William D. Prigge

Bearslayers: The Rise and Fall of the Latvian National Communists - American University Studies William D. Prigge New Edition

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; The 1959 purge of the Latvian national communists has long been cast in black-and-white terms: Russification and resistance;victimisers and victims. Conventional wisdom holds that Nikita Khrushchev was behind the purge. After all, he was the Soviet premier - he stopped in Riga just a few weeks before, and even the leading victim of the purge, Eduards Berklavs, labelled him the culprit. William D. Prigge's analysis challenges this view and untangles the intricacies of Soviet centre-periphery relations like a political thriller. Table of Contents: Contents: Introduction: The Hot Summer of 1959 - Russophiles and Culture: The Early Years of Occupation, 1946-1953 - Between the Anvil and the Hammer: National Communists, Cadres & Beria, 1946-1953 - The Education of Eduards Berklavs, 1955-1957 - Unholy Alliances: Moscow, the Military, and National Communists, 1953-1957 - The Summit: Latvian National Communists in Power, 1958-1959 - Industrialization or Russification? Demographic Changes in Latvia - The Strange Death of Latvian National Communism, 1959-1960. Biographical Note: William D. Prigge is an associate professor of history and department head at South Dakota State University. He received his PhD in Soviet history from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His research focuses on national communism throughout the Soviet Union during the 1950s. In addition to various book chapters, Dr. Prigge has published several times in the &ltI>Journal of Baltic Studies&lt/I> and &ltI>Diena&lt/I>.