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Title: The Unquiet Ghost : Russians Remember Stalin by Adam Hochschild ISBN: 0-618-25747-0 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Life after Communism
Comment: I guess for us in the West, the fall of the Communist regime in Russia was the end of an era, which simply meant that the Cold War was over and there was no more Soviet Union--and not much more. But for the people of Russia, who struggled to survive through all the irrationalities, terror, and oppression, the memories of life under Communism cannot be forgotten. This book is about some of those Russians who are, in varying ways, trying to come to terms with the past, and the stories are truly remarkable. Hochschild is an excellent writer, and anyone who has an interest in post-Communist Russia will find this book very informative.
Rating: 5
Summary: Am I an expert on this?
Comment: Several reviews of this book have splendid remarks and thoroughly profound analyses. But, is the subject of this book, the despotic Joseph Stalin and what is remembered about him, really reaching out to its readers?
This book can abruptly remind us of the generalities of life all over the world (i.e. psychological and physical abuse) when it comes to the terror of Stalin. The life and people around him he was ceaselessly suspect of doesn't necessarily mean it, his terrror, could never happen again, even on the smallest scale. Terror cannot be quantified. No, what Stalin did was and is as pervasive as any cult of personality.
This book decidely opens the door to many perceptions of what Stalin's terror meant, and sadly, still means all over the world. Ever carry your friend or your child on your shoulders as a joke or for fun? A friend of Stalin's did this to him and was later shot. But after this despot died, people mourned and when the new leadership came into being, the terror then manifested itself in the people. They basically reiterated towards the new order all that had held them in complete and utter fear of for more than a generation. This book documents this.
It's a book about how unstable people are who have been victims their whole lives, whether they knew it not, and how they come to realize life for others and themselves. It could be a book about life in general when we think of victims of any type of terror and suppression. Their messages to us could be of caution but on the other hand, of propagation, believing the terror to have some substantiation.
This book is a good read. But it requires a healthy open mind.
Rating: 4
Summary: Almost Great
Comment: Hochschild is obviously a talented writer, and he does a great job of tackling a very difficult subject. However, often as he was drawing me in, he would throw in an anti-American non-sequitor, like comparing the people in the Gulag to the homeless in America. Huh? I'm not without compassion, but that is comparing one man's cut finger to another man's cut from the guillotine. Hochschild would be well served to leave his alternative agenda out of this book and focus on the subject at hand. The victims of the Gulag deserve nothing less.
However, if you can ignore these occasional comments which are out of place and inappropriate, The Unquiet Ghost is a solid effort which worth reading.
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Title: A History of Twentieth-Century Russia by Robert Service ISBN: 0674403487 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild ISBN: 0618001905 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Stalin : The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia'sSecret Archives by Edvard Radzinsky ISBN: 0385479549 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 18 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000 by Stephen Kotkin ISBN: 0195168941 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s by Sheila Fitzpatrick ISBN: 0195050010 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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