The Mind in Exile

August 1, 2015
Fitzpatrick (History/Univ. of Sydney; A Spy in the Archives: A Memoir of Cold War Russia, 2013, etc.) puts faces to the names of Stalin's "cabinet," examining their histories, families, and devotion to the dictator. The social and political lives of the members of "Stalin's team" were permanently intertwined with his, including the required drunken all-nighters. Aside from Vyacheslav Molotov, few are familiar to Westerners, which will leave some readers trying to figure out who's who. None were highly educated or especially talented, and they were certainly not cosmopolitan intellectuals like the exiled Trotsky, Stalin's enduring bugbear. Stalin followed a policy of "dosage": divide and rule, fostering distrust, competition, and intrigue among his team. They were dedicated to the revolution and to Stalin, and they devoted their lives to both. The five-year plan of 1927 called for industrialization but provided no funding. Pushing grain exports was the team's answer, but the newly collectivized farms could barely sustain the populace. Famine was the logical result, and Stalin blamed local party secretaries. The difficulty of the rebuilding seemed to be easing just as Stalin's friend Sergei Kirov was assassinated in 1934, an event that set off the great purges. At this point, Stalin's paranoia took over, and Russia's best and brightest were eliminated: between 1935 and 1940, almost 2 million were arrested for anti-Soviet activity, and 688,503 were shot. No one was exempt; even Stalin's family members were arrested for careless talk. World War II was the impetus for the ministers to gather and form a State Defense Committee, a cautious cooperation they eventually turned to their advantage. Throughout the book, Fitzpatrick presumes readers are up to date on the era; those who aren't may be confused regarding some of the chronology and relationships among the author's subjects. Not a history or a biography but rather a well-researched study of the social and political lives of the men who supported, encouraged, and abetted Stalin. Prior knowledge of 20th-century Soviet history is a must.

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Starred review from September 1, 2015

The latest from Fitzpatrick (Everyday Stalinism) is rich in politics as well as personal intrigue. The author of many other books on Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) and the Russian Revolution (1917), Fitzpatrick offers a new analysis here, with an emphasis and explanation of the team of advisors that surrounded, supported and later survived Stalin for over 30 years. Changes in leadership over that time, and the fates of Nikolai Bukharin and Leon Trotsky as well as other lesser-known figures are explored. The author solidly applies the memoirs of Stalin's "knights," as she refers to his team, along with several of their family members. Thoroughly chronicled is the Soviet leader's path to power after Vladimir Lenin's death, the rapid agricultural collectivization that led to famine for many, and the Great Purge of the 1930s. What Fitzpatrick does well is cover the period after Stalin's death, showing how his team of advisors, formerly working collectively through his authority, was able to assert itself after his death. Her description of that difficult period makes this account well worth reading. Included are short biographies of indviduals named in the text and an ample bibliography of English and Russian sources. VERDICT The use of memoirs of the era makes this constructive reading for those seeking to understand an important period of Soviet history.--Amy Lewontin, Northeastern Univ. Lib., Boston

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November 29, 2021
Corngold (Franz Kafka: The Necessity of Form), a professor of literature at Princeton University, shapes a “cultural memory” of German Nobel laureate Thomas Mann (1875–1955) during his stint at Princeton from 1938 to 1941 in this savvy appraisal. Having been stripped of his German citizenship by the Nazis in 1936 for his critiques of fascism, Mann secured a lectureship at Princeton and, driven by his “insistent moral sense,” continued to speak out. Corngold depicts Mann as he strives to balance his dueling functions as a political exile and a writer devoted to his craft, all the while trying to solve “the problem of freedom,” which he saw as the challenge of leveling individualism with social equality. Mann, Corngold writes, “declared that an authentic Germany lived on—elsewhere. It lodged in the spiritual plenty of German literature, kept alive by writers in exile—by Mann and those whom he inspired to carry on.” This, though, isn’t a hagiography, and Corngold makes no bones about Mann’s biases and antiquated arguments, namely his lack of awareness about his relative affluence and his affirmation of colonialism in the form of his “admiration of the British Empire.” While the writing can be repetitive and dense, Corngold offers a shrewd and balanced take on a much-studied figure. This sharp, focused work will impress historians and scholars of German literature.