During the 1930s, Stalin and his entourage rehabilitated famous names from the Russian national past in a propaganda campaign designed to mobilize Soviet society for the coming war. Legendary heroes like Aleksandr Nevskii and epic events like the Battle of Borodino quickly eclipsed more conventional communist slogans revolving around class struggle and proletarian internationalism. In a provocative study, David Brandenberger traces this populist “national Bolshevism” into the 1950s, highlighting the catalytic effect that it had on Russian national identity formation.

Beginning with national Bolshevism’s origins within Stalin’s inner circle, Brandenberger next examines its projection into Soviet society through education and mass culture—from textbooks and belletristic literature to theater, opera, film, and the arts. Brandenberger then turns to the popular reception of this propaganda, uncovering glimpses of Stalin-era public opinion in letters, diaries, and secret police reports.

Controversial insofar as Soviet social identity is commonly associated with propaganda promoting class consciousness, this study argues that Stalinist ideology was actually more Russian nationalist than it was proletarian internationalist. National Bolshevism helps to explain not only why this genre of populism survived Stalin’s death in 1953, but why it continues to resonate among Russians today.

Introduction: Mobilization, Populism, and the
Formation of Modern Russian National Identity  1

 1. Tsarist and Early Soviet Society's Weak Sense
    of National Identity  10

Part One: 1931-1941
 2. Mobilizing Stalinist Society in the Early
    to Mid-1930s  27
 3. The Emergence of Russocentric Etatism  43
 4. Ideology in the Prewar Classroom  63
 5. Popularizing State Ideology through
    Mass Culture  77
 6. The Popular Reception of National Bolshevism
    on the Eve of War  95

Part Two: 1941-1945
 7. Wartime Stalinist Ideology and
    Its Discontents  115




 8. Ideological Education on the Home Front  133
 9. Wartime Mass Culture and Propaganda  144
 10. Popular Engagement with the Official Line
    during the War  160

Part Three: 1945-1953
 11. Soviet Ideology during the Zhdanovshchina
    and High Stalinism  183
 12. Public and Party Education during the
    Early Postwar Period  197
 13. Postwar Soviet Mass Culture  214
 14. The Popular Reception of Ideology during
    Stalin's Last Decade  226

Conclusion: National Bolshevism and Modern
Russian National Identity  240

Appendix: Civic History Textbook Development,
1934-1955   251