Merridale, Catherine 1959-

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Merridale, Catherine 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born 1959.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Queen Mary, University of London, London E1 4NS, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Educator and writer. Bristol University, Bristol, England, senior lecturer in European history; Queen Mary, University of London, England, professor of contemporary history, 2004—. Previous appointments held at Cambridge, Birmingham, and Moscow universities and King's College, Cambridge. Serves on the advisory board of Eurozine Web network.

AWARDS, HONORS:

W.H. Heinemann Award, and Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction finalist, both 2000, and Lionel Gelber Prize for Outstanding Nonfiction in International Affairs finalist, 2001, all for Night of Stone.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Editor, with others) Soviet Government Officials, 1922-1941, Centre for Russian and East European Studies (Birmingham, England), 1989.

Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin: The Communist Party in the Capital, 1925-32, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1990.

(Editor, with Chris Ward) Perestroika: The Historical Perspective, Edward Arnold (London, England), 1991.

Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia, Viking Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Ivan's War: The Red Army, 1939-1945, Faber and Faber (London, England), 2005, published as Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945, Metropolitan Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Also contributor to New Directions in Soviet History, 1991, and War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century, 2000; contributor of articles in scholarly news journals; advisory editor of the Journal of Contemporary History, 1999—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Catherine Merridale has quickly established herself as one of the leading English-language writers on modern Russian history. Merridale's first book, Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin: The Communist Party in the Capital, 1925-32, seeks to correct Western assumptions about Stalinism, focusing on the popularity of Joseph Stalin's policy to balance the typical emphasis on his powers as general secretary to appoint his supporters. She also discusses changes in the Communist Party as an organization, which during Stalin's ascendance began to abandon its populist beginnings and to become more of a ruling elite. Although Stalin has been an iconic figure of dictatorship in the West, Merridale instead describes the infighting and rivalries that drove appointments and policy decisions. Reviewers called the book an important contribution to scholarship on the subject: John Hatch, in the Russian Review, wrote that it is "mandatory reading for those interested in the Stalin Revolution." Slavonic and East European Review contributor Richard Sakwa commented that the book was "an excellent piece of historical research."

While much of her writing has taken a more academic perspective on Russian history, Merridale's highly successful Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia combines a scholarly approach with a focus on the emotional lives of the Russian people. Her topic is the history of the Russian idea of death, and she traces it through the Russian Revolution, the long and difficult Soviet era, and the years after the dissolu- tion of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Through research in recently opened government archives and conversations with civilians from gravediggers to priests, Merridale illuminates the unthinkable horror of living with mass murder and the strength and denial required to survive it, especially when traditional supports like religion have been taken away. She finds that most average Russian citizens did not want to remember the violence and in fact preferred to accept the state-sponsored lies in order to move beyond the fears of the past, fostering a "stoicism myth." At the same time, the corpse of revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin was preserved for possible resurrection in a scientifically advanced future, and his mausoleum visually dominated Moscow's Red Square. As Merridale argues, the meaning and value of death was radically contradictory, and a central aspect of Russian culture.

Reviewers suggested that Merridale's objectivity made the book all the more moving. Referring to her even approach to a painful topic, Salon.com reviewer Charles Taylor wrote: "This book is an example of moral and emotional bravery." Frank Brown, writing in the St. Petersburg Times online, commented that one of the book's strengths is Merridale's unwillingness "to make martyrs of those who died unjustly." Merridale herself cautions against this in the book, saying: "To make them into icons for freedom, consumerist democracy or loosely defined human rights is the most complacent kind of moral tourism." Taylor also commented: "Were Merridale not such a fine writer the stories she is telling here might well be unendurable." A Kirkus Reviews contributor stated that Night of Stone is "written with consummate skill and enormous compassion."

Merridale visited many of the major battle sites involving the Soviet Union during World War II for her book Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945, published in England as Ivan's War: The Red Army, 1939-1945. Drawing on letters, diaries, and oral interviews with veterans of the war, the author avoids the official government "myth" of war heroics and tells the story of what it was really like for the individual soldiers, including those among the more than eight million who died during the conflict. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Ivan's War "revealing history that renders the struggles on the Eastern Front in telling detail and with searching moral scrutiny."

Paul E. Richardson, writing in Russian Life, called the book "a dense, readable account of life on the eastern side of the Eastern Front, a textured portrait of a hardened, suffering generation." "The result is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of the time, or modern Russia's dependence on it," wrote a contributor to the Economist. The reviewer went on to note that the author reveals "the chaos and panic of the retreat before the German onslaught, … the brutal punishment of deserters and their families; … the epic drunkenness and black marketeering; and the orgies of destruction and cruelty on both sides." Referring to the book as "outstanding," a Publishers Weekly contributor also called Ivan's War "the first comprehensive portrait of the Red Army's fighters." Robert Legvold, writing in Foreign Affairs, noted that the author "succeeds admirably in fashioning a compelling portrait" of the soldiers.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Roland Green, review of Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945, p. 51.

Choice, April, 1991, D. MacKenzie, review of Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin: The Communist Party in the Capital, 1925-32, p. 1363; September, 1992, R. Marlay, review of Perestroika: The Historical Perspective, p. 212.

Contemporary Review, autumn, 2006, review of Ivan's War, p. 393.

Economist, October, 2000, "Death in Russia: Hearing Silence," p. 80; October 22, 2005, review of Ivan's War, p. 87.

Foreign Affairs, January-February, 2006, Robert Legvold, review of Ivan's War, p. 160.

History Today, December, 2005, Paul Dukes, review of Ivan's War, p. 63.

Journal of European Studies, December, 1992, Yoram Gorlizki, review of Perestroika, pp. 373-375.

Journal of Modern History, June, 1995, William Chase, review of Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin, pp. 523-525.

Kirkus Reviews, February, 2001, review of Night of Stone, p. 169; December 1, 2005, review of Ivan's War, p. 1267.

Library Journal, January 1, 2006, Tania Barnes, review of Ivan's War, p. 134.

London Times, October 23, 2005, Antony Beevor, review of Ivan's War.

New Statesman, October, 2000, Catherine Merridale, "In Russia, Make Way for the New Italians," p. 32.

New York Times Book Review, February 15, 2006, William Grimes, review of Ivan's War; April 9, 2006, Catherine Merridale, review of Ivan's War.

Publishers Weekly, February, 2001, review of Night of Stone, p. 78; December 5, 2005, review of Ivan's War, p. 46.

Russian Life, July-August, 2006, Paul E. Richardson, review of Ivan's War, p. 60.

Russian Review, July, 1995, John Hatch, review of Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin, pp. 474-476.

Slavonic and East European Review, October, 1991, Richard Sakwa, review of Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin, pp. 766-767.

Soviet Studies, October, 1990, review of Soviet Government Officials, 1922-1941, p. 830; July, 1992, Rita DiLeo, review of Perestroika, pp. 715-716.

Spectator, December 3, 2005, Noble Frankland, review of Ivan's War, p. 49.

Times Educational Supplement, January, 1992, Mark Almond, review of Perestroika, p. 27.