Description

For Socialists and many liberals, the Soviet Union of the 1920s-1940s was the site of the great Socialist Experiment. Most Australians who travelled there wrote about their extraordinary experiences, and the recent opening of the Soviet archives gave access to the Soviets' reactions to their visitors. Collecting the research of leading historians and writers, Political Tourists explores Soviet tourism through figures such as Eric Ashby, RM Crawford, Reg Ellery, Neill Greenwood, Esmonde Higgins, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Betty Roland and Jessie Street. Drawing on both Australian and Soviet archives, this is a unique insight into the Soviet experience in the 1920s-1940s.

About the author(s)

Sheila Fitzpatrick is Professor of History at the University of Sydney and Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the University of Chicago. Mischka's War is the third in her series of memoirs, including My Father's Daughter (2010) and A Spy in the Archives (2013). She has written many books on Soviet history, including On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics, which was joint winner of the 2016 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

Connections: Melbourne and its Board of Works 1891 to 1991 (with Tony Dingle); The Lesser Evil? Opposition to War and Fascism in Australia 1920-1941; A Place Apart, The University of Melbourne: Decades of Challenge (with John Poynter); A Museum for the People: A history of Museum Victoria and its predecessors, 1854-2000, Increasing Momentum: Engineering at the University of Melbourne 1861-2004; Double Helix Double Joy: David Danks the Father of Clinical Genetics in Australia and ‘A Whole New World’ 100 years of Education at University High School. She is a member of the National Editorial Board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography and chair of the Victorian Working Party. Her most recent book is Shifting the Boundaries: The University of Melbourne 1975-2015.