Yasuhiro Matsui (born 1960) is a Japanese historian of modern Russia and the Soviet Union. He taught at Kagawa University and Kyushu University, studying Soviet politics through both its institutions and the experiences of people who lived under them. “Soren Seiji Chitsujo to Seinen Soshiki” examines the Komsomol and young workers to show how a new political order took shape between the 1917 revolution and the late 1920s. Drawing on citizens’ private writings, “Sutārinizumu no Keiken” follows people who relied on family and friends while living under an oppressive system, including some who challenged those in power. In “Sutārinizumu: Teikoku Saikō no Purojekuto,” Matsui traces agricultural collectivization, the Great Terror, war, and territorial expansion to examine what policies aimed at strengthening the state meant for the people living through them.
