From Stalingrad to Volgograd: De-Stalinizing Stalinist Civilization, 1943-1964

Abstract

The Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43) left the Soviet city of its namesake in ruins. The two decades-long reconstruction of Stalingrad was a shared project between residents and the state that strove to create a modern socialist metropolis while honoring the heroic efforts of those who fought and died in the war. The restoration of the city took place first under Joseph Stalin, and later during the political and cultural upheaval of de-Stalinization unleashed by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev. By examining the choices of Soviet urban planners and the “everyday” experience of residents within the city through the communist party’s local newspaper, this study seeks to explore how de-Stalinization transformed Soviet civilization through a tightly focused urban case study. This dissertation argues that Khrushchev’s reforms significantly altered Soviet life in Stalingrad through initiatives aimed at providing mass-housing, revitalizing the planned economy, expanding agricultural production, and bringing an end to state terror, all while supplanting the party’s legitimizing narrative previously contained within Stalin’s “cult of personality” with a newly expanded war myth and an updated vision of communist modernity.