International Communism and the Cult of the Individual

Leaders, Tribunes and Martyrs under Lenin and Stalin
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-349-95337-0
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Buch, Englisch, 363 Seiten, Previously published in hardcover, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 486 g

This book explores how the communist cult of the individual was not just a Soviet phenomenon but an international one. When Stalin died in 1953, the communists of all countries united in mourning the figure that was the incarnation of their cause. Though its international character was one of the distinguishing features of the communist cult of personality, this is the first extended study to approach the phenomenon over the longer period of its development in a truly transnational and comparative perspective. Crucially it is concerned with the internationalisation of the Soviet cults of Lenin and Stalin. But it also ranges across different periods and national cases to consider a wider cast of bureaucrats, tribunes, heroes and martyrs who symbolised both resistance to oppression and the tyranny of the party-state. Through studying the disparate ways in which the cults were manifested, Kevin Morgan not only takes in many of the leading personalities of the communist movement, but also some of the cultural luminaries like Picasso and Barbusse who sought to represent them. The cult of the individual was one of the most fascinating, troubling and revealing features of Stalinist communism, and as reconstructed here it offers new insight into one of the defining political movements of the twentieth century.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Morgan, Kevin

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politische Soziologie und Psychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Totalitarismus & Diktaturen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Politische Führung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte: Ereignisse und Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: Wherever a Communist Party is at Work.- 2. Cult Developments, 1917-56.- 3. Cult Variations.- 4. Cults of Office.- 5. Cults of Circumstance.- 6. Cult Representations.- 7. Concluding Reflections: No Saviour from on High?.

Über Autor(innen)

Kevin Morgan is Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Manchester, UK. He has published extensively on the history of the communist movement including the three volumes of his Bolshevism and the British Left (2006-13). He is a founding editor of the journal Twentieth Century Communism.