Work

Making the Past “Useful” in Stalinist Russia. Review of: Tikhonov, V. (2024). Poleznoe proshloe: Istoriia v stalinskom SSSR [The Useful Past: History in the Stalinist USSR]. Moscow: NLO

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This review considers a popular scholarly book by V. V. Tikhonov, a leading specialist in the history of Russian historical studies of the twentieth century, devoted to the description of the complex relationship between historical studies and political-ideological structures during the Stalin era. The author covers questions about the influence of Stalin’s views on the production of scientific knowledge, the making of historical films, the course and outcome of individual discussions in academia, the formation of the cult of historical heroes, the peculiarities of ideological campaigns and the role of ‘little people’ in them, and the significance of anniversaries for the formation of the ideological narrative. This book may prove useful not only for a general audience, but also for specialists, as in addition to presenting facts on the history of science, the author also formulates problems that need to be solved.

Source: Izvestia of the Ural federal university Series 2 Humanities and Arts

DOI: 10.15826/izv2.2025.27.1.018

Author: Nikita D. Gilevich

Institution: Ural Federal University

Language: English

Topic: Soviet and Russian History

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: Ural Federal University, Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation

Awards: G2683083082, G6005225358, G830394982