Staff Profile
Dr Peter Whitewood
Associate Professor, Associate Head: History, American Studies, and War Studies
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.
- School – School of Humanities
- Email – p.whitewood@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 502
- Research - View my work in RaY
Teaching
I teach on the following modules:
HIS4014M European Revolutions
HIS5006M Reds! The Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism
HIS6010M Special Subject in Soviet History
HIS7011M Historians and the Writing of History
Publications
Monographs
The Soviet-Polish War and its Legacy: Lenin’s Defeat and the Rise of Stalinism (Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming September 2023)
The Red Army and the Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Soviet Military (University Press of Kansas, 2015)
Czystka Stalina w Armii Czerwonej Początki wielkiego terroru (Editio, 2019) [Polish translation of The Red Army and the Great Terror]
Edited Volume
The Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution: Illiberal Liberation, 1917-41, ed. by Lara Douds, James Harris, and Peter Whitewood (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
‘Failing to Make Revolutionaries: Polish POWs in Soviet Captivity, 1919-21’, Revolutionary Russia (forthcoming December 2022) [part of a special issue on early Soviet-Polish relations, edited by Whitewood and Olena Palko (University of Basel)]
‘In the Shadow of the War: Bolshevik Perceptions of Polish Subversive and Military threats to the Soviet Union, 1920-32’, Journal of Strategic Studies (2019)
Nationalities in a Class War: Foreign Soldiers in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War’, Journal of Modern European History, 14. 3 (2016), pp. 342-358 [Special Issue on foreign war volunteers]
‘Stalin’s Purge of the Military and the Soviet Mass Operations’, Slavonic and East European Review, 93. 2 (2015), pp. 286-314
‘Subversion in the Red Army and the Military Purge of 1937-1938’, Europe-Asia Studies, 67. 1 (2015), pp. 102-122
‘Towards a New History of the Purge of the Military, 1937–1938’, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 24. 4 (2011), 605-620
Book Chapters
'Stalin’s Purge of the Red Army and Misperception of Security Threats' in Revisioning Stalin and Stalinism: Complexities, Contradictions and Controversies, ed. by James Ryan and Susan Grant (Bloomsbury, 2020)
‘Introduction: Illiberal Liberation’ (with Lara Douds and James Harris) in The Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution: Illiberal Liberation, 1917-41, ed. by Lara Douds, James Harris and Peter Whitewood (Bloomsbury, 2020)
‘The International Situation: Fear of Invasion and Growing Authoritarianism’ in The Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution: Illiberal Liberation, 1917-41, ed. by Lara Douds, James Harris and Peter Whitewood (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Research
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
Professional Activities
- Member of BASEES
- Member of SLSA
