book recommendations USSR/ Stalin/ Soviets

>>552909
Simon Pirani. (1917-1921)
Sheila Fitzpatrick. (1920s-1940s nomenklatura)
Vladimir Andrle. (1920s-1940s proletariat)
Erich Strauss. (1917-1940 economic history) https://www.marxists.org/archive/strauss/

After that fucked if I know.

Don't read conquest, read fitzpatrick instead.

>>552939
cheers!

File: 67.jpg (79KB, 500x419px) Image search: [Google]

79KB, 500x419px

>missed traveling to the USSR in person by one measly generation
feels bad.

>>552939
thanks man

>>552943
Oh yeah, Milovan Ðilas is a primary source, but his Conversations with Stalin, and New Class are quite interesting reading on the 1945-1953 period.

The Gulag Archipelago - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

>>553013
1) It is a novel
2) It is a primary source
3) It is a facticious novel, a very difficult genre to read
4) Solly had a religious experience at camp, which changed him and his writing
5) The facticious elements are based on Solly's experience, what he heard at camp, what he heard from others after camp, what he heard from others after camp that they heard at camp, etc.

It is too difficult a source for a beginner.

>>552909
Power and prosperity by Mancur Olson

>>553068
It is a work of economic theory, not tied to empirical archival research, which doesn't attempt a historical narrative of the soviet union.

Why are you recommending this shit?

OP here- thanks guys, appreciated

>>553068
intriguing, even if as >>553138 says, unrelated.

How did other scholars receive it/ how did it go down in peer reviewing? is it still relevant/ not outdated in 2015?

>>553188
I gave the review in this thread that it was a-historical.

I've heard of Mancur and I don't read Institutional Economics at all. From the introductory section and segment of chapter I read I'd suggest it is a good, quality read. Especially if you disagree with it.