The limits of destalinization in the Soviet Union : political rehabilitations in the Soviet Union since Stalin /

This book by a Dutch historian constitutes the most thorough and systematic exploration in English of the rehabilitation of the victims of Stalin's purges and terror. The study focuses on two broad aspects of the issue: formal rehabilitation of those victims who survived and public posthumous rehabilitation both formal and informal. A brief comparison of the same processes in Czechoslovakia provides a comparative dimension. Sources of information include a wide range of party documents, published accounts in the press, encyclopaedias, scholarly works, official party histories, memoirs, and unpublished materials. Van Goudoever provides ongoing background on the political context of the rehabilitations and informed analysis of the political reasons for and political limits on the rehabilitations. His book consists of a judicious balance among aggregate data, statistical analysis, qualitative analysis, and individual case studies. He recognizes the limits of his data and works within those limits. This book provides an important contribution to a subject about which little is known. Upper-division and graduate collections.- D.V. Schwartz, University of Toronto