Synopses & Reviews
In this ground-breaking study, Lynne Viola--the first Western scholar to gain access to the Soviet state archives on collectivization--brilliantly excavates a lost chapter in the history of the Stalin revolution. This book affords an intimate look at the campaign of the 25,000ers, the industrial workers who were sent into the Soviet countryside to implement collectivization during the 1930s. Examining the backgrounds, motivations, and mentalities of these workers, Viola embarks on the first Western investigation of the everyday activities of Stalin's rank-and-file shock troops as they strove to realize the First Five-Year Plan revolution and who, in doing so, enacted the final chapter in the Russian revolution. In the process, Viola sheds light on how the state mobilized working-class support for collectivization and shows that, contrary to common belief, the 25,000ers went into the countryside as willing recruits. The first social history to present an "on the scene" line of vision, this book brings readers one step closer to penetrating the elusive Soviet mind at a critical historical moment.
Review
"This excellent monograph tells the story so well because the author...was able to gain access to Soviet governmental archives containing a wealth of first-hand material."--
Foreign Affairs"A superb, remarkably mature first effort....Using hitherto unavailable archival sources, she develops a fascinating, complex, and variegated picture of collectivization....A bravura performance."--Annals of the American Academy
"What Viola has given us is a significantly richer picture of collectivization and a valuable indication of what can be accomplished through imagination and careful research of the materials of the Stalin era."--Russian Review
"Viola has gathered much new information from Soviet archives, even more from a wide variety of contemporary Soviet periodicals, and from Soviet secondary sources."--The Historian
"Viola's work represents a welcomed addition to the sparse literature."--The Journal of Modern History