The History of a PhD

Abstract

The Commissariat of Enlightenment,1 published in 1970, was the expression of a new way of thinking about internal conflict in the Soviet Union. Sheila Fitzpatrick, its author, had studied the creation and development of the Narkompros – the Soviet Ministry of Education – under its first Commissar, Anatol Lunacharsky, and had done so using the state archives. Her book presented a challenge to the dominant approach of western sovietology, which argued that the Soviet system of government was monolithic, meaning that decisions were made at the top and were the result of internal party intrigue. Once a decision was made it was obeyed by the lower echelons, whether willingly or as a result of coercion. It followed that in the Soviet Union politics was primary, and that the analysis of any aspect of Soviet life should be an analysis of the relationships and policies of its leaders – kreminology. This was not a universal position. John Erickson, whose magisterial study of the Red Army, The Soviet High Command,2 was published (in its first volume) in 1962, emphasized the need to look for explanations other than party decisions. But most authorities concurred.