Description: Being Soviet adopts a refreshing and innovative approach to the crucial years between 1939 and 1953 in the USSR. It examines how the language of Soviet identity evolved in this period, and how ordinary citizens responded to that shift.
Review Quotes: "Mandatory reading for Stalin-era specialists."--The Historian
"Being Soviet is a useful text for those interested in the 1939-1953 period, and also might serve as a good reference for historians and those teaching twentieth-century literature, film, or culture. This volume has done an outstanding job of harnessing a very unweildy topic."--slavic and East European Journal"After two decades of research on nations and nationality policy in the Soviet Union, Soviet-ness was bound to return. Timothy Johnston's well-researched book takes up the problematic vigorously, arguing that above and beside the much discussed ethnic particularisms, Soviet identity remained an important issue."--Slavic Review