Collective Leadership. Transformation of Power after Stalin and Mao, 1952-1957 und 1975-1981
Asian Studies
Final Report Abstract
Overcoming totalitarian one-man-rule is a timeless challenge. In both the past and the present, dictators have united excessive power, directed violence against foreign and their own societies, caused countless victims and plunged their political orders into deep chaos. If a ruler cannot be overthrown during his lifetime, his death becomes a moment enabling change. The heirs to power are then confronted with the openness of their future, i.e. the question of how to continue the order—whether to preserve or transform it. Stalin‘s successors opted for change. In the hours before his death, they orchestrated the transition of power and initiated a far-reaching reform of the foundations of their rule. Autocracy, despotism and terror came to an end in March 1953. Three years later, Anastas Mikoyan, one of Stalin‘s closest companions, explained to the Chinese dictator Mao Zedong what Moscow‘s leadership understood to be the core of this transformation: “A strong party allows, a weak party fears,” he advocated for the self-disciplining of communist rule. During their talks in the fall of 1956—ten years before Mao set the Chinese Cultural Revolution in motion—Mikoyan and Mao agreed on a mission: they sent a delegation to Pyongyang to prevent Kim Il-Sung from killing. The attempt failed in North Korea. In the Soviet Union and years later in China, it had an unprecedented effect. Even after Mao‘s death in 1976, the Chinese party leadership decided to leave totalitarian rule behind. This change pacified the societies in the Soviet Union and China and created the basis for the continued existence of their communist orders. Using the historical examples of the Soviet Union after Stalin and China after Mao, the project demonstrates how the transformation of a totalitarian order based on violence and arbitrariness into an authoritarian regime eager for stability and certainty was accomplished. Based on archival documents from Russia, China, the USA and Germany, this interdisciplinary research proposes a new perspective on two levels: It places the transformation of order at the center and asks about its dimensions. In a comparative history of interdependence, it links Moscow‘s and Beijing‘s processes of self-disciplining in order to reconstruct their mutual dependencies. Without observing the other, the project argues, it is not possible to understand the change within.
Publications
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Crises in Authoritarian Regimes. Fragile Orders and Contested Power, Frankfurt am Main/New York: Campus Verlag. ISBN: 9783593514949
Jörg Baberowski & Martin Wagner
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Crises in Authoritarian Regimes: An Introduction, in: Jörg Baberowski und Martin Wagner (Hrsg.): Crises in Authoritarian Regimes: Fragile Orders and Contested Power, Frankfurt am Main/New York: Campus Verlag, S. 11–26. (zusammen mit Jörg Baberowski) ISBN: 9783593514949
Jörg Baberowski & Martin Wagner
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Wie endet Putins Herrschaft?, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 10. Mai, S. 29.
Martin Wagner
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Excoriating Stalin, Criticizing Mao. The American Historical Review, 128(3), 1105-1143.
Wagner, Martin
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Kollektive Disziplinierung. Die Transformation totalitärer Herrschaft nach Stalin und Mao, Dissertation, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Martin Wagner
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Stalins Tod und das Ende der Allmacht. Zur Transformation totalitärer Herrschaft, in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 73:20–21, S. 35–40.
Martin Wagner
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Über die Trennung sprechen. Das Erbe der Entstalinisierung und das Ende der sino-sowjetischen Freundschaft 1963, in: Jörg Baberowski und Robert Kindler (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung, S. 75–92.
Martin Wagner
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8. Rediscovering Lenin, Reinventing the Collective: Revolutionary Ideals in Post-Stalinist and Post-Maoist Transitions. Dreams of Emancipation, 229-258. Academic Studies Press.
Wagner, Martin
