70 Years on: Remembering Victory in WWII — A View of Post-war Life in the Soviet Union
In the year that marks the 70th anniversary of victory in the Second World War, we talk to Kristy Ironside, who received her BA and MA from the University of Toronto before going on to complete her PhD at the University of Chicago, and who is currently researching life in the Soviet Union in the post-war years. Kristy Ironside’s work examines what the War meant to ordinary people, how their lives changed — and how Soviet society coped with the aftermath.
— You joined The International Center for the History and Sociology of World War II and Its Consequences as a researcher last year. How did your cooperation with HSE start?
— I applied for a postdoctoral position and was fortunate enough to get it. I was attracted by the possibility to collaborate with well-known Russian historians working on the Second World War and Soviet history, in general, and by the opportunity to be near my archives in Moscow, as I revise my dissertation to turn it into a monograph.
— 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II. What are your plans and goals as a researcher at the Center for this year?
— Although I've researched and written about the war years, for my book, I focus more on the post-1945 period and the social and economic consequences of the war for ordinary citizens' living standards and the evolution of the communist project in the Soviet Union. Aside from collecting more archival materials and revising my existing dissertation materials for the book, I am also working on a side project about the bachelor tax, which was created by Khrushchev in 1941 to encourage people to have more children and replace the war dead. It was very unpopular because the consequences of the war made it difficult for citizens to have three children, the number below which one paid the tax. I am finishing up the archival research for this article at the Russian State Economic Archive in 2015.
I really like Moscow as a city: it's cosmopolitan, there are lots of things to see and do in your spare time. You feel very linked into an international network of scholarship here.
— What do you think young people know and feel about the World War II?
— I think younger people know less about the everyday difficulties of the war years as time goes on. Both my parents were born during the war, not in Russia but in Scotland, and they remember rationing as children.
— You've devoted quite a lot of time to researching Soviet history. Your PhD thesis was 'The Value of a Ruble: A Social History of Money in Postwar Soviet Russia, 1945-1964'. What was the main trigger that sparked your interest in Soviet history? Who were your teachers and mentors?
— I simply found Soviet history fascinating as an undergraduate. I have no family or other connection to Russian history. I suppose it was simple exposure: I went to the University of Toronto as for my BA and for my MA, where I was able to work with leading Soviet scholars, especially with Lynne Viola. For my PhD, I attended the University of Chicago, where I worked with Sheila Fitzpatrick, one of the leading Soviet historians, especially for social history. I was one of her last students before she retired.
— How is living and working in Moscow for an international expert? What's difficult and what is more positive?
— I really like Moscow as a city: it's cosmopolitan, there are lots of things to see and do in your spare time, and for me, as a Soviet historian, it's crucial to have access to Russian archives and libraries. The process of working through archival files is very slow, so having a year here is very helpful for my research. Sometimes I find the size and crowdedness of Moscow frustrating, but I feel the same way when I'm in New York. One really encouraging thing is the level of internationalization you feel at HSE: since September, we've had several well-known scholars come to give presentations. You feel very linked into an international network of scholarship here.
Anna Chernyakhovskaya, specially for HSE News Service
Kristy Ironside
See also:
‘We Cannot Understand the Modern Ideological Confrontation without the Accusations that Emerged during the Lausanne Process’
Rainer Matos Franco, from Mexico, defended his PhD thesis with honours at HSE University this June. In his dissertation, Rainer Matos Franco examines the history of anticommunism in Europe during the 1920s. The HSE News Service spoke with Rainer and his academic supervisor, Tatiana Borisova, about the significance of the Lausanne Process for the Cold War and contemporary history, the opportunities provided by HSE University for international PhD candidates, and the challenges of working with a vast database of historical sources.
How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Ten: 'Number, Please?'
The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The final episode of the series recounts how men were unable to cope with telephone operator jobs and were replaced by tall and polite young women. However, as telephone networks expanded, the role of the intermediary became unproductive, eventually rendering the switchboard operator profession obsolete due to automation—not the first nor the last time such a thing has happened. As for Alexander Graham Bell, he used the earnings from inventing the telephone to promote science, educate people about the world around us, and pursue new inventions.
How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Nine: Big Connections
The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The ninth episode of the series explores the development of the first long-distance, interstate, and transatlantic telephone lines, which suddenly made people thousands of kilometres away feel as close as if they were in the same room together.
How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Eight: The Russian Field of Experiments
The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The eighth episode of the series recounts how Russia first adapted the telephone for military and logistical purposes, created a shell company headed by a nominal executive for reselling the rights to Western competitors, and intensively developed communication infrastructure in the country's two capitals, making such progress that Vladimir Lenin insisted on capturing and maintaining control of telephone exchanges at all costs.
How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Seven: German Efficiency
The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The seventh episode in the series recounts the story of German bureaucrats, who proved to be the most astute in Europe by ensuring effective telephony first for themselves and subsequently for all major cities in Germany. However, even there, the government's dominant role over the free market slowed down the adoption of the new technology.
How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Six: The Telephone's Misadventures in France
The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The sixth episode of the series recounts events in France when the private owner of the telephone network was compelled to sell it to the government at a knockdown price, and the impact it had on the development of communications in the country. Spoiler alert: the impact, naturally, was detrimental.
How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Five: From the US Free Market to Conservative Britain
In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The fifth episode of the series chronicles the early experiences of the telegraph and telephone in Great Britain, shedding light on the challenges they faced, and explores the adverse impact of excessive government regulation and nationalisation on the evolution of telecommunications.
HSE Researchers Study Emerging Adulthood in Russia
Sociology today distinguishes more developmental stages of growing up than just childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, as commemorated in Leo Tolstoy’s trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, Youth. For the past two decades, sociologists have been exploring the concept of emerging adulthood, a transitional stage that occurs between adolescence and early adulthood. Researchers at the HSE Institute of Education have discovered that in Russia, one out of every two young respondents, with females more frequently than males, falls within the emerging adult category. The study findings have been published in Emerging Adulthood.
Peacocks, Pepper, and Petrol: The Early History of Imports from Asia
Petroleum for equine care, wood oil for lighting, sandalwood for Easter celebrations, and lemons and olives for entertaining unexpected guests. Russian monasteries often used these and other eastern goods in the period leading up to and during the reign of Peter the Great. Analysing their account books leads to a revision of the traditional assumptions about the primary consumers of oriental goods in Russia. These consumers, in addition to the royal and aristocratic circles, included monastery estates, as discussed in the paper ‘“Three altyns worth of petroleum…”: Oriental goods in Russia at the second half of the 17th and early 18th century’ by historian Arthur Mustafin of HSE University. Based on his paper, IQ.HSE explores the types of goods that were shipped from the East to Russia in the latter half of the 17th to the early 18th century, including the routes and purposes of these shipments.
How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Four: David the Start-up Versus the Corporate Goliath
The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The fourth episode of the series recounts the story of the fledgling start-up's confrontation with hordes of patent trolls and its subsequent victory in a full-blown corporate war against the largest telecommunications company of the late 19th century.