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Violence from below : explaining crimes against civilians across Soviet space, 1943–1947

Version 2 2024-06-03, 22:18
Version 1 2016-07-12, 13:21
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-03, 22:18 authored by M Edele, F Slaveski
The end of World War II brought little relief to the lands it ravaged most. Mass wartime violence continued in the Soviet space beyond the ‘false peace’ of 1945. Historians have sought to explain this violence in terms of the ‘wartime brutalisation’ of state and citizens alike, though this approach is limited in explaining how and why violence continued after 1945. This article shifts focus from psychology to social history to argue that the disintegration of Soviet state control is central to explaining the enduring violence after 1945 and understanding its emergence as much ‘from below’ as ‘from above’.

History

Journal

Europe-Asia studies

Volume

68

Pagination

1020-1035

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

0966-8136

eISSN

1465-3427

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2016, University of Glasgow

Issue

6

Publisher

Taylor & Francis