Seventeen Moments (https://soviethistory.msu.edu) is a website hosted by Michigan State University in the USA. It is the go-to site for many students and teachers in schools, colleges and universities all over the world.
The seventeen ‘moments’ around which the site is organised are: 1917, 1921, 1924, 1929, 1934, 1936, 1939, 1943, 1947, 1954, 1956, 1961, 1968, 1973, 1980, 1985, 1991. The first reaction to this list might be that the website does not provide comprehensive coverage of Soviet history. Second, while many of the years selected are self-evidently crucial – 1917, the year of two revolutions or 1991, the year of the collapse of the USSR and the Soviet system – it is noteworthy that some ‘crucial’ years are missing and others which are included do not, at first glance, stand out as particularly significant. On the face of it, the vital years of civil war (1918–20) seem to have been squeezed out. Why is 1939 chosen over 1941, and 1943 and 1947 rather than 1945?
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