Historical Investigation - Stalin

[beccilini]

Hi,
I am trying to find a topic for my historical investigation and I was wondering if you have any suggestions or tips.
I would like to focus on Stalin, and mainly his personality or desicionmaking... perhaps something about the purges. But it has to be a controversional topic, with different view.
What about .. how much people actually knew that Stalin was (partly) responsible for the purges in the country or abroad.
I know it that is not a good reaseach questions, but something in the lines of that..

Thanks

[Cutetare]

Honestly, I think the answer for that RQ could be a bit too obvious for an investigation, perhaps is you focused on the political aspect of the purges... since when he was planning it, why he changed his mind about the loyalty of some party members, I almost did that one, but ended up changing it a bit cause I didnt have the time to look for good sources, but its very interesting!

Hoped I helped.

[*Sternchen*]

I'm also doing my IA on Stalin. First my RQ was "How sigificant was Stalin's role in the defeat of nazism?" but i just couldnt find enough information about that. so i had to change my RQ and now i'm doing "How successful was Stalin's foreign policy in the years of 1939-1945?" nothing special, but i enjoy it

[IsabelleDB]

I'm thinking of doing mine on the assassination of Kirov. Either that or JFK because they're equally controversial subjects.
Any advice? I think I've only found 2 sources for Kirov.

[Paul]

[quote name='beccilini' post='24375' date='Sep 15 2008, 09:25 PM']What about .. how much people actually knew that Stalin was (partly) responsible for the purges in the country or abroad.[/quote]

Hi Beccilini. I'm not sure how much I can help, but I'm a HL history student and Stalin being our current topic, I thought that I could try to help you.

When choosing your topic, it's important to think about these things:
-Does the topic interest you?
-Is sufficient information gathering possible? (are there enough sources?)
-Is the topic concentrated enough?

In addition to these, I've heard that it's preferable that your topic is related to your syllabus. I'm not sure how well your example satisfies these criteria, but I know that there are sources of the subject. To my knowledge, the people in the Soviet Union were not very aware of how much Stalin knew about what was going on. It was an autocratic state under his rule, after all, and nothing happens in an autocratic state without the ruler knowing about it. I've heard stories that some farmers were talking about how Stalin should be informed about their miserable conditions, how comrade Stalin would rush to their aid (after Stalin himself had introduced the collectivisation of farms in the SU).

[Paul]

[quote name='IsabelleDB' post='27450' date='Oct 30 2008, 07:27 PM']I'm thinking of doing mine on the assassination of Kirov. Either that or JFK because they're equally controversial subjects.
Any advice? I think I've only found 2 sources for Kirov.[/quote]

Hi Isabelle. The assassination of Kirov is indeed a peculiar subject. I happen to have some sources here conserning it, hopefully they'll help:

"Kirov, a member of the Politburo and virtual dictator of North Russia fell dead... Stalin and Voroshilov rushed to Leningrad. According to stories circulated in Party circles, Stalin personally supervised the intensive cross-examination. No outsider, of course, could know what he learned, but from his subsequent behaviour it can be surmised that Stalin was alarmed to the point of panic."
From "I Chose Freedom" by Kravchenko, 1947

"Kirov used to live in our house. He was one of us, an old colleague and a friend. Kirov spent the summer of 1934 with us. He was closer to us than any of his colleagues, and my father needed him. I will never believe that my father was involved in his death. Wouldn't it be more logical to link his killing with the name of Beria?"
From "20 Letters to a Friend" by Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter

"Neither the bodyguard nor his closest collaborators expected Kirov to come to Smolny that day; he had telephoned and said he was staying at home. Kirov arrived unexpectedly and ran into the... assassin, who was in Smolny... to secure a pass to the upcoming party meeting. The assassin and his victim met by accident in Smolny, Nikolaev was not stalking Kirov. According to oral tradition, Leningrad NKVD Deputy Chief Zaporozhets had approached Nikolaev, put him up to the crime, and provided the weapon and bullets."
From "The Politics of Repression Revisited" by Arch Getty, 1993

Edited November 1, 2008 by Paul

[IsabelleDB]

Thanks so much. Really helped.
Thing is that I spoke to my teacher and he told me that it would be much easier for me to go with my first essay question.
My first one was about Stalin and the modernization of Russia. More particularly if Stalin was necessary for the modernization of Russia.
I'm having trouble with the sources here too so if anyone has any suggestions. Anything at all would be appreciated.

[Cutetare]

Isabelle, I've started reading Moshe Lewin's Soviet Century and it seemed to go a bit in that direction, also very interesting... i think it's worth having a look!

[IsabelleDB]

Thanks so much.
I found the book. Can you tell so far which view point the author has taken?
As in, do you think Lewin believes that Stalin played a significant role in helping Russia with the Gosplan?