The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions Book 207)

Many historians and writers over the years have attempted to present a history of the Soviet Union. Their narratives about Soviet history often center on revolution that leads to the rise of the Soviet Union, 70 years of oppression, and then liberation in 1991. An overemphasis is often placed on certain figures like Joseph Stalin that gloss over other vital aspects of the Soviet Union. Stephen Lovell’s The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction takes a liberal approach when examining Soviet history. Spanning from 1917 to 1991, the book views the Soviet Union through six paradoxes. Stephen Lovell argues that these “paradoxes are not impediments to a true understanding of the Soviet Union; to recognize them, as this book will attempt to show, is a first step towards that understanding”(14). Through these paradoxes Lovell’s book gives an alternate presentation that succeeds in giving the Soviet Union a fair examination from its founding in 1922 to its fading in 1991. Lovell examines the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) through paradoxes in each chapter which include “Future and Past”, “Coercion and participation”, “Poverty and wealth”, “Elite and masses”, “Patriotism and multinationalism”, and “West and East”. Each chapter covers how the paradox was present within the USSR from its early years to its ending years. The paradoxes given provide a starting point for a fresh analysis of the Soviet Union. To help a possible reader understand Lovell’s book, I will briefly focus on two paradoxes that make this book a must read for anyone wanting to begin studying the USSR. One paradox that demonstrates the significance of Lovell’s work is the chapter “Wealth and poverty”. This chapter hones in on the struggles the Soviet Union had in terms of poverty, including food shortages which was a major issue at certain points in Soviet history. Despite poverty issues, Lovell also provides analysis into where citizens within the USSR gained a higher level of living during certain periods. Lovell makes it understood that while USSR did not achieve the economic statues it desired, it did make improvements throughout its existence. Lovell provides evidence such as steady increase of food consumption from 1964 to 1973 (72). This statistic as well as others used within the chapter provide a picture of the USSR that includes its failures with creating wealth, but also mentions its successes. This paradox provides a deeper insight into the distribution of wealth for people living in the Soviet Union period. The other important paradox to look at is “West and East”. What Lovell does best for readers wanting to engage in the study of Soviet Union perceptions is to display relationship between the USSR and the world. When analyzing international relations between the USSR and the Western world, the perspective often comes from the viewpoint of Western countries like the United States and Britain. However, Lovell chose to stare at the world from the Soviet’s perspective when writing about the USSR and the West, and found that the feelings of the Soviet Union were more complex than what appears on the surface. Lovell best explains the paradox when he wrote “the USSR always had an imagined West as its key point of reference: as bugbear, as bogeyman, sometimes as exemplar” (139). The paradox pushes past many Westerners perception that the Soviet Union detested anything that had ties to the West. While true in many cases, this outstanding chapter by Lovell provokes a much more complex understanding of USSR thinking internationally. Lovell’s The Soviet History gives a history of the Soviet Union that focuses throughout the history of the USSR instead of honing in on specific periods and leaders. Lovell may have an unconventional organization style, but his using different chapters to view different paradoxes is a strategy that allows readers to swiftly understand the Soviet Union. Analyzing those six paradoxes demonstrates how the Soviet Union struggle at times, but also excelled in certain goals that are often overshadowed in mainstream thought. Because of this analysis, anyone wanting to start learning Soviet history should read Stephen Lovell’s The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction.

For those who have a lot of knowledge on the Soviet Union and those who are first learning about the Soviet Union, Stephen Lovell’s book is a great read. The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction is an excellent introduction into the complex paradox that was the Soviet Experiment. Lovell excels in his dissection of the Soviet Union through the set-up of his chapters, which are categorized in paradoxes, “Future and Past, Coercion and Participation, Poverty and Wealth, Elite and Masses, Patriotism and Multinationalism, West and East,” which is his main argument given in his book (Contents). These paradoxes allow the reader to understand the of the Soviet Union and to accept that they exist.The chapters are set up in a way that theme dictates the topic of the chapter and they follow the chronological order for each subject. This is an interesting take on the subject as it allows the reader to see cycles that existed. The most obvious cycle is that of food queues. When the Bolsheviks took power in November 1917 they established “a ‘food dictatorship’ of centralized distribution,” which basically meant that the government took over and decided that they were going to systematically hand out food to the peoples of Russia, and they took power after a year of revolts associated with food shortages (58-59). On the other end of the Soviet Union, “by 1989-1990, the Soviet population was suffering shortages even of basic foodstuff,” thus coming back in circle of not having enough supplies for the peoples of the Union. The use of themes also allows for a larger view of the Soviet Union to be formed. For example, in the first few years of the creation of the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, citizens were encouraged in “the key attributes of nationhood: teaching and publishing in the national languages, training up and promoting indigenous elites, and fostering national cultures” aptly named “indigenization” (100). However, starting in 1927, under the leadership of Josef Stalin, the Bolsheviks “without ever renouncing indigenization, took several steps back” and started working towards patriotism of the Soviet Union (103). This switch in policy demonstrates the volatility of the law in regards to the opinions and desires of the leadership, which can only be traced further through the book with Khrushchev’s transfer of Crimea to the Ukrainian Tatars that had been removed from their homelands by Stalin (107) and Gorbachev’s glasnost that suddenly allowed “national issues [to become] a very public matter” (112). This one chapter of the book allows readers to get a glimpse of the contradictions of the Soviet Union in a larger scope than a book that went only chronologically.Additionally, the chapters are a subtle reminder that the Soviet Union was a complex system that can only be understood through understanding its contradictions. Lovell states that “to say that [the Soviet Union] ‘failed’ is meaningless: complex societies and civilizations are not amenable to one-word assessments” (142). This argument is an undercurrent for the entire book, indirectly making its way into each chapter encouraging readers to comprehend that the only way to understand the Soviet Union is to accept the paradoxes.In conclusion, as an undergraduate student of Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies who has read many books on the history of the Soviet Union, Lovell’s book is a succinct, well-written, well-organized introduction to the Soviet Union. I wholeheartedly believe this not because the book is necessarily the easiest to understand, because there are moments when searching unfamiliar terms in required, but because the book highlights the struggles of the Soviet Union in a way that complements the experiments shortcomings and competencies, and bolsters the notion that the Soviet Union is more than a pass/fail experiment but a system that people lived and died in for 74 years.

I got this book to help prepare for the DSST exam on "History of the Soviet Union" and I would say this book was very helpful in that regard. At around 170 pages, it's a fairly short read, but the author makes the most of it by breaking it down into a selection of major topics. Each topic gets the chronological treatment, taking you from the start of the Revolution through to the dissolution of the USSR. This book alone won't give you everything you need to pass the DSST exam, but it will get you started.I'm something of a devourer of books, and I worked my way through this book in just under a week doing one or two chapters a day.

As I read this book I enjoyed the looks behind the scenes of the history of the Soviet Union. At the same time it scared me in the sense that you look at the USA and where we came from and the direction that we seem to be going in, it scares you that we are going down the same path to socialism and government control.

Arrived as described and quicker than first listed. No complaints.

Bought for my son who wanted to learn a little more of the history of the SU. Nice quality and a few will look great on the bookcase . Will buy more ( have 3 now)

The approach of themes rather than 'from then to now' works really well. Very engaging and insightful. Many lessons for modern politics and radical individuals.

„We have not the slightest chance of understanding the 20th century – or the early 21st – without giving the Soviet contribution its due.“Dieser Satz der letzten Seite von Lovells Einführung über die Sowjetunion fasst blendend zusammen, warum ich dieses Buch in die Hand genommen habe: Die UdSSR einigermaßen zu begreifen ist unerlässlich, wenn man sich mit dem 20. Jahrhundert beschäftig – und auch ich habe das Gefühl, mehr von James-Bond-Klischees und Hörensagen in meinem Bild dieses Staates geprägt zu sein, als von Faktenwissen. Also habe ich beschlossen, diesem Staat mehr Aufmerksamkeit zu widmen und habe mir als Startpunkt eine kurze Einführung gesucht – dafür sind die ja da.Das Lovell-Buch ist dabei ein Glücksgriff. Er distanziert sich gleich zu Anfang davon, den immer gleichen Parabelflug der chronologischen Klischees durchzugehen, sondern will mit einer alternativen Struktur den Leser dahin bringen, ein Gefühl, einen Geschmack dieses Staates zu bekommen: My primary analytical aim in this book will not be to show when and how the USSR wentg wrong, or to speculate on when exactly its collapse became inevitable, but rather to explain the workings of a society , economy, and political system very alien to the Britons and Americans of the early 21st century. I want to characterize the Soviet Union, not to pronounce sentence on it.“ (S.4)Diesen Anspruch löst er glänzend ein. Mit dem Durchleuchten von sechs Gegensatzpaaren macht Lovell einen faszinierenden, weiten Fächer auf, der den enorme Facetten dieser einmaligen, riesigen und diversifizierten Gesellschaft erahnen lässt: „Future and past“, „Coercion and participation“, „Poverty and wealth“, „Elite and masses“, „Patriotism and multinationalims“ und „West and East“ sind seine Themen – wobei er betont, dass es noch hundert andere Gegensatzpaare gibt, die sich ebenso anböten.Die einzelnen Kapitel sind faszinierend, weil sie eine hochdynamische, oft widersprüchliche, energiegeladene Gesellschaft zeigen, die (wenn man alle Kapitel zu einer Synthese zusammenzieht), an ihrem eigenen Traum gescheitert ist. Dass sie diesen aber wirklich, aufrichtig und mit enormer Kraft verfolgt hat, ist die wichtige Lehre dieses Buches. Als „Systemkonfliktgewinner“ sind wir eine zynische, abwertende Betrachtung der UdSSR gewohnt: Ein gewissenloses Überwachungssystem von eiskalten Machtpolitikern ohne Seele und Vision; ein geknechtetes Volk in Fabriken oder Lagern, die Flucht ins Private und den Schwarzmarkt etc. etc. Ohne diese negativen Seiten zu verschweigen stellt ihnen die gleichzeitigen konstruktiven Aspekte gegenüber: Der echte Glaube an eine historische Mission, die all den Hunger und den Mangel sinnvoll machte; das Streben und Schaffen für eine Welt von morgen auf allen Ebenen der Gesellschaft. Mit der Darstellung beider Seiten nimmt Lovell das historische Phänomen und seine Akteure wirklich ernst.Die (je nach Thema teils vollkommen wilde und sprunghafte) Dynamik des Wandels von der kraftvollen, visionären Bewegung hin zu einem gerontokratischen, patikular-nationalistischen, ausgelaugten Staat, der seiner eigenen theoretischen Berechtigung verlustig geht – dieses kraftvolle Bild zeichnet Lovell auf nur 150 Seiten gut lesbar und mit einer interessant kommentierten weiterführenden Leseliste.

Diese historische Sicht auf die Sowjetunion ist ideologisch voreingenommen und lässt jede nachvollziehbare Struktur vermissen. Allem Anschein nach eine Auftragsarbeit ohne jeden inhaltlichen Wert.This historical view on the Soviet Union is ideologically predetermined and, in addition, lacks every comprehensible structure. Apparently a contract work without detectable value.

Good product