Border seals. To the origins of Soviet politics. 1920-1940s. Dullen S.

In the monograph of the French researcher Sabin Dullen, pre -war Soviet history is seen as the history of borders and border territories. The borders for the USSR were not only a line of defense from the influence of the outside, but also the front of ideological and military expansion and a kind of window of the communist system for the outside world. The issue of borders played a crucial role in Soviet politics and ideology, and the figure of the border guard became one of the key to Soviet culture. The author traces how the practices of borders have changed throughout the 20th century, and shows the amazing continuity of approaches to the border territories from pre -revolutionary times to the present day.

Sabin Dullen - historian, doctor of sciences, professor of the Department of Modern History of Russia and Eastern Europe at the Institute of Political Research, a specialist in international relations and history of the Soviet Union.