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<p> The rebuilding of Sevastopol involved negotiation between a central vision and on-the-spot realities and aspirations. Karl D. Qualls reveals in detail not only the contest of authority over the design and execution of the rebuilding project but also the difficulties encountered in the shortage of workers and materials. Qualls demonstrates that the inhabitants preferred to show a historic heroic, military, naval, and emphatically Russian face to the world, rather than a strictly Soviet facade. It is this very Russian city, housing both the Russian and the Ukrainian Black Sea fleets that is a source of friction between Russia and Ukraine today. In exploring important issues of image and identity, Qualls has made admirable use of archives, newsreels, films, and interviews. Patricia Herlihy, Brown University, author of The Alcoholic Empire

Overwhelmingly destroyed during World War II, the city of Sevastopol was celebrated in the Soviet period as a 'hero city' that valiantly resisted the Nazis. The epic of Sevastopol's destruction, reconstruction, and memorializing as recounted in Karl D. Qualls's From Ruins to Reconstruction is both an important case study of postwar reconstruction and a significant contribution to our understanding of 'high Stalinism.' The rebuilding of the shattered city and memorializing its heroic past (both in World War II and earlier), as Qualls convincingly argues, reveals a complicated interplay between local actors and Moscow, both in creating the postwar period and determining how the resurrected Sevastopol should be remembered. -Theodore R. Weeks, Southern Illinois University, author of From Assimilation to Antisemitism Scholars finally have begun telling the story of rebuilding bombed cities in the former Soviet Union, and with this solidly researched, well-written book, Karl D. Qualls is leading the way. Sensitive to the nuances of both Soviet and local politics and the distinctive cultural features of Sevastopol, Qualls argues that rebuilding Sevastopol was a classic center-periphery contest, with local initiatives on both urban planning and architectural style prevailing over policies coming from Moscow. The result was more a recreation of the nineteenth-century city than a creation of a city along Stalinist lines. -Jeffry Diefendorf, Pamela Shulman Professor of European and Holocaust Studies and Professor of History, University of New Hampshire, author of In the Wake of War The rebuilding of Sevastopol involved negotiation between a central vision and on-the-spot realities and aspirations. Karl D. Qualls reveals in detail not only the contest of authority over the design and execution of the rebuilding project but also the difficulties encountered in the shortage of workers and materials. Qualls demonstrates that the inhabitants preferred to show a historic heroic, military, naval, and emphatically Russian face to the world, rather than a strictly Soviet facade. It is this very Russian city, housing both the Russian and the Ukrainian Black Sea fleets that is a source of friction between Russia and Ukraine today. In exploring important issues of image and identity, Qualls has made admirable use of archives, newsreels, films, and interviews. -Patricia Herlihy, Brown University, author of The Alcoholic Empire

""Overwhelmingly destroyed during World War II, the city of Sevastopol was celebrated in the Soviet period as a 'hero city' that valiantly resisted the Nazis. The epic of Sevastopol's destruction, reconstruction, and memorializing as recounted in Karl D. Qualls's From Ruins to Reconstruction is both an important case study of postwar reconstruction and a significant contribution to our understanding of 'high Stalinism.' The rebuilding of the shattered city and memorializing its heroic past (both in World War II and earlier), as Qualls convincingly argues, reveals a complicated interplay between local actors and Moscow, both in creating the postwar period and determining how the resurrected Sevastopol should be remembered.""-Theodore R. Weeks, Southern Illinois University, author of From Assimilation to Antisemitism ""Scholars finally have begun telling the story of rebuilding bombed cities in the former Soviet Union, and with this solidly researched, well-written book, Karl D. Qualls is leading the way. Sensitive to the nuances of both Soviet and local politics and the distinctive cultural features of Sevastopol, Qualls argues that rebuilding Sevastopol was a classic center-periphery contest, with local initiatives on both urban planning and architectural style prevailing over policies coming from Moscow. The result was more a recreation of the nineteenth-century city than a creation of a city along Stalinist lines.""-Jeffry Diefendorf, Pamela Shulman Professor of European and Holocaust Studies and Professor of History, University of New Hampshire, author of In the Wake of War ""The rebuilding of Sevastopol involved negotiation between a central vision and on-the-spot realities and aspirations. Karl D. Qualls reveals in detail not only the contest of authority over the design and execution of the rebuilding project but also the difficulties encountered in the shortage of workers and materials. Qualls demonstrates that the inhabitants preferred to show a historic heroic, military, naval, and emphatically Russian face to the world, rather than a strictly Soviet facade. It is this very Russian city, housing both the Russian and the Ukrainian Black Sea fleets that is a source of friction between Russia and Ukraine today. In exploring important issues of image and identity, Qualls has made admirable use of archives, newsreels, films, and interviews.""-Patricia Herlihy, Brown University, author of The Alcoholic Empire

The rebuilding of Sevastopol involved negotiation between a central vision and on-the-spot realities and aspirations. Karl D. Qualls reveals in detail not only the contest of authority over the design and execution of the rebuilding project but also the difficulties encountered in the shortage of workers and materials. Qualls demonstrates that the inhabitants preferred to show a historic heroic, military, naval, and emphatically Russian face to the world, rather than a strictly Soviet facade. It is this very Russian city, housing both the Russian and the Ukrainian Black Sea fleets that is a source of friction between Russia and Ukraine today. In exploring important issues of image and identity, Qualls has made admirable use of archives, newsreels, films, and interviews. Patricia Herlihy, Brown University, author of The Alcoholic Empire

<p> Overwhelmingly destroyed during World War II, the city of Sevastopol was celebrated in the Soviet period as a 'hero city' that valiantly resisted the Nazis. The epic of Sevastopol's destruction, reconstruction, and memorializing as recounted in Karl D. Qualls's From Ruins to Reconstruction is both an important case study of postwar reconstruction and a significant contribution to our understanding of 'high Stalinism.' The rebuilding of the shattered city and memorializing its heroic past (both in World War II and earlier), as Qualls convincingly argues, reveals a complicated interplay between local actors and Moscow, both in creating the postwar period and determining how the resurrected Sevastopol should be remembered. -Theodore R. Weeks, Southern Illinois University, author of From Assimilation to Antisemitism

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Karl D. Qualls is Associate Professor of History at Dickinson College.

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