Making Sense of War : the Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution

433 Pages·2001·14.19 MB·English

by  Amir Weiner

Making Sense of War
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Making Sense of W AR
THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE
FATE OF THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
Amir Weiner
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS • PRINCETON AND OXFORD
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Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire 0X20 1SY
All Rights Reserved
Second printing, and first paperback printing, 2002
Paperback ISBN 0-691-09543-4
The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition of this book
as follows
Werner, Amir, 1961-
Making sense of war : the Second World War and the fate of the
Bolshevik Revolution / Amir Weiner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-05702-8 (alk. paper)
1. World War, 1939-1945—Psychological aspects. 2. World War,
1939-1945—Soviet Union. 3. World War, 1939-1945—Social as-
pects—Soviet Union. 5. World War, 1939-1945—Ukraine—Vinnyt-
sia Region. 6. World War, 1939-1945—Propaganda. 7. Propaganda,
Soviet—History. 8. Communism—Soviet Union—History. 9 Vinnyt
sia Region (Ukraine)—History—20th century. I. Title.
D744.44 .W45 2001
940 53'l-dc21 00-044125
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Janson
Printed on acid-free paper <*>
www.pup.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 32
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IN MEMORY OF
Moshe and Tsipora Weiner
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Contents.
List of Illustrations ix
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: Making Sense of War 7
PART I: DELINEATING THE BODY POLITIC 41
One
Myth and Power: The Making of a Postwar Elite 43
Two
"Living Up to the Calling of a Communist": Purification
of the Rank and File 82
PART II: DELINEATING THE BODY SOCIOETHNIC 127
Three
Excising Evil 129
Four
Memory of Excision, Excisionary Memory 191
PART III: THE MAKING OF A POSTWAR SOVIET NATION 237
Five
Integral Nationalism in the Trial of War 239
Six
Peasants to Soviets, Peasants to Ukrainians 298
Afterword: A Soviet World without Soviet Power,
a Myth of War without War 364
Bibliography 387
Index 411
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Illustrations.
Unattributed photographs are by the author.
Figures
1.1. Lieutenant-General Mykhailo Stakhurs'kyi, soon to be appointed
first secretary of the Vinnytsia Party Regional Committee. 47
1.2. Stakhurs'kyi delivering a public address. 48
1.3. A monument on Vinnytsia's main street commemorating Ivan
Bevz, who was purged during the Terror in the late 1930s. Sculptor, A.
Levyts'kyi. 53
3.1. Two Boots Make a Pair. L'viv, 1945. A Soviet poster condemning
the Nazi-Ukrainian nationalist alliance. Artist, O. Koziurenko. Courtesy,
Central Scientific Library, Kiev, Ukraine. 167
3.2. A monument overlooking the mass graves of several thousand lo-
cals and prisoners of war executed by the Nazis following the completion
of construction of Hitler's headquarters nearby. 171
3.3. The grave at Lityn's central square of an NKVD officer killed in a
clash with a Ukrainian nationalist unit in the region in June 1944. 175
3.4. French Justice. Soviet mockery of the lenient treatment of wartime
collaborators by the French government. Krokodil, 30 January 1953. Artist,
L. Soifertis. 185
4.1. Footprints of Crimes. 1953. Announcement of the uncovering of the
"Doctors' Plot." Krokodil, 30 January 1953. Artists, Kukryniksy. 199
5.1. Vinnitsa. Vinnytsia, 1943. A Nazi poster portraying the exhumation
of mass graves of victims of Soviet terror in the region. Courtesy, Hoover
Archive, Stanford University. 266
5.2. Vinnitsa: Do Not Forget What Happened! Vinnytsia, 1943. A Nazi
collage of photos of the exhumation of mass graves of victims of Soviet terror
in Vinnytsia. Courtesy, Hoover Archive, Stanford University. 267
5.3. The Holocaust in Vinnytsia. Photo depicting the massacre of local
Jews by an Einsatzgruppe unit. Courtesy, YIVO, New York. 278
6.1. We Were Triumphant in Battle—We Shall Be Triumphant on the
Labor Front. Kharkiv, n.d. War veterans are called on to transfer the zeal
of the front to the harvest campaign. Artist, Slivchenko. Courtesy, Central
Scientific Library, Kiev, Ukraine. 315
6.2. The monument and eternal flameh onoring fallen soldiers in the cen-
ter of Vinnytsia. 340
6.3. An obelisk commemorating the fallen native sons of the village of
Bahrynivtsi. 341
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X ILLUSTRATIONS
6.4. The Sun Has Fully Risen—It Is Liberation Day for Ukraine! Kiev,
1944. Artist, R. Mel'nychuk, with poetry by Mykola Tereshchenko. Cour-
tesy, Central Scientific Library, Kiev, Ukraine. 353
6.5. Poster featuring the poetry of Taras Shevchenko, the nineteenth-
century Ukrainian national bard, who was mobilized to the Soviet war ef-
fort. Kiev, 1944. Artist, I. Pleshchyns'kyi. Courtesy, Central Scientific Li-
brary, Kiev, Ukraine. 355
6.6. Ukraine Is Free! Kiev, 1944. Artist, M. Litvynenko. Courtesy, Central
Scientific Library, Kiev, Ukraine. 357
6.7. Long Live and Forever Flourish Soviet Unified Ukrainian Land, Liber-
ated by the Red Army! Kiev, 1945. Artist, Myronenko. Courtesy, Central
Scientific Library, Kiev, Ukraine. 358
6.8. Beautiful Ukraine—United and Indivisible! L'viv, 1945. Artists, V.
Fatal'chuk and O. Iunak, with poetry by Pavlo Tychyna. Courtesy, Central
Scientific Library, Kiev, Ukraine. 360
6.9. Vote for the Best Sons and Daughters of Our People to the Supreme
Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic! 1946. Poster depicting the ideal post-
war Soviet Ukrainian family. Artists, V. Fatal'chuk and O. Iunak. Courtesy,
Central Scientific Library, Kiev, Ukraine. 361
A.l. Three generations of memorials to war victims (1945,1965,1991)
at a cemetery in Lityn. 381
A.2. Jewish cemetery in Lityn. 383
A. 3. A Soviet Ukrainian Pieta. Commemoration of fallen native sons in
the village of Ivanivtsi. 384
Maps
1. Soviet Ukraine before and after the annexation of the western re-
gions. 2
2. Ukraine during World War II. 4
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