Stalinism: Revolution and Terror

Dr. Alan Barenberg

Assistant Professor, Department of History, Texas Tech University.

Dr. Alan Barenberg specializes in the history of the Soviet Union, with an emphasis on the social and economic history of the 1930s-1970s. His current research focuses on the history of the arctic Russian community of Vorkuta, which was built in the 1930s as a Gulag camp complex but was transformed into a Soviet “company town” in the 1950s and 1960s.

His most recent publications include: “From Prisoners to Citizens? The Experience of Ex-Prisoners in Vorkuta, 1953-1965” in The Thaw: Soviet Society and Culture in the 1950s and 1960s, University of Toronto Press (2013); “Tiede ja asuttaminen varhairsessa Gulagissa” [‘Discovering' Vorkuta: Science and Colonization in the Early Gulag],” Idäntutkimus (Finnish Review of East European Studies), 4/2010: 33-45; “Prisoners Without Borders: Zazonniki and the Transformation of Vorkuta after Stalin,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 57:4: 513-34. He is currently finishing a manuscript entitled, "Gulag Town, Company Town: Forced Labor and its Legacy in Vorkuta."

Dr. Barenberg teaches specialized courses on the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and Central Asia, as well as surveys of Western civilization. Before coming to Texas Tech University, Dr. Barenberg received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (2007), an M.A. from the University of Chicago (2000), and a B.A. from Carleton College (1999).

Dr. Barenberg has received numerous fellowships, including: Kennan Institute Title VIII Long Term Research Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, (2011-12, declined); Institute for Historical Studies Residential Fellowship, University of Texas (2010, declined); Social Science Research Council Eurasia Dissertation Fellowship (2005-2006); Council on Library and Information Resources Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources in the Humanities (2003-2004).

Dr. Barenberg's lecture was held in the International Cultural Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, June 12, 2013. This event was cosponsored by the TTU K-12 Global Education Outreach and supported by a grant from the Center for Global Understanding.

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