Recent Writings about Soviet Historiography

Abstract

In this essay, George Enteen reviews two studies of Soviet historiography, one Russian and one western, as well as a Russian who’s who of historians. The Russian study, which examines the establishment of censorship in the 1920s, is based on archives that have usually been overlooked. The western study examines the struggle against intellectual controls in the years from 1956 to 1974 and draws on archives and extensive interviews. This latter study receives most of the attention. Enteen takes issue with the study’s author on a number of points concerning Stalinist historiography. By posing questions that arise from a comparison of the studies, Enteen seeks to make an observation about the state of Soviet studies.