The Secret History of Soviet Russia's Police State: Cruelty, Co-Operation and Compromise, 1917-91 - Paperback

by Martyn Whittock (Author)

'[R]eadable and thoughtful . . . does an excellent job of exploring how the murderous political police in all its incarnations defined the Soviet Union, and left a poisonous legacy still with us today'
Professor Mark Galeotti, author of The Vory and A Short History of Russia

Repression, control, manipulation and elimination of enemies assisted in the establishment of the Soviet state, and helped maintain it in power, but could not, in the end, prevent its collapse.

Citizens of the West have, for the most part, been told a very simplified story of the repressive 'totalitarian' state that was the USSR. In fact, it was sustained by more than just policing and force. No amount of revisionist history can erase the reality of millions controlled, imprisoned and killed, but there was much more to the USSR's one-party state than this. Whittock tells a more complex story of the combination of cruelty, co-operation and compromise required to build and run a one-party state. Much of this is the story of the role played by the secret police in creating and sustaining such a form of government, but it is much more than simply a 'history of the secret police'. This is because the 'police state' which emerged (in which dissent, both real and imaginary, was undoubtedly policed, threatened and ruthlessly eliminated) was more than just the product of the arrests, interrogations, executions and imprisonments carried out by the secret police. The USSR was also made possible by a battle for hearts and minds which led millions of people to feel that they really had benefited from the system and had a stake in the new society.

Back Jacket

The story that has been told in the West of the repressive 'totalitarian' state that was the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, is an oversimplification. The Soviet state was not sustained by policing and force alone.

Repression, control, manipulation and elimination of enemies may have assisted in the establishment of the USSR, and helped maintain its power, but these did not, in the end, prevent its collapse in 1991.

No amount of revisionist history can erase the reality of millions controlled, imprisoned and killed, but there was much more to the USSR's one-party state than this. Whittock provides a more complex and compelling account, from 1917 onwards, of the combination of cruelty, co-operation and compromise required to build and run a one-party state.

Much of this, of course, is the story of the role played by the secret police in creating and sustaining such a form of government, but the Soviet state was also made possible by an appeal to hearts and minds which led millions of people to feel that they really had benefited from the system and had a stake in the new society.

Praise for Martyn Whittock's work:

'A terrific, detailed introduction of these wonderful stories and the pantheon of characters in them . . . their writing is vivid and lively . . . a great addition to any library'
San Francisco Book Review, on Norse Myths & Legends (written with Hannah Whittock)

'Whittock displays a fine eye for detail'
Wall Street Journal, on Mayflower Lives

Author Biography

Martyn Whittock graduated in Politics from Bristol University in 1980, where his degree special study was in the Development of the Soviet State. He taught history at secondary level for thirty-five years, teaching Soviet History at A-Level and writing an A-Level text book entitled Stalin's Russia and a GCSE textbook on Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941. He has acted as an historical consultant to the National Trust, the BBC and English Heritage and is the author or co-author of forty-eight books, including A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages, A Brief History of the Third Reich and Norse Myths and Legends.