New book delves into Stalin's inner circle
A new book by the Department of History's Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick, one of the world's best regarded Soviet historians, offers a window of insight into the team which worked closely with Stalin.
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On Stalin鈥檚 Team posits Stalin was far from a one-man band. Rather, it was a team which kept the country running while Stalin focused his attentions on World War 2, stuck with him during the notorious Great Purges and was, for many years, his closest set of friends and companions.
It was this same team which carried out the successful political transition after Stalin鈥檚 death in 1953 and took the country on a reform path for the next four years. It anticipated many of the changes often attributed solely to Nikita Khrushchev, who ousted his fellow members of the 鈥渃ollective leadership鈥� in 1957.
Professor Fitzpatrick talks more about her book: