Victor Lvovich Zaslavsky (russian: Виктор Львович Заславский; 26 September 1937 - 26 November 2009) was a professor of
political sociology
Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...
who taught at various institutions, such as LUISS (
), the
Leningrad State University, the
Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Canada, the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
,
Stanford University, and elsewhere, during a long academic career. He developed trenchant analyses of political and social aspects of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, prior to and following its collapse.
Born in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Zaslavsky was a naturalized citizen of Canada. He was a member of the board of the political journal ''
Telos
Telos (; ) is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of a work of human art. Intentional actualization of potential or inherent purpose,"Telos.''Philosophy Terms'' Retrieved 3 May 2020. ...
'' for several decades. His major work prior to his death, about the
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
, was ''Class Cleansing: The Massacre at Katyn'',
which received the
Hannah Arendt Prize
The Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought (german: Hannah-Arendt-Preis für politisches Denken, links=no) is a prize awarded to individuals representing the tradition of political theorist Hannah Arendt, especially in regard to totalitarianis ...
for Political Thought from the
Heinrich Boell Foundation. Zaslavsky's articles published in journals throughout the later years of the 20th century gained him a following in the United States and across continental Europe.
Selected works
''Class Cleansing: The Massacre at Katyn'' (Telos Press Publishing, 2008)
''From Union to Commonwealth: Nationalism and Separatism in the Soviet Republics'' Co-Author (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
''The Neo-Stalinist State: Class, Ethnicity, and Consensus in Soviet Society" (ME Sharpe Inc, 1994)
Noteworthy journal articles
"The Rebirth of the Stalin Cult in the USSR" (TELOS, Summer 1979)
"The Regime and the Working Class in the USSR" (TELOS, Winter 1979-80)
"The Price of Sovietization" (TELOS, Spring 1987)
"Three Years of Perestroika" (TELOS, Winter 1987-88)
"Why Afghanistan?" (TELOS, Spring 1980)
External links
Memoriam for Victor Zaslavsky Written by a Colleague, 2009
An Interview With Zaslavsky on the Katyn Massacre, 2009
References
1937 births
2009 deaths
20th-century Russian historians
Russian sociologists
Canadian sociologists
Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University
Stanford University faculty
University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
Canadian political scientists
20th-century political scientists
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