The Many Lives of Khrushchev's Thaw: Experience and Memory in Moscow's Arbat

Acknowledgments

z Acknowledgments The title page indicates that I am the sole author of this book, but it has been a collaborative effort throughout. I have benefited in countless ways, both personal and professional, from the input of Sheila Fitzpatrick, Ron Suny, and Richard Hellie, my former mentors at the University of Chicago. Their high scholarly standards are tempered only by their infectious confidence in the abilities of their students. I am also indebted to the extraordinary cohort of aspiring scholars who were part of Russian history at Chicago during my time there: Golfo Alexopoulos, Jon Bone, Chris Burton, Michael David, Mark Edele, Julie Gilmour, Elise Giuliano, Charles Hachten, James Harris, Steve Harris, Yoi Herrera, Julie Hessler, Terry Martin, John McCannon, Matt Lenoe, Elena Pavlova, Matt Payne, Steve Richmond, Josh Sanborn, Alison Smith, Kiril Tomoff, and the late Jenifer Stenfors. Although we have all gone our separate ways—to universities around the globe—I feel fortunate that our paths once crossed. I hope this book reflects the high standards of scholarship I came to know in our old workshop. I would have been unable to complete this book had it not been for the generous assistance of several different organizations. Fellowships from the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) funded the initial research and writing. In 2000–2001, I was a fellow at the Kennan Institute forAdvanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in ix Acknowledgments x Washington, D.C. Special thanks go to my Wilson Center friends—Kent Hughes, Martha Merritt, Maggie Paxson, Chris Chulos, Blair Ruble, and Willard Sunderland—for challenging me to think about the broad implications of my work, and to my research assistant, Corynn Cushman. In 2003, a RSCAP Summer Fellowship from Sonoma State University funded research in Moscow. Finally, postdoctoral fellowships from SSRC and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER) allowed me to take two sabbaticals from teaching to complete work on the book. Since I began this project, I have called a number of different institutions home. I wrote an early draft in Columbus, Ohio, while my wife completed an M.B.A. at Ohio State University. I am grateful to Eve Levin, Nick Breyfogle, and David Hoffmann for making an outsider feel welcome at OSU. In 2001–2, I was a visiting professor in the Department of History at Lafayette College, where I was blessed by the hospitality of Josh Sanborn, my old graduate school friend, as well as Paul Barclay, AndyFix,andArnieOffner.Andsince2002,IhavebeenintheDepartment of History at Sonoma State University. Out of the admirable conviction that a productive scholarly life makes for good pedagogy, my colleagues at Sonoma have graciously accommodated the many demands of my research and writing. Special thanks go to Steve Estes, who unwittingly contributed to this project when he asked why historians of Russia use a flawed metaphor like “thaw.” My time in Moscow was enriched by the help of Sigurd Shmidt, the foremost Arbat kraeved (local historian), who kindly invited me to his apartment on Krivoarbatskii Lane for tea and conversation. I am also grateful to Boris Bushmelev, Maia Levidova, Vadim Konchalovskii, and Lev Roshalʹ, Arbat residents who happily shared memories of the neighborhood with a curious American, and to Liudmila Kiseleva and Yuri Slezkine for putting me in touch with several of them. On numerous occasions, Elena Drozdova and Galina Kuznetsova pointed me toward relevant archival sources and helped me navigate the Russian visa bureaucracy with nary a snafu. Finally, Heidy Berthoud and Andrey Shlyakhter tied up a few loose ends for me in Moscow when I was too busy to make the trip. An earlier version of chapter 4 appeared in the journal Kritika (“Remembering the Avant-garde: Moscow Architects and the ‘Rehabilitation ’ of Constructivism, 1961–1964,” Kritika 2, no. 3 (Summer 2001): 553–76). Michael David-Fox’s published response to the article informed many of the revisions I later undertook. I presented other material from Acknowledgments xi this book to helpful audiences at Ohio State University, Indiana University, Georgetown University, Lehigh University, the University of California, Berkeley, and at several AAASS conferences. No one is more relieved that this book is done than my friend (and quasi-family member) Ethan Pollock, who has read more drafts than either of us cares to remember, and who always offered the right advice to keep me working. I am also...