I am a specialist in Soviet history, with a particular interest in women’s history. I am an Honorary Research Fellow at CREES in connection with my long-standing involvement in ESRC and AHRC-funded history research projects, including most recently (with R.W. Davies) ‘Terror, War Preparations and Soviet Economic Development’, and (with Jeremy Smith) ‘Policy and Governance in the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev’. I am a member of the National Advisory Board of Europe-Asia Studies.
Current research topics include: ‘The Great Terror in Leningrad: a Qualitative Analysis’ (further developing work already published on the quantitative analysis of victims of the purges in Leningrad), using the documents available in the nine volumes published so far of the Leningradskii martirolog (1995 to 2009). I am also in the process of conducting interviews with Soviet women born before the Second World War, and I am compiling a documents collection on Russian and Soviet women’s history, 1861-1953.
Melanie Ilic is author of Women Workers in the Soviet Interwar Economy: From ‘Prtoection’ to ‘Equality’ (Macmillan, 1999), editor of Women in the Stalin Era (Palgrave, 2001) and Stalin’s Terror Revisited (Palgrave, 2006). She is co-editor (with S.E. Reid and L. Attwood) of Women in the Khrushchev Era (Palgrave, 2003), (with J.R. Smith) of Soviet State and Society under Nikita Khrushchev (Routledge, 2009) and Khrushchev in the Kremlin (Routledge, 2010). She is also author of a number of other articles and chapters on Soviet women’s history
Ilič, M. and Smith, JR., eds (2009) Soviet State and Society under Nikita Khrushchev, Routledge, including ‘Introduction’ (pp. 1-7) and ‘What did Women Want? Khrushchev and the revival of the zhensovety’ (pp. 104-121) xviii + 216 pp
Ilič, M (2008) ‘Introduction’ and ‘Soviet Women and Civil Defense Training in the 1930s’, and guest editor to themed section of Minerva Journal of Women and War, vol 2, no 1, pp 52-3, 100-13
Ilič, M (2006) ‘The Impact of Modernisation on Soviet Women’, in Kangaspuro, M and Smith J (eds), Modernisation in Russia since 1900, Helsinki; SKS, pp 145-59
Ilič, M (2006) Stalin’s Terror Revisited (ed) including ‘Introduction’ (pp. 1-10), ‘The Forgotten Five Per Cent: Women, Political Repression and the Purges’ (pp. 116-39), and ‘Remembering the Victims of Political Repression: the Purges in Mordoviya’ (with C. Joyce), London: Palgrave, (pp. 163-90) xvii + 236 pp
Ilič, M., Reid, SE., Attwood, L., eds (2004) Women in the Khrushchev Era), London: Palgrave) including ‘Introduction’ (pp. 1-4) and ‘Women in the Khrushchev Era: an Overview’ (pp. 5-28) xiv + 254 pp.
Ilič, M., Davies, RW., Khlevnyuk, O (2004) ‘The Politburo and Economic Policy-Making’, in Rees, EA (ed), The Nature of Stalin’s Dictatorship: the Politburo, 1928-53, London: Palgrave, pp 108-33
Ilič, M (2002) ‘The Great Terror in Leningrad: a Quantitative Analysis’, reprinted in Wheatcroft, SG (ed), Challenging Traditional Views of Russian History, London: Palgrave, pp. 147-70
Ilič, M (2001) Women in the Stalin Era (ed.) including ‘Introduction’ (pp. 1-8) and ‘Traktoristka: Representations and Realities’, London: Palgrave, (pp. 110-30) xiii + 256 pp.
Ilič, M (1999) Women Workers in the Soviet Interwar Economy: From ‘Protection’ to ‘Equality’, London: Macmillan, ix + 248 pp