Intimate Enemies: Demonizing the Bolshevik Opposition, 1918-1928: 233 (Russian and East European Studies) - Softcover

Halfin, Igal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822959526 ISBN 13: 9780822959526

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007

Synopsis

Intimate Enemies is a brilliant study of the transformation of Bolshevik Party ideology, language, and power relations during the crucial period leading up to Stalin's seizure of power. Combining extensive research in recently opened Soviet archives with an insightful rereading of intra-Party struggles, Igal Halfin uncovers this evolution in the language of Bolshevism. This language defined the methods for judging true party loyalty-in what Halfin describes as an examination of the 'hermeneutics of the soul,' and became the basis for prosecuting the Party's enemies, particularly the \u201cintimate enemies\u201d within the Party itself. Halfin argues that Bolshevism-which claimed sole access to truth and morality-ultimately demonized its enemies, and became in effect a theology that facilitated a monumental power shift.

About this title

About the Author

Igal Halfin is senior lecturer in the department of history at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of Intimate Enemies: Demonizing the Bolshevik Opposition, 1918-1928; From Darkness to Light: Class, Consciousness, and Salvation in Revolutionary Russia;

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822959526
• ISBN 13: 9780822959526
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432