Leiden University Student Repository

Keesmaat, Karin (2020)

'Stalin is a god, he could come back'. A Case Study: Aleksandr Tvardovsky's Struggle with his Stalinist Past

Master thesis | History (MA)

This master thesis is a case study of Aleksandr Tvardovsky, a famous Soviet poet and chief editor of the literary magazine Novyi Mir. This is a research on how Tvardovsky, who had loyally supported Stalin during his regime but later became an important actor in the destalinization, was able to come to terms with having supported Stalin’s system of terror. By analysing primary sources like his Working Notebooks, autobiographical poems and his brother’s autobiography, and by analysing his documented behaviour both during Stalin’s regime and after, this thesis will portray how Tvardovsky dealt with the aftermath of Stalin’s terror. In doing so, this research will make use of Hellbeck’s theory regarding writers’ loyalty to the regime despite state violence and the theory of the heroisation-demonisation phenomenon in mass dictatorships. This thesis aims to shed more light on how Soviet citizens adjusted during the Thaw.

Aleksandr Tvardovsky

Stalin

Thaw

Case study

Stalinist past

guilt

heroisation-demonisation

Author

Keesmaat, Karin

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Political Culture and National Identities

Supervisors

Kern, J.H.C.

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en