Stalin and His Team
The “Rough” Men, Foreign Countries, and the Intelligentsia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Over three decades, Stalin maintained a small, stable circle of power: it implemented Stalin’s policies and survived the Stalinist terror relatively well in tact. This group harboured a deep mistrust of foreigners from the capitalist world and viewed the local intelligentsia with suspicion. In the latter, the party leaders saw competition for the moral leadership in society. But the children of Stalin’s team themselves became members of the intelligentsia and kept away from politics. The social rules by which Stalin’s team functioned were too complex to reduce violence.
(Osteuropa 4/2012, pp. 61–68)