Jan Plamper’s The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power has been named the outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia in the fields of literary and cultural studies awarded annually by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

A February 2013 public opinion poll of citizens in the Russian Federation found that 36 percent of respondents considered the Soviet political system better than all others, a 7 percent rise over last year. Such data should make researchers want to analyze more closely the political development of the Russian Federation since 1991, in particular the continuing appeal of the Soviet form of government among a growing sector of the population.