January 13, 2020, by Angela Shearsmith

On trial: Stalin Digital Archive

We are pleased to announce a month’s trial for the Stalin Digital Archive.

Joseph Stalin’s life (1878–1953) coincided with the most momentous events of the twentieth century: two world wars, several revolutions in Russia and China, the Cold War, and the dawn of the nuclear age. Stalin was influential in the Chinese revolutions and communist victory, the Korean conflict, and the occupation of Eastern Europe.

In terms of modern Russian history, he played key roles in the revolutionary movement, the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, Soviet industrialization, the terror of the 1930s, World War II, and the Cold War. Documents previously only available in Moscow have been made available electronically and translated from Russian to English.

Highlights include:

· Stalin’s correspondence with his secret police chiefs N. I. Ezhov and L. P. Beria.

· Hundreds of manuscripts sent to Stalin by others for his corrections and comments, with detailed marginalia that show his reactions.

· Correspondence with his lieutenants on important and secret subjects. These letters and telegrams show Stalin’s opinions of Lenin, other Bolshevik leaders, and world figures as well as his reflections on policy choices.

· 300 books in his personal library with detailed notations in the margins of what he read. His opinions about political, literary, and philosophical works are fascinating and revealing about how he thought.

· Stalin’s archive has a fascinating internal, personal component concerning major events of the twentieth century with new materials and shows us the nature and evolution of Stalin’s own thought, opinions, and decision-making process.

The trial runs from 13 January – 10 February 2020

Do let us know what you think. Please send your feedback to the Libraries Collections team: collections@nottingham.ac.uk

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