>
> How many Westerners are out there who have done actual
> work of value on Russia in English? Paul Klebnikov
> (RIP). Anatol Lieven. Anne Williamson. Peter Lavelle.
> Stephen Cohen. Peter Reddaway. That's just about it.
> Six names.
All great writers. And glad you cited Reddaway esp. Back in the 70's he wrote frequently for the NYRB on dissidents being committed to mental institutions, pumped full of drugs.
But, really, just 6? Last month checked out, "The Rise of Russia and the fall of the Soviet empire, " by John B. Dunlop, Princeton University Press, 1993. Chapter 5 5 Anatomy of a Failed Coup, quite good. His Dad wrote for The Nation in the 40's. "The first serious attempt to analyze the last six years of the Soviet Union from the perspective of that union's largest member, the Russian Federation. The task is formidable, but Dunlop undertakes it with style and clarity. This is an extremely dramatic story, which no one predicted, and which is of great importance for the undoubtedly very turbulent future developments in the successor states of the Soviet Union. "--Peter Reddaway, The New York Review of Books
Some more western names to add to your list, among many. (Along w/ Central and Eastern Europeans and Russians, I recommend, as a counter to your repeated accusation I only read Western cold warriors on the fSU...To really get you going, I could add (NOT!) Richard Pipes, "Survival is not enough : Soviet realities and America's future, " heh. Not that I agree w/ their politics, in this list, all of them, 'cuz at the top of my list on Soviet and post-Soviet history is Russian marxist, Roy Medvedev. [First time I read, "Let History Judge, " was at Cal. State, Northridge where I went for a yr. before UCSC. Teacher was a Bulgarian exile, quite conservative. He asked all of us in one of the 1st sessions if we saw the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as the same, in intent and consequence. None of yes raised our hands, yes. He blustered, "But, Hitler called it the National Socialist..." emphasizing Socialist as he spoke. I replied that the naming of the NSDAP was clever demogogy and the "anti-capitalism" of Nazism was entirely a sham. Despite this guys politics he still gave me an A. If you were a college prof, like him, would you assigb books as required reading that you disagree with, Chrisnik?)
James Billington, "Russia in Search of Itself, " amazon.com>...A.S. Panarin, head of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, whom Billington calls "one of the most sophisticated of the Eurasianists," suggests that Russia has a mission to resist the "irresponsible consumer hedonism and comprador modernism" of the West. Eurasianism attracts both sober thinkers and those who consider intelligence an impediment to fantasy. The latter find Stalin a great hero, his purges being described by Oleg Platonov, "the most prolific of reactionary nationalists," as "the first step toward the salvation of Russia from Jewish Bolshevism." (A widely-reported poll conducted on the eve of the 2004 presidential elections found that 45 percent of Russians thought Stalin had played a positive role in the country's history, while 42 percent held the opposite view.) Mixing eschatology and science fiction, many extremists view America as the evil empire, going so far as to suggest that the planes that destroyed the World Trade towers were "swallows of the Apocalypse." Billington allots too much space to such colorful lunacies, although he does make the serious point that "Eurasianism may well be the last gasp of a depleted intelligentsia seeking to cobble together an ideology that could revive Russian power and give themselves a central role in its exercise."
More names, SF State Prof. Anthony D'Agostino, "Soviet Succession Struggles: Kremlinology and the Russian Question From Lenin to Gorbachev.", " very interesting esp about the Leningrad affair. (Also wrote earlier for an anarchist press, "Marxism and the Russian anarchists.")
Italian Communist G. Boffa, "The Stalin Phenomenon, " translated, Cornell University Press, 1992.
Boris Souvraine, cadre of the 20's French Communist Party, author of the 1st major Stalin biography in the late 20's. Much material on Souvraine in F. Furet (another former PCF member) in, "The passing of an illusion : the idea of communism in the twentieth century."
Transforming Russia and China : revolutionary struggle in the twentieth century / William G. Rosenberg and Marilyn B. Young. Ms. Young, New Left historian, one of the founders of the Bulletin of Concerned Asia Scholars, authored a classic on the Vietnam War, as well, "The Vietnam wars, 1945-1990."
Robert C. Tucker, too many titles to cite. (Heh, not to be confused w/ Robert W. Tucker, who I was reminded of reading an excellent book on the Iraq War by maoist, Larry Everest, "Oil, power and empire : Iraq and the U.S. global agenda, " , "W." advocated in a famous piece in Harpers during the OPEC embargo of the mid-70's an invasion of the KSA. Henry K. also was for it.)
Power in the Kremlin: from Krushchev to Kosygin. Translated by Helen Katel. Le pouvoir en U.R.S.S, French title by M. Tatu.
Another former Communist of the PCF, Annie Kriegel, again too many titles to cite, though I'd avoid her Lenin bios...nothing new there.
Wolfgang Leonhard, yet another former Communist, was trained in the
Comintern schools (see his classic, "Child of the Revolution.") "Betrayal
: the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939, " on the reaction of Western Communists
to the Pact.
Abraham Brumberg, socdem editor of the USG journal Problems of Communism, "Chronicle of a revolution : a western-Soviet inquiry into perestroika."
Ronald G. Suny, authority on Soviet nationalities history. New Left Review has published a few of his pieces.
Khrushchev and Brezhnev as leaders : building authority in Soviet politics / George W. Breslauer.
I could go on, (and on and on) Adam Ulam, Boris Nicolevsky, Louis Fischer, David Dallin, Helene d'Encausse, Daniel Singer, Alexander Yanov, Seweryn Bialer, A. Vaksburg, Dusko Doder...)...but, I think I've made my point. Chris is doing his Warren Zevon act. -- Michael Pugliese, Energizer Bunny