1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910815768303321

Autore

Boterbloem Kees <1962->

Titolo

The life and times of Andrei Zhdanov, 1896-1948 / / Kees Boterbloem

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Montreal ; ; Ithaca, : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2004

ISBN

1-282-86170-0

9786612861703

0-7735-7173-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxiv, 593 p. )

Disciplina

947.084/2/092

B

Soggetti

Politicians - Soviet Union

Hommes politiques - U.R.S.S

Soviet Union Politics and government 1936-1953

Soviet Union Cultural policy

Soviet Union History 1925-1953

U.R.S.S Politique et gouvernement 1936-1953

U.R.S.S Politique culturelle

U.R.S.S Histoire 1925-1953

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [525]-563) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front Matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Archival Annotation, Foreign Terms, Transcription, and Glossary -- Preface -- Stalin’s Accomplice -- Youth, 1896–19181 -- Rise of a Bolshevik Chieftain, 1918–1924 -- The Proconsul of Nizhnii Novgorod, 1924–1929 -- The Great Turn, 1929–1934 -- Moscow and Leningrad, 1934–1936 -- Purification, 1937–1939 -- Dragon’s Teeth, 1939–1941 -- Dragon Harvest, 1941–1945 -- The Prodigal Son Returns, 1945–1946 -- The Selfless Fighter Succumbs, 1947–1948 -- Myths, the Man, and a Legacy in Limbo -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In 1934 Andrei Zhdanov was promoted to the post of secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee in Moscow and entered the inner circle of Stalin's partners. Notable for his involvement in implementing the artificial crisis of the Great Terror in Moscow and Leningrad,



Zhdanov was later involved in the preparation and signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and acted as Stalin's Party emissary in the Winter War and the sovietization of Estonia. Boterbloem details how Zhdanov's career was put in jeopardy in the summer of 1941 when German troops almost captured Leningrad. Stalin kept Zhdanov at the Leningrad front for much of the Second World War because of his alleged failure to halt the initial German advance, where he presided over the terrible suffering of the besieged city's population. In 1945, Zhdanov's ideological commitment led to his recall to the centre of Soviet power where, more publicly visible than ever before, he berated Soviet artists, scientists, philosophers, composers, and foreign Communist Parties for failing to adhere to the Party line. Never in good health, the stress of being Stalin's main assistant in both the massive bureaucracy of the Communist Party and the attempt to restore ideological orthodoxy, combined with anxiety about his son Iurii, led to his death in 1948.