Sheila Fitzpatrick Biography

Sheila Fitzpatrick is an Australian-American historian whose work delves into the social and cultural history of the Stalinist Soviet Union. She examines how social identity and daily life shaped this era, positing that the political culture of Stalinism may have paradoxically achieved democratic revolutionary aims. A leading figure among the second generation of "revisionist historians," Fitzpatrick approaches Soviet history from a distinct "from below" perspective. Her scholarship seeks to uncover social processes independent of state intervention, offering nuanced insights beyond previously dominant models.