The development of English-language historiography of Stalinism during the Cold War

The bachelor thesis deals with the development of historiography of Stalinism discipline in the West, its origin and fundamental milestones, in the context of international relations of the Cold War. The aim of this work is to compare the extent to which Stalinism was interpreted in the West and in the East in a similar way, and evaluate to what extent there was the same thematization and periodization. The thesis deals with the issues that were associated with various foreign policy swings of the Cold War, and analyzes how significant the legitimizing role of this discipline was in the West. The most important milestones and trends in the field are examined through a combination of historiographical interpretation and comparison of publications written by relevant researchers of this field. The thesis states that assessments of Joseph Stalin's government converged in the West and East in parallel with warming of mutual relations and alienated with their cooling, yet it cannot be argued that Western historiography of Stalinism served as a purely legitimizing tool of policy toward the East