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6 Comments

  1. Are there any decent audiobooks on the subject of the Plokhy & Sheets books? Neither of those are available on audio per Google Books.

  2. Although I agree with the premise of this list. There are a few works I would add to it.

    1. The gulag archipelago – Aleksandra Solzhenitsyn. You can’t begin to understand Soviet Russia without reading this book!

    2. Leon Trosky – the history of the russian revolution and the revolution betrayed. His indictment of stalinism.

    The problems of everyday life, is also worth a read If you are interested in his contribution to modern Western
    socialism. As lots of left wing politicians still use the same arguments.

    3. Vladimir nabokov – speak, memory. A semi- autobiography that brings out the realisms of the tsarist regime, pre revolution, rather than the fantasy and Disneyfication.

    1. Another great book about the Soviet Union is, “Vanya,” a true story about a Russian soldier, and his conversion to Christianity, and the after effects.

  3. thanks for this list – I am just finishing a book called ‘Everything is Wonderful’ by Sigrid Rausing. She was a Swede, educated in England, doing PhD research on what was left of the centuries-old Swedish communities in Estonia (in 1944 the Swedish government paid the Nazis to evacuate whoever was left after conscription, arrests, and mass murders). Her research took place on a former collective farm on the coast of Estonia during the early 90s. This is a part academic/part personal book. The poverty, the alcoholism, the primitive way of life in the post-Soviet years especially in the rural areas but it wasn’t much better in the big cities, unless you were a mafia-type running a black market. Fascinating! It made me want to read more about the collapse and post-collapse years. ‘Eight Pieces of Empire’ sounds like what I am looking for.

  4. This book is right at the beginning of the USSR but if you’re looking for a well-written, beautiful book, you have to read “A Gentleman in Moscow.” It was probably my favorite book of 2018 and so so so wonderful. “Midnight in Chernobyl” is also a great book! :)