Stalin's Library: A Dictator and His Books

170. R. Yu. Vipper, Ivan Groznyi, Del’fin: Moscow 1922. For an English-language text that makes a similar argument to Vipper’s, see I. Grey, Ivan the Terrible, Hodder & Stoughton: London 1964. Ian Grey (1918–1996) was a New Zealand-born historian who served as a Royal Navy interpreter in Russia during the Second World War. After the war he worked in the Soviet section of the British Foreign Office and then for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. He published a number of books on Russian history, including a fine but neglected biography of Stalin: Stalin: Man of History, Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London 1979.

171. S. F. Platonov, Ivan Groznyi, Brokgauz-Efron: Peterburg 1923. This book is available on the internet: http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/4720-platonov-s-f-ivan-groznyy-pg-1923-obrazy-chelovechestva#mode/inspect/page/3/zoom/4. Accessed 4 August 2021.

172. S. F. Platonov, Proshloe Russkogo Severa, Obelisk: Berlin 1924. The book is in Stalin’s library collection in the State Social-Political Library in Moscow.

173. RGASPI, F558, Op.1, D.3165 p.42 of the book. This reference was drawn to my attention by L. Maximenkov, ‘Stalin’s Meeting with a Delegation of Ukrainian Writers on 12 February 1929’, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 16/3–4 (December 1992), p.368.

174. Soviet Writers’ Congress 1934: The Debate on Socialist Realism and Modernism, Lawrence & Wishart: London 1977 pp.43–4.

175. M. Perrie, ‘R. Yu. Vipper and the Stalinisation of Ivan the Terrible’, paper presented to the Soviet Industrialisation Project Series, University of Birmingham, December 1999 p.5.

176. Graham, ‘R. Iu. Vipper: A Russian Historian in Three Worlds’, pp.29–30.

177. Perrie, ‘R. Yu. Vipper and the Stalinisation of Ivan the Terrible’, p.10.

178. M. Perrie, ‘The Tsar, the Emperor, the Leader: Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Anatolii Rybakov’s Stalin’ in N. Lampert & G. T. Rittersporn (eds), Stalinism: Its Nature and Aftermath, Macmillan: Basingstoke 1992 pp.85–6.

179. Vlast’ i Khudozhestvennaya Intelligenstiya, 1917–1953, Demokratiya: Moscow 2002 doc.3, p.478.

180. Platt, Terror and Greatness, p.210.

181. There does not appear to be a copy of Tolstoy’s Peter book in Stalin’s archive, but we know that the publishers sent him a copy of the postwar edition in November 1947: RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.5754, L.64.

182. Ibid., Op.11, D.717, Ll.99–100.

183. R. Wipper (sic), Ivan Grozny, Foreign Languages Publishing House: Moscow 1947.

184. Perrie, ‘R. Yu. Vipper and the Stalinisation of Ivan the Terrible’, p.13.

185. Ibid., p.11.

186. Cited by A. G. Mazour, The Writing of History in the Soviet Union, Stanford University: Stanford CA 1971 p.67.

187. ‘“Ivan Groznyi”: Na Lektsii Doktora Istoricheskikh Nauk Professor R. Yu. Vippera’, Pravda (19 September 1943).

188. Mezhdu Molotom i Nakoval’nei: Soyuz Sovetskikh Pisatelei SSSR, vol.1, Rosspen: Moscow 2010 doc.278, n.1.

189. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.350. This was the same copy on which Stalin doodled ‘Teacher’ on the back cover.

190. Vlast’ i Khudozhestvennaya Intelligenstiya, doc.3, p.478. For an English translation of this document, see K. Clark et al. (eds), Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917–1953, Yale University Press: London & New Haven 2007 doc.170.

191. A translation of this document, together with an explanation of its provenance, may be found in K. M. F. Platt & D. Brandenberger (eds), Epic Revisionism: Russian History and Literature as Stalinist Propaganda, University of Wisconsin Press: Madison 2006 pp.179–89. Additional clarification may be found in Ilizarov, Stalin, Ivan Groznyi, pp.270–9.

192. Vlast’ i Khudozhestvennaya Intelligenstiya, docs 13 (pp.486–7), 16 (p.500) and 18 (p.501).

193. ‘P’esa Al. Tolstogo “Ivan Groznyi” v Malom Teatre’, Pravda (27 October 1944); ‘Novaya Postanovka P’esy Al. Tolstogo na Stsene Malogo Teatra’, Pravda (30 May 1945).

194. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.351 p.57 of the play.

195. W. Averell Harriman, ‘Stalin at War’ in G. R. Urban (ed.), Stalinism: Its Impact on Russia and the World, Wildwood House: Aldershot 1985 pp.40–2.

196. Clark et al., Soviet Culture and Power, doc.172.