Professional Affiliation

Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin

Wilson Center Project

From the Factory to the Kremlin: Mikhail Tomsky and Soviet Trade Unionism

Project Summary

Explores the Soviet workers’ failure to prevent the Stalinist outcome of the Russian Revolution. Demonstrates that many skilled workers opposed calls for abandoning the moderate policies of the 1920s, and answers the question of why Mikhail Tomsky (head of the trade unions and sole worker in the Kremlin) failed to tap this opposition in his struggle with Stalin.