Peter Whitewood

I am an Associate Professor in History and Associate Head of the History, American Studies and War Studies programmes. I gained my PhD in History from the University of Leeds in 2013 and came to York St John University soon after. My research interests are broadly in the political and International histories of the early Soviet state and Stalin era.

My first book, The Red Army and the Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Soviet Military, provided a new explanation for Stalin's purge of the Red Army in 1937-1938. Taking a broader view of Soviet civil-military relations from 1917, I argued that this purge was launched from a position of panic and weakness, rather than being simply an expression of Stalin's desire to consolidate power. The book argues that without the military purge, there would have been no escalation of the Great Terror in 1937.

My second book, The Soviet-Polish War and its Legacy: Lenin's Defeat and the Rise of Stalinism explored how the Soviet-Polish War of 1919-20 shaped the early Soviet state in the 1920s. The Bolsheviks' stunning loss of this war in August 1920 encouraged authoritarian responses during a critical transitional decade. In short, rather than moderate the regime as often assumed, the loss of the war did the opposite. The aftershocks of war contributed to the emergence of a repressive totalitarian system and ultimately the transformation of the Revolution.

My current project looks at how the Bolshevik Party interpreted and aligned with established international humanitarian law after the 1917 revolution. Rather than entirely eschew established conventions, the Bolsheviks put both the Geneva and Hague conventions into practice, to differing degrees. Focusing chiefly on the Soviet Red Cross, the project will produce a new history of Soviet humanitarianism in the 1920s.

Postgraduate supervision:

I welcome contact from potential postgraduate students, especially in the following areas:

Soviet political and international history
The Stalin era
Totalitarianism
Modern European International history