Alexey Tikhomirov is assistant professor of East European history at Bielefeld University.

Stalin’s cult was a paradox: it should have never existed in a collectivist socialist polity. The export of Stalin’s cult to East Germany, recently liberated from Hitler and his cult by the Red Army, was the ultimate paradox. Alexey Tikhomirov deftly tells the story of where the East German Stalin cult came from, how it was made, and what the population made of it.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1 The Premodern and Modern Foundations of Personality CultsChapter 2 The Empire of Stalinism: The USSR and East Germany after 1945Chapter 3 From the “Red Tyrant” to the “Liberator”: The Image of Stalin in the Soviet Occupation Zone of GermanyChapter 4 “The Best Friend of the German People”: The Making of the Cult Community in the GDRChapter 5“The Fierce Enemy of the German People”: The Personality Cult and Iconoclasm in East GermanyChapter 6“We Wanted to Make a God but He Turned Out to be the Devil”: The Politics and Practices of De-Stalinization in the GDRConclusionBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Alexey Tikhomirov is assistant professor of East European history at Bielefeld University.

Stalin’s cult was a paradox: it should have never existed in a collectivist socialist polity. The export of Stalin’s cult to East Germany, recently liberated from Hitler and his cult by the Red Army, was the ultimate paradox. Alexey Tikhomirov deftly tells the story of where the East German Stalin cult came from, how it was made, and what the population made of it.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1 The Premodern and Modern Foundations of Personality CultsChapter 2 The Empire of Stalinism: The USSR and East Germany after 1945Chapter 3 From the “Red Tyrant” to the “Liberator”: The Image of Stalin in the Soviet Occupation Zone of GermanyChapter 4 “The Best Friend of the German People”: The Making of the Cult Community in the GDRChapter 5“The Fierce Enemy of the German People”: The Personality Cult and Iconoclasm in East GermanyChapter 6“We Wanted to Make a God but He Turned Out to be the Devil”: The Politics and Practices of De-Stalinization in the GDRConclusionBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Alexey Tikhomirov is assistant professor of East European history at Bielefeld University.

Stalin’s cult was a paradox: it should have never existed in a collectivist socialist polity. The export of Stalin’s cult to East Germany, recently liberated from Hitler and his cult by the Red Army, was the ultimate paradox. Alexey Tikhomirov deftly tells the story of where the East German Stalin cult came from, how it was made, and what the population made of it.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1 The Premodern and Modern Foundations of Personality CultsChapter 2 The Empire of Stalinism: The USSR and East Germany after 1945Chapter 3 From the “Red Tyrant” to the “Liberator”: The Image of Stalin in the Soviet Occupation Zone of GermanyChapter 4 “The Best Friend of the German People”: The Making of the Cult Community in the GDRChapter 5“The Fierce Enemy of the German People”: The Personality Cult and Iconoclasm in East GermanyChapter 6“We Wanted to Make a God but He Turned Out to be the Devil”: The Politics and Practices of De-Stalinization in the GDRConclusionBibliographyIndexAbout the Author