In this volume, scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, using a breadth of source material including Soviet archives and the local press, present recent thinking and research on Soviet history. New Directions in Soviet History opens with a provocative review of Gorbachev and Soviet history by Pierre Broue. This is followed by papers on the changing nature of mass culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Jeffrey Brooks explores how public identities were constructed in the party press, Denise Youngblood looks at the role of the cinema and James van Gelderen examines tensions within the arts between the centre and the periphery. In the following section, Chris Ward, John Hatch, Catherine Merridale, John Russell and Robert Thurston discuss the distribution of authority in the workplace and, in particular, the politics of shopfloor culture between the wars. Finally, Evan Mawdsley assesses the changing nature of the Soviet political élite from the 1930s to the 1990s.