Generation Stalin French Writers, the Fatherland, and the Cult of Personality [Paperback]

Generation Stalintraces Joseph Stalins rise as a dominant figure in French political culture from the 1930s through the 1950s. Andrew Sobanet brings to light the crucial role French writers played in building Stalins cult of personality and in disseminating Stalinist propaganda in the international Communist sphere, including within the USSR. Based on a wide array of sourcesliterary, cinematic, historical, and archivalGeneration Stalinsituates in a broad cultural context the work of the most prominent intellectuals affiliated with the French Communist Party, including Goncourt winner Henri Barbusse, Nobel laureate Romain Rolland, renowned poet Paul Eluard, and canonical literary figure Louis Aragon.Generation Stalinarrives at a pivotal moment, with the Stalin cult and elements of Stalinist ideology resurgent in twenty-first-century Russia and authoritarianism on the rise around the world.

Generation Stalinis a landmark study, brilliantly written, containing exemplary scholarship. Sobanet establishes himself with this volume as one of the foremost interpreters of French intellectual life. He brings to his study a cornucopia of historical knowledge and the finesse of a first-class literary critic.

This is an ambitious project that is well executed, with a readership that is potentially far reachingwith implications for Russian/Stalin studies, French studies, including politics and society, as well as propaganda writing and the role of the media more generally. . . .Generation Stalinis a very timely book.

1. This book shows how writers affiliated with the French Communist Party helped shape Stalinist propaganda worldwide and it also sheds light on authoritarianism and cults of personality worldwide.

2. The topic is important to our understanding not only of the ways in which Communism functioned in France - the country which gave the world democracy - but also for a better understanding of the interal3(