Jan Plamper's Way to Sensory History

The article is dedicated to the intellectual journey of the German-English historian Jan Plamper from visual re search to the study of the sensory experience of historical actors in major historical events. The article outlines the biography of the scholar who moved between different academic cultures, shows the logic of changes in the spec trum of his scholarly interests and identifies the place of his article on the sensory experience of the Russian Revolu tion of 1917 – one of the historian's last publications – in his work and, unfortunately, in his unrealised plans. The sources used in the article include Plamper's most important studies, his published autobiographical sketches, and the author's memoirs and fragments of correspondence with him. Of the key events in Plamper's biography, his experi ence as a civilian serviceman in St Petersburg between 1992 and 1993 is treated in more detail. The article shows that his interest in the role of sensory experience matured gradually rather than linearly. The problem of the complex ef fect of Stalin's images on the perception and behaviour of his contemporaries first arises in his monograph on the visual staging of the Soviet leader's personality cult. His difficult search for answers to questions about the soldiers' fear led him to an important theoretical and historiographical study on the history of the senses. His key article on the perspectives of the history of the senses using the example of the 1917 revolution in Russia is interpreted as an inter im balance and programme for further research, which was interrupted by an incurable illness.