, Joseph Stalin persuasively played the role of a great world leader, whose primary concerns lay in international strategy and power politics, and not communist ideology. Now, using recently uncovered documents, Robert Gellately conclusively shows that, in fact, the dictator was biding his time, determined to establish Communist regimes across Europe and beyond. His actions during those years—and the poorly calculated responses to them from the West—set in motion what would eventually become the Cold War. Exciting, deeply engaging, and shrewdly perceptive, Stalin’s Curse is an unprecedented revelation of the sinister machinations of Stalin’s Kremlin.

This book looks at the entire Stalin era, and includes chapters on ideology, politics, economic development, social change, nationalities, culture and external relations. The final chapter deals with the Great Terror.

Comprehensive books to support study of History for the IB Diploma Paper 3, revised for first assessment in 2017. This coursebook covers Paper 3, History of Europe, Topic 16: The Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia (1924-2000) of the History for the IB Diploma syllabus for first assessment in 2017. Tailored to the Higher Level requirements of the IB syllabus and written by experienced IB History examiners and teachers, it offers authoritative and engaging guidance through the topic.

Trotsky - Collectives & Kulaks - Five year plans - Labour camps - Purges - Show trials.

This fascinating documentary history is the first English-language exploration of Joseph Stalin's relationship with, and manipulation of, the Soviet political police. The story follows the changing functions, organization, and fortunes of the political police and security organs from the early 1920s until Stalin’s death in 1953, and it provides documented detail about how Stalin used these organs to achieve and maintain undisputed power. Although written as a narrative, it includes translations of more than 170 documents from Soviet archives.