Bibliograph

From Stalin to Mao, Albania and the socialist world, Elidor Mëhilli

Type

Label

From Stalin to Mao, Albania and the socialist world, Elidor Mëhilli

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-315) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

From Stalin to Mao

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

981158655

Responsibility statement

Elidor Mëhilli

Sub title

Albania and the socialist world

Summary

"Elidor Mëhilli has produced a groundbreaking history of communist Albania that illuminates one of Europe's longest but least understood dictatorships. From Stalin to Mao, which is informed throughout by Mëhilli's unprecedented access to previously restricted archives, captures the powerful globalism of post-1945 socialism, as well as the unintended consequences of cross-border exchanges from the Mediterranean to East Asia. After a decade of vigorous borrowing from the Soviet Union--advisers, factories, school textbooks, urban plans--Albania's party clique switched allegiance to China during the 1960s Sino-Soviet conflict, seeing in Mao's patronage an opportunity to keep Stalinism alive. Mëhilli shows how socialism created a shared transnational material and mental culture--still evident today around Eurasia--but it failed to generate political unity. Combining an analysis of ideology with a sharp sense of geopolitics, he brings into view Fascist Italy's involvement in Albania, then explores the country's Eastern bloc entanglements, the profound fascination with the Soviets, and the contradictions of the dramatic anti-Soviet turn. Richly illustrated with never-before-published photographs, From Stalin to Mao draws on a wealth of Albanian, Russian, German, British, Italian, Czech, and American archival sources, in addition to fiction, interviews, and memoirs. Mëhilli's fresh perspective on the Soviet-Chinese battle for the soul of revolution in the global Cold War also illuminates the paradoxes of state planning in the twentieth century."--, Provided by Publisher

Table Of Contents

Introduction : a new world -- Ten years of war -- The discovery of a world -- The methods of socialism -- Socialism as exchange -- Mud and concrete -- The great leap -- Afterword : 1991

Classification