Russia Books

I had visited Russia in 1996 and purchased many matryoshkas for myself and souvenirs. I loved this book, because I saw many of the ones I had bought, and others I hadn't and it was wonderful to learn their history. I also am fond of the store that Mr. Ertl has online and hope to purchase some matryoshkas from him in the future.

Fantastic book! Color plates are exquisite and the text very informative. A definate must-have for any doll collector!

Our daughter was so happy receiving the book The Art of the Matroyshka for her school project. The book marvelous! Extreem beautiful pictures, so clear! A good story with much details. Very usable for the school project.
We also were very pleased with the fast en accurate delivery.

Many thanks, Robert

The detailed and collaborative work of Rett Ertl and Rick Hibberd, The Art Of The Russian Matryoshka is a unique and distinctive artbook devoted to the classic Russian toy consisting of dolls that fit inside one another. 330 full-color photographs illustrate and showcase rare and vintage matryoshka, while the narrative text covers the history of this device as well as the steps of its creation today. The Art Of The Russian Matryoshka is especially recommended for toy collectors and a welcome contribution Russian Cultural Studies collections.

As an avid collector of matryoshka dolls, I found this book covered it all! I especially enjoyed the pictures and explanation of the lathing and prepping of the blanks. And the techniques used to paint the dolls. This book is a must-have for every collector!

Natan is a hero to the human race. He is wise beyond his years and his wife really proved what true love is. No wonder our Oresident sticks to his convictions. We should all be like Natan

In this classic, in the tradition of The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Prisoner of Zion, Natan Sharansky, one of the greatest Jewish heroes of our time, tells of his nine years in Soviet prisons and gulags, because of his desire to live in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people.
Sharansky was first denied an exit visa to Israel in 1973. Seperated from his wife, Avital, a day after thewir marriage, in 1974, Sharansky fought for the rights of Jews in the Soviet Union as well as the rights of other persecuted minorities such as Pentecostals, Catholics, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and ethnic Germans, which disproves the repulsive charge by anti-Semites that Zionists only care about their own people.
He worked as a translator for Soviet dissident and human rights champion Andrei Sakharov, and his spokesman.
Sakharov never stopped fighting for Sharanky's freedom, for human rights and for the Jews of the Soviet Empire.
Sharanky describes his life in the preface as a Jews growing up in Russia, and his mental liberation from Soviet thought slavery, by his discovery of his Judaism and Zionism. He then details his 1977 arrest, and his nine years of brutal incarceration.
He never bowed to his captors and refused to have anything to do with the perfidious KGB.
A variety of mental and physical tortures were used to try to break Sharansky, but he never flinched.
Always given courage by the word of the G-D of Israel, and particularly guided by Psalm 23:
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil
For though art with me..."
Indeed he did not fear the evil of the Soviet tyranny.
His wife Avital tirelessly fought for his release as his cause became known in the free world, and fought for by all freedom-loving people.
The book ends with Sharansky's release in 1986 and his aliyah to Israel, where he was reunited with his wife.
The book is a testament to the evils of a one party tyranny.
It is a testament to the eternal endurability of the Jewish people, and their unbreakable bond wit the Land of Israel.
Unltimately it is a testament of hope and of freedom of the human spirit.
Today the same Communist ideology that persecuted Sharansky is waging a jihad of intellectual terrorism against Israel and her people.
But the courage of people like Sharansky and the people of Israel has shown that Israel can and will prevail.

Having met Sharansky in Israel (Birthright alumni!), and having had a long time interest in the Soviet Jewry dissident movement - which allowed my own (Jewish) family to emigrate from the Soviet Union in '91 - I had little doubt as to the outcome of Sharansky's imprisonment. As someone who has read a number of books on similar subjects - in particular the Alexander Solzenytsin "Archipelag Gulag" series - I was a bit dissapointed with "Fear no Evil". (Nevermind that Solzenytsin is widely believed to be an anti-semite; I'm speaking of the literary aspect only.)

In contrast to Solzenytsin's breathtakingly vivid literary style and powerful analysis of the core of the Soviet regime and it's criminal code, Sharansky's book read rather like an eagle's eye view of a convoluted social and political order. "Fear no Evil" reads instead like a game of mental swordsmanship, with a self-inflicted narrow focus quite removed from breadth and depth of a much needed analysis on the Soviet system as a whole.

However, Sharansky does not proclaim himself to be a literary guru. This book is a poignant (if dry) portrayal of one man's fight for freedom - both for himself and 2 million of his people. The uncompromising stance taken by the author with the Soviet regime throughout his imprisonment - his life, family and future hanging in the balance - is awe-inspiring in its simplicity and effectiveness.

It has become a cliche in our time that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". Yet the Sharanskys of the world have proven that one need not be a terrorist to be a freedom fighter. Where are such men today?

Natan Sharansky's book "Fear No Evil" is a readable account of his time in the Soviet gulag for his dissident activities. The book is detailed and inspirational. Sharansky's courage in facing the KGB is a lesson that we can all learn from.

The book itself reads fast, thanks to Sharansky's ability to make the read interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain insight in what life was like for a political prisioner in the USSR; to anyone who wishes to be inspired by ones courage, or to anyone who wishes to just sit down and read a thoroughly enjoyable book.

"[Saul] put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on [David's]head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around... "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached [Goliath]".

So begins the story of the famous battle between the future King David of Israel and the giant Phillistine during Biblical times. In Natan Shcharansky's "Fear No Evil" (the title taken from one of David's own psalms), the author is less equipped even than young David in battling the ubiquitous and evil KGB, which maintains an illegal presence in the prisons he's held in (again, illegally), accused of spying for western countries. But because of decisions he makes early in his arrest, he is the victor in the struggle waged over his soul by men who would like him to acknowledge he is wrong, who would like him to implicate others in his "crimes" in order for favors from them, or who would simply like him to stop being the delightful fly in the prison ointment he is.

Shcharansky's only weapons during his trial and during his following prison term, consist of his personal integrity, which remains unsullied; his faith and trust in his family and friends; and a tiny book of psalms that he will spare nothing in reminding prison officials he is entitled to. He sometimes has to wage a hunger strike for these things, but always wins. It is true that his wife, who managed to reach Jerusalem before Shcharansky's arrest, is on a worldwide campaign for his release, resulting in no less than two sitting US presidents mentioning him by name in speeches heard by Soviet officials as a political prisoner, as well as global support, but Shcharansky does not learn this until later, and so believes he is virtually alone in the fight.

This gritty autobiography is a lovely example of human survival, and how one can keep his humanity in a horrific place. Shcharansky's relationships with his fellow "zeks" (prisoners) is especially touching, and we're able to get a glimpse of how even the guards in the system have surrendered their souls in this "police state".

A great read for anyone questioning how to survive while it seems suffering and injustice are towering overhead. Very inspiring.

In spite of its length, I've read this book several times. It isn't just a widely acclaimed historic and literary masterpiece, written by a leading participant in the events he describes. It isn't just vividly written and thoroughly researched.

More importantly, it's one of the best books ever written about revolution, as relevant today as ever.

The most important conclusion that emerges is the crucial role of a revolutionary party with an overwhelmingly working class membership, leadership and political orientation: a party that has trained itself in the many years of partial struggles that precede a revolutionary crisis; studied together the lessons of past revolutionary struggles throughout the world; and done everything possible to educate broader layers of workers in those lessons.

(The point is illustrated both positively and negatively. More than once, Lenin had to turn to the Bolshevik's working class rank and file against wavering intellectuals in the party leadership.)

Please don't be put off by the first chapter, the driest and most difficult in the book. The basic idea is that capitalism arrived late in Russia, imported from abroad in the form of huge factories, which laid the basis for the rapid development of a strong, militant labor movement. As a result, the emerging capitalist class was reluctant to mobilize the masses against the feudal nobles and landlords that stood in their way, for fear that the aroused workers might turn on the capitalists themselves.

Under the impact of war and economic crisis, the resulting mixture of different forms of class oppression exploded in a combined revolt of workers, farmers, and oppressed nationalities, destroying both feudalism and capitalism by the time it was through.

Several postcripts:

(1) If you're wondering what went wrong in the Soviet Union after such a promising start, I recommend "The Revolution Betrayed" by Trotsky; also "Lenin's Final Fight" by Lenin.

(2) I disagree with Trotsky's assessment of the pre-1917 differences between himself and Lenin concerning the role of working farmers, the relationship between democratic (anti-feudal) revolution and socialist revolution, and Lenin's formula, "the democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry". I think Trotsky's discussion of this is confusing. I recommend "Their Trotsky and Ours" by Jack Barnes. There is also a good debate in "Bolshevism and the Russian Revolution" by Doug Jenness, Ernest Mandel, and V.I. Lenin.

(3) Another reviewer pointed out that this book is available online. However, the printed version has glossaries of people, places, organizations and unfamiliar terms; a more complete chronology; and a thorough index. I relied very heavily on all of these, so much so that I used color-coded post-its to turn to them easily. Also, parts of the online version are full of obvious typos; books from Pathfinder Press are proofread very thoroughly.

(4) Finally, I recommend the ads in the back of the book. Pathfinder Press is defined by a political goal, not commercial success. It aims to provide a platform for revolutionary leaders speaking in their own words. If you like one book, you will probably like others.

This is one of the most exciting books I've ever read. It tells the amazing story of the Russian revolution of 1917, from the overthrow of the Czar to the Bolshevik Revolution of October. What makes it an incredible read is that the author, Leon Trotsky, was at the middle of it all, as one of the central planners of the insurrection that took power. Trotsky was a great revolutionary and great writer. But one thing I especially like about the book is that Trotsky uses excerpts from many other accounts, including those who hated him with a passion, to tell the story accurately. It is an inspiring story, especially for new generations of young people, workers and farmers who need to learn about an example showing that the dog-eat-dog system of capitalism we live in can be overthrown. For the definitive account of how this great revolution was later derailed, see Trotsky's Revolution Betrayed.

Whatever Trotsky's faults or your own political persuasion, his own history of the Russian Revolution is an excellently written, engaging and energetic work. Openly biased and without apology, Trotsky recounts the events before, during and after the Bolsheviks rise. Essential to understanding the motivations and mindset of one of history's greatest revolutionaries.

This is a huge and wonderful book-- three volumes in one book, some 1200 pages in all. The story Trotsky lays out is most inspiring and encouraging: how revolutionary-minded workers and peasants in Russia, led by the Bolshevik party, overthrew the centuries-old Czarist monarchy, defeated the attempts to impose a capitalist dictatorship and went on to establish a worker and peasant revolutionary government, opening the road to the possibility of building a socialist society. It's a book you can read repeatedly, getting more out of it each time.

Trotsky explains with rich detail the growing social crisis that wracked Russia, the devastating impact of World War I, the economic collapse, and the incapacity of the old regime to offer any way out. He takes up political developments amongst workers and peasants and the oppressed nationalities of the Russian Empire, including the many millions forced into the Russian army. You understand their growing conviction that the old society had to be and could be overturned and a new order established. And Trotsky gives real insight into the leadership that made possible an actual revolution under these conditions-- the development of the Bolshevik party led by V.I. Lenin and it's successful fight to win the allegiance of the struggling millions.

Trotsky was, along with Lenin, a central leader of the 1917 revolution and of the government it established. After Lenin's death in 1924, he led the international fight to defend the Bolshevik's revolutionary course against the conservative and reactionary bureaucracy headed by Joseph Stalin that came to power later in the Soviet Union. This work was a key part of Trotsky's efforts to make the real facts and lessons 1917 available to future generations of workers, farmers and radicalizing young people. Read it along with some of his many other important works, including The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution, In Defense of Marxism, The Revolution Betrayed, and The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany.

This book provides a very unique perspective into the Russian Revolution. Written by Leon Trotsky himself, it is an excellent way to get first hand information on the events of the revolution. Furthermore, it is very interesting to read how a leader of the revolution viewed the event after several years. Trotsky is an excellent writer, and his book is very detailed. My one warning is that if you don't know much about the Russian Revolution to begin with you may get somewhat confused because of the great amount of detail in this book.

Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution is written in the third person - just as a historian would write it - not in a first person narrative. After reading the book for a while, I sometimes even forget that it was written by Trotsky. Then, when some bizarre interpretation appears, I think - "What is this? Who wrote this book?" only to realize that, obviously, the book is written by Trotsky and would naturally be biased!

Even if you don't read the entire book, just reading some of the passages can give you a very facinating perspective into the revolution. After all, Trotsky was one of the most important leaders during the revolution. It is not often that a revolutionary leader has time to record the events he lived through. Luckily for us, Trotsky did write an account of the Russian Revolution, an event that has clearly had immense influence on world history! So, I would totally recommend this book - read it, and see what Trotsky himself has to say!

Kaufman. Jonathan. "A Hole in the Heart of the World: The Jewish Experience in Eastern Europe After World War II", Penguin, 1997.

Returning Home

Amos Lassen

With Holocaust Memorial Day almost here my thoughts turn to that horrible period in the history of my people. At this time of year, almost every year, I find myself wondering "What If"? If Hitler had been accepted to art school would things have been any different for the Jews of Europe? What would have happened if the Jews had been able to fight back? Where are they now? What of the ones who hid and stayed? These are tough questions. Joseph Kaufman concentrates on five families of Jews in Eastern Europe who survived the Holocaust. Among them are a West German cantor and survivor of the concentration camps who crossed to Berlin after the war to be a minister to the Jews who were still there, A prominent Berlin communist Jewish family, a Hungarian rabbi who was dismissed by the leaders of the Communist party, young people from Prague, Warsaw and Budapest who discover their Jewish roots after the war, and a Polish Catholic woman who helped care for the Jews.
Kaufman magically weaves these stories together and gives the reader a touching look at the lives of people who were either impacted or touched by the madness of the Third Reich.
Most of us probably think that after the war there would be few Jews in eastern Europe but we learn that is not true. There has been something of s rebirth of Jewish culture and Kaufman accounts for the Jews who are there and shows how they survived fascism and communism and survived. It is even possible to identify with these people as Kaufman tells us their stories. Some of these courageous people have returned to their motherlands and there are not many left to tell the story. The book keeps interest high and the triumph of these men and women show that the Jewish experience made and kept them whole.

This is a beautifully touching book that takes a glimpse into the lives of people impacted by and living through Europe during the war and the following decades. It covers the lives of many people in Germany, Hungary, etc. in a way that makes you truly appreciate the impact to people's lives and sense of identity. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this period of time.

about how a few people experienced life after the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. Probably the most interesting things I learned were (1) that the decline of the Jewish population in Eastern Europe didn't just all happen during the Holocuast -- instead it kept declining even after 1945 as the Communists made Jews' life more and more miserable, and (2) how vibrant some Jewish communities still are - for example, I had no idea that there were still 100,000 Jews in Hungary. Short, easy to read, not too deep, in short beach reading.

Like many people, including the author, I thought the Jewish population was close to nonexistant in Eastern Europe following WW II. After the fall of the Wall in 1989, the author discovered that was not totally true, and does a wonderful job of writing about the experiences of 5 Jewish families in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. It was an eye opener for me. While I knew that the Communist regimes hadn't exactly strongly supported Judism, I didn't realize they had launched such strong anti-Semite campaigns (or pogroms). Very easy read and it teaches you quite a bit about post-War Eastern Europe.

Jonathan is first a journalist. He gives you a penetrating view of what it was like to be in Europe under communism as told by people that lived it. He makes you identify with these people and feel their stories. This is no simplistic story of good and evil. This is the story of real and complex people dealing in their different ways with an impossible situation. Some rebelled, some hid, and some joined the enemy. The only common thread is that they were all alive to tell Jonathan their stories when the Berlin Wall fell. Fortunately Jonathan was there at this unique point in time to listen to their stories and tell them to us.

Bond. James Bond. This book is an instant classic. This is exactly how Ian Fleming created it. In this book, James must deal with saboteurs, women, and international conspiracy. As a three part book, this novel requires a decent chunk of time to complete, but is worth every minute! It includes the classic stories: From Russia with Love (in which James must escape from Russia with a dangerous Russian organization desperate to prevent him from ever escaping alive), Doctor No (A man with robotic hands is plotting something against the United States. Can James stop him, and escape his deadly obstacle course with his life still intact?), and Goldfinger (Someone is smuggling gold out of banks, and may be connected with Bond's long-time friends in Russia. Can James uncover this plot? And is something even bigger at stake?) As a long time fan of James, I highly recommend this book. Some scenes are quite descriptive as of Bond's relationship with the women he sleeps with, s this book is mostly suited to anyone over the age of 14.

This great collection of Ian Fleming's three James Bond thriller novels, From Russia, With Love, Doctor No, and Goldfinger is the best deal anywhere if you're looking for cheap classics. Even though it's not avaliable anymore, ... so if you get an oppurtunity buy it instantly.

From Russia, With Love is about a Soviet conspiracy involving a code machine called the Spektor, a lovely Russian female named Tatiania Romanova, and a professional killer who is affected by the moon. The girl sends for Bond, pledging her love and at the same time luring him into a trap that would seriously damage the Service's image. Great read and the best Cold War thriller out there.

In Doctor No, James Bond is sent to investigate two agents who have disappeared in Jamaica. He soon discovers the clues linking him to Doctor No, a Chinese/German doctor who has an island base in Jamaica, where he disrupts U.S. missile firing. James endures through his toughest physcial test of his career, and some consider Dr. No to be the best 007 novel ever written.

Goldfinger is in my opinion the best 007 novel of all. While investigating a cheat at cards by the name of Auric Goldfinger, James is informed that he is also involved in smuggling Great Britain's gold reserves to India, where the Russians wait for it. As James is captured, he discovers Goldfinger's master plan--to raid Fort Knox itself! With the smartest villian, the toughest henchman, and the most thrilling climax of all the James Bonds, Goldfinger is the by far the best masterpiece ever to come from the desk of Ian Fleming.

This wonderful trilogy is an enthralling epic of the Cold War, and I recommend it to anyone who has either read Ian Fleming before, or is thinking of starting very soon.

I am a fan of the James Bond movies but the recent ones have let me down. So instead of giving up on Bond, I have taken to reading the stories and they are far better than I had imagined. Almost every one is better then the film that it spawned. Ian Fleming's Bond is far superior to the Bond that Hollywood is sticking us with. Bond does not spout off one liners, shoot everything in sight, or have an obligatory load up on spy gadgets scene in Ian Fleming's books. This book is just great.

This is a great book, and after reading this I watched all the movies again, and they can't even compare. If you enjoy James Bnd you will enoy this, I mean I am only eleven and I couldn't tare my eyes away. I enjoyed the action, suspense, romance, and even the detail, Iam Flemming is truly a master writer, and can only portay James Bond. The movies are nothing comapred to this, this is a must get.

These three books together are, in some ways, the epitome of James Bond. However, I must correct one of the reviews. These books *are* sequential. These books are 5, 6, and 7 in the order that Fleming published them. The 8th was The Spy Who Loved Me and the 9th was Thunderball, the first book in the Blofeld trilogy. Aside from the 10th book, For Your Eyes Only (a collection of short stories), the story picks up in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and ends with You Only Live Twice. These three Blofeld books are available in the James Bond Omnibus, volume 2.

I have been looking for this book forever and because it was out of print I had to go to the library every time I wanted to read it, which was often. The only copy I could find was $200. This book really tells the truth to what it was like as a person in the Imperial family. This puts an end to a lot of rumors flying around about Rasputin and Anna Anderson. This was told from a trusted person, someone that Olga trusted to put the truth about her family out there. It is beautiful and compassionate and a fabulous historical read.

I normally race through books like a speed demon, but this was so enjoyable I read it s-l-o-w-l-y - and several times.

Olga was a woman raised in the lap of luxury in the Russian court but was able and willing to work at hard physical labor on farms in Denmark and Canada for decades without apparent bitterness at what many might consider her "fall" from high status.

At the very end of her life with no income and relatives around her, she accepted an invitation from Russian emigrees and spent her last months on a second-floor apartment in a working-class neighborhood in Toronto.

I have been going through some drastic changes in my life - rather unwillingly - and have spent a lot of time thinking about Olga and how she accepted things that happened.

Was she perfect? No, but I wonder if I could have lived her life with so much courage and acceptance.

I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandra was nothing short of a amazing woman and this book is great in showing that. From her childhood days spent in her father's study to the Revolution to her days in Canada, this books gives vivid details of everything. Ian Vorres put this memoir together beautifully. A must have for all Romanov fans!

Honestly, I had trouble putting that book down at night, but we all have to get some sleep ;o) Reading that book is like reliving the splendor of Imperial Russia , and at the same time, going through the lives of those who left Russia during the Revolution in unimaginable conditions... in fact, we could say the worst conditions possible. As I gathered, Olga's life was no piece of cake to say the very least. What is also fascinating about that book is Olga's demystification of Raspoutine and Mrs. Anderson. She sets the record straight about those two, once and for all. I won't tell you about the rest of her life... you have to read the book, and believe me, it it a fascinating one!

I normally race through books like a speed demon, but this was so enjoyable I read it s-l-o-w-l-y - and several times.

Olga was a woman raised in the lap of luxury in the Russian court but was able and willing to work at hard physical labor on farms in Denmark and Canada for decades without apparent bitterness at what many might consider her "fall" from high status.

At the very end of her life with no income and relatives around her, she accepted an invitation from Russian emigrees and spent her last months on a second-floor apartment in a working-class neighborhood in Toronto.

I have been going through some drastic changes in my life - rather unwillingly - and have spent a lot of time thinking about Olga and how she accepted things that happened.

Was she perfect? No, but I wonder if I could have lived her life with so much courage and acceptance.

I HIGHLY recommend this book.

I thought the book was exstremly well written.I was particularly interested because my husband Chuck Maultsby was the U2 pilot that accidently overflew Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis.I furnished information and a photograph of him to the author!

I can't add much to the praise heaped upon this book by other reviewers. Needless to say that it makes many of the other histories look like the "Cliff" notes versions. I had the privilege to serve on one of the ships involved in the blockade, two years after the event. Many of the "old salts" on board enlightened me on the events. Michael Dodd's book reads like a contemporary thriller. The world truly hung in the balance, and Dodd's paints a fast-moving, yet poignant picture of the events and the two men (Kennedy and Khrushchev) who ultimately chose the path of reason and sanity.

Who knew history could be so exciting??? Mr. Dobbs presents a well-researched look at the Cuban Missile Crisis. He and his team of researchers managed to dig up new facts and never-before-seen pictures of the event that only add the suspense. The gunsight pictures from the fighters over Cuba were particular riveting. The fighters flew at 500-1000ft over many of the Soviet installations so pictures are very detailed.

Some of the facts that are revealed are surprising. I won't share them here but will say that they only highlight how close the world came to a nuclear war.

This is effectively a Tom Clancy novel -- ABOUT A REAL LIFE EVENT. Well done, Mr. Dobbs. Brilliant work. I couldn't put the book down.

This book provides an outstanding, in-depth account of the Cuban missile crisis, one that confirms some of the mythology we believe about it and repudiates other aspects of the mythology. One that provides a great deal of detail that has never seen the light of day before -- the result of the author's diligent efforts to interview the remaining players, large & small, to read now unclassified materials from the US, Soviet Union & Cuba. Perhaps the most important contribution of the book is to show how the crisis has been misused by subsequent generations, and political leaders, in their own explanations of policy. Secondarily, the book shows that we were closer, rather than farther (at least in my reading) to a nuclear conflagration, than legend suggests. And finally, the book shows the real chaos that is present in these kinds of situations, frankly all kinds of fateful decisionmaking situations. I highly recommend this book.

Like most Americans (or maybe not...), I knew that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a dangerous time in the history of our planet. But until I read One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs, I don't think I fully understood how close we came to a full nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. And the common wisdom of Kennedy being the "winner" of this confrontation doesn't capture the reality of how much luck, timing, and conviction played in the event.

Contents:
Americans; Russians; Cubans; "Eyeball to Eyeball"; "Till Hell Freezes Over"; Intel; Nukes; Strike First; Hunt for the Grozny; Shootdown, "Some Sonofabitch"; "Run Like Hell"; Cat and Mouse; "Crate and Return"; Afterword; Acknowledgments and a Note on Sources; Notes; Index

Conventional wisdom paints the Cuban Missile Crisis as a time where Kennedy stood firm over the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. He went "eye to eye" with Khrushchev, and Khrushchev blinked. But Dobbs has exhaustively researched the event and paints a far different picture. Khrushchev introduced both medium-range and tactical nukes into Cuba in order to show Russian superiority and to protect a fellow communist country from a potential US invasion. This made Castro look invincible to himself and his people, and he welcomed the power they represented. When US intel discovered the missiles, the international tension started to rise as Kennedy declared this unacceptable and demanded the removal of the weapons. They also implemented a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent any more aid from showing up on the island. With each passing day (and often each passing hour), the risk that one side or the other would launch an attack continued to grow. Finally, through some backchannel negotiations and implicit promises, Khrushchev gave the order to crate up the missiles and send them back to Russia. But at so many points, the outcome could have been so much different...

Castro was certain that a US invasion was imminent, and wanted Khrushchev to order a pre-emptive strike on the US. The US kept up with overflights of the island to gather intel, and these overflights were seen as pre-invasion forays into Cuban airspace. Soviet SAM sites shot down one spy plane over Cuba, and US military officials were demanding retaliation. In fact, during the entire crisis, most US military officials were pushing for an invasion as well as launching a strike on Russian territory. A US spy plane got lost on a polar flight, overflew Soviet territory, and nearly touched off an exchange right there. While Khrushchev had started the confrontation, he recognized that no one could win in an all-out exchange. And the first missile fired would make it impossible to turn back. Kennedy recognized this also, and was doing all he could to hold off the hawks and give Khrushchev a way to back down while saving face. In the end, Kennedy got the missiles removed, and Khrushchev got an assurance that Cuba would not be invaded, while also getting US nuclear missiles removed from Turkey. But up to that point, there were literally dozens of points when a single person could have pushed a button and started an exchange that would have killed tens of millions of people.

Dobbs does an excellent job in both his research of the event, as well as the storytelling aspect. I felt the rising tension and understood how both sides were operating with incomplete information while trying to protect themselves. It's a literal miracle that the button wasn't pushed somewhere along the way. Students of history and warfare really need to read this book to understand that a nuclear war isn't a winnable proposition, and everything needs to be done to prevent things from getting that close to the edge again.

Petropolis by Anya Ulinich is one of those books that just does not fit the mold. It is an entity unto itself in a class of satire that is funny, achingly sad and ultimately satisfying. The main character,Sasha,is a misfit from a decaying town in Siberia . The novel is the story of her struggle to fit in, the angst of maternal domination,the need for love,the heartache of first love and the search for a new start and assimilation into a new culture and life. The ups and downs of Sasha's journey to find her father and ultimately find herself is a great experience for the reader. Anyone who has ever felt different....who has been on the outside looking in, who has floundered finding their way .........will relate to Sasha and Petropolis.

Petropolis is a fine work, with a style that ranges from subtle to direct, and from funny to quite serious. I am neither Russian nor Jewish, and thus fall a bit outside her primary target, where many of the stories, phrases, and attitudes may strike close to home. You don't need to have experienced a dismal life in a nearly-abandoned town in Siberia, the culture shock in America, or a strange longing for "home" to appreciate this original spin on the coming-of-age and fish-out-of-water concepts. As a regular American, I must compliment the author for her insightful and amusing observations of Americans.

The main character, Sasha, is herself relatively uninteresting as a kid in Asbestos 2, a bi-racial, chubby, non-practicing Jew with no particular talents. While Sasha is still in Russia, the novel to me is merely ok, with the action a bit slight as the focus is on the interactions of the characters within their dreary lives, often with resignation and cynicism. Except for the bi-racial Jew and art school angles, this didn't seem particularly fresh.

When Sasha gets the idea to become a mail-order bride in order to get to America to find her father, the action perks up. From then on, as Sasha goes from Arizona to Chicago and New York and a pass through Russia, her character gradually develops more sophistication (after all, she's still a teenager) and likability. Each new stop provides the author with a fresh opportunity to make sharp comments or show some wry humor. To me, the idea of a "pet Jew" was brand new, for sure.

As with Olga Grushin's novel, I can barely comprehend how a new novelist can write so well in a second language. Ulinich also made the highly appropriate choice to sprinkle in many Russian terms and phrases, naturally almost none of which I knew, rather than using English translations. One of my favorites was this excerpt: "Ponayehali...," sighs the grandma. On her way to the poseyolok, Sasha tries to translate the old woman's lament into English. The single word ponayehali means 'they arrived over a period of time, in large enough masses to become an annoyance.' O, the great and mighty Russian language! thinks Sasha. Here abuse is compact and efficient; two prefixes do the job of a sentence. Suddenly Sasha finds herself missing Brooklyn, where people simply call each other (a word you can imagine that starts with m)." That's nice.

I cannot hold my enthusiastic desire to share with you my marveling over this wonderful book I have been reading. It's by Anya Ulinich "Petropolis".
A story told by Anya Ulinch, who herself immigrated to USA from Moscow with her parents when she was 17, lived in Chicago and studied at the Art Institute. So she seems to know all ins and outs of what a typical teenager would know going to a mid-town high school or intricacies of Russian immigrant community, that we experienced first hand over the last 20 years. The weird and mesmerizing thing is that all of this is seen and told from the viewpoint of Ulinich's heroine, Sasha Goldberg, who as a 16-yesr old girl, half Russian, half Negro and also Jewish, born and raised in a murky Siberian ghost town Asbestos-2 and then makes a trans-Atlantic jump as a mail-in bride from Repin Lyceums in Moscow to America and settles in one of the North Shore multimillion mansions as a no-visa home maid.
Anya Ulinich's is great in her satirical, beneath-the-skin, and somewhat nostalgic description of Sasha growing up in Asbestos-2 in the post-perestroika years of complete nihilism and degradation. It gave me a very new look at the different Russia, which neither of us, thanks God, ever experienced. Here Ulinich heavily uses Russian idiomatic expressions, like "all the way up to devil's horns" when she wants to literally convey expression " ". She is not translating; she writes in great English, but one needs to feel Russian language to read and enjoy every line of this book. Ulinich is great in dialogues; she is even better in her description and utter sarcasm of today's Russia.
But just wait until you get to page 101, when Sasha Goldberg finally arrives to America. Nobody can spot her here as a Russian Jew, as she is transparently seen as pretty fat 16-year old black girl. This allows Ulinich to set Sasha on a such an independent and sardonical outlook that would make you take a new look at our society in general and at the Russian community in particular. And ...if you have not smoked weed, have not had a teen girl attending Art Institute of Chicago, never really mixed up with the taxi-driver type of the Chicago Russians, you would certainly replenish you life knowledge.
This is a book of a gifted and brave author; she is on par or maybe better than her peers. The book may make you both re-think and re-feel of our own long journey from there to where you are today.

Just finished Petropolis in one sitting. It's more than just a piece of fiction about Russian Jewish immigrants in the US. Above all, it's a touching story that evokes laughter, tears, and existential thoughts about the meaning of your own life. Ulinich did an incredible job conveying the personalities of the characters, and the depth of their more tragic than happy life experiences.

The above reviews would give you the feeling that this is just an immigrant novel though a very good one. It is and a lot more.

It is a stupendously well written weave of character, plot and some of the best descriptive metaphors strung like pearls paragraph after paragraph. I am astounded.
Disclaimer: I have an semi-Jewish immigrant wife and know dinner table Russian which makes the book even more enjoyable. But it is not just an "insiders" book.

For many years the world behind the Iron Curtain was a mystery. There were Sovietologists of all different kinds. One famous Daniel Bell essay gave I believe eight or so different basic ways of interpreting the Soviet Union. Hedrick Smith is a reporter and what he did in this outstanding work was to look into the ordinary life of Soviet society as far as he could. He explained then close to thirty years ago many of the anomalies of the system. And when I read the book then I felt I really was getting inside information into a hidden and highly significant world.

I cannot claim to be a student of Russian history, but I have always foudn the ironies and disconnects of Russian life interesting. I just read this book in 2004, and now understand today's headlines from Russia, and their nostalgia for the order of the brutal regimes that preceded the fall of the Soviet Union. This is, as someone else said, a classic, a must read, a requirement for anyone who needs to understand Russia. Don't worry about it being date; part of Russian culture is that they cling hopelessly to the old while being swept cruelly away by the new. The attitudes and longings portrayed in this book appear to still be the same.

I have been a student of the Soviet Union for many years, but did not come across this book until very recently, and I must say that I feel this one book does more to provide a picture of Soviet life than perhaps all the other study I had done previously.

While it is true that there is an "American bias" to this book, it isn't overpowering, and it leaves room for the "unbiased" student to draw plenty of their own conclusions. Overall I find this to be the least biased of all the western histories of the Soviet Union.

What I found most fascinating was the distinct parallel between American conservatives (who of course are anti-Marxist) and Russian conservatives of the time (where were very pro-Marxist).

As a student of Marxism, I fully understand this, but this book demonstrated it so well. In mentality, its safe to say that many of America's far right Republicans would have been among the USSR's Marxist orthodoxy.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Soviet Union, it will dispell myths on both sides.

Hendrick Smith is a New York Times correspondent that spent the years 1970-75 living in and among the Soviet people, studying both the people and the culture. As much as a westerner could he immersed himself in many aspects of their lives interviewing workers, peasants, government beaurocrats, physicists, writers, movie producers, dissidents and students. He came away with a picture of a passionate and conflicted people; at times warm and hospitible, fearful and paranoid, petty and tyrannical, cynical and apathetic, and proud and loyal. In a country where the state is in overwhelming control of nearly every aspect of their lives, where a stroke of the pen from a government beaurocrat could destroy a man's life for the slightest misstep, the Russian are hardy souls that have found many ingenious ways to cope and survive.

In a supposedly classless utopia Smith shows us a country deeply divided by class distinctions, much more so than anywhere in the west. With a haughtiness that rivals the most snobbish western aristocrat, the cultural elite enjoy a life that is completely out of reach of the common man. They get to shop at special stores, stocked to the gills with imported goods from all over the world (Soviet made items considered beneath them) while the rest of the country spends on average 22 hours a week per household standing in line for basic necessities. The blatant corruption and hypocrisy is startling, but don't you dare voice it. Smith claims that just a few weeks of this type of living would wither away the will of your average American, and I believe him.

Only a westerner living among the Soviet people could write such a book. He tells of his 11-year-old daughter, enrolled in a Soviet public school, coming home and practising military drills taught as a regular part of the curriculum, or repeating songs and slogans extolling the `Great Leninist State' and condemning America without really comprehending the meaning of anything she's saying. Soviets are taught from an early age to simply parrot the idealogical dogma that is fed to them on an almost daily basis without digging too deeply. The Russians are so used to being lied to by their own government that they assume all nations lie to their people, and the Soviet government uses this political cynicisim as an effective means of control.

Although many of these `facts' about life in the USSR are fairly common knowledge in America (especially if you grew up during the Reagan years), Smith puts a human face on it that transforms this grey, drab, and seemingly monotonous totalitarian state into a vivid and colorful mosaic of a sincere, intelligent and deeply conflicted people with a communal inferiority complex

Although this book is now rather dated (from the Brezhnev era of the 1970s) it still sticks in my mind as a very vivid portrait of Russia and the Russians...I read it in my late teens circa 1989 or so. I didn't read THE NEW RUSSIANS until a couple of years ago. Both are excellent books but I enjoyed THE RUSSIANS more, I think. Any student of Russia would do well to read this book even today...although it's no longer contemporary/current events it still captures like a snapshot the then-USSR in the late 70s, and even some discussion of the earlier times in people's memories then--Krushchev, Stalin, etc. I found the book insightful and still relevant when I myself I finally visited Russia in 1993. Should be available at most Public Libraries...handle with care, the copies will be old.

A voracious reader I thought I finished the Russian classics when I completed Cancer Ward and the First Circle having devoured Crime and Punishment and War and Peace years before. Not so . Victor Serge has it all :the prose of Tolstoy, the impending doom of Dosteyesky and the currency of the Stalin era. Don't miss this one. FPB Ann Arbor

A repressive shadow looms over the destiny of these men of all age, beliefs, and ranks ... insidious terror creeps into those innocent minds and their lives ends before they know it or before their hearts stopped beating. Some vainly fight back, some don't, but all are hopeless.
The implacable and revengeful wave of the Soviet rotten bureaucracy destroys the life of innocent men. When tyranny and deception shutters the greatest hope of and for humanity, one ought to question if it had to be that way.

This book is amazing for its ability to communicate the intimate thoughts of the characters and employ beautiful prose to describe the physical settings in which the action takes place, without abandoning the larger narrative. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in Soviet history or literature. I read it after reading several other books on the period, and felt that they were an excellent preparation for this one (The Unquiet Ghost - Hochschild, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar - Montefiore, The Gulage Archipeligo), but even without the background this is a fantastic read.

in time the mind will make chains snap." Victor Serge.

Victor Serge's novel "The Case of Comrade Tulayev" is set in the Soviet Union in the late 1930s, long before "the chains wore out." It is a classic and haunting look at Soviet society during an era of party purges, show trials, and executions that deserves a place of honor on any reading list that also includes Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon", George Orwell's "1984" and Vasily Grossman's "Forever Flowing" .

Serge, born in Brussels in 1890 to Russian emigre parents, returned to Russia early in 1919 in order to support the newly created Soviet Union. He served as both a writer and journalist. However, Serge was one of the first of the old-line revolutionaries to oppose Stalin's concentration of power. He was arrested, expelled from the party, released, and arrested again. Finally, in 1936 after a public campaign by leading European political and literary figures, Serge was released and deported to France. He eventually found his way to Mexico where he died, penniless, in 1947.

The Case of Comrade Tulayev mirrors in some respects the murder of Sergei Kirov that set off Stalin's first great purge beginning in 1934. The story begins with the almost accidental murder of a leading member of the Central Committee, Comrade Tulayev by a disaffected clerk. The Chief (Serge's allusion to Stalin) immediately commences a round of purges, investigations, show trials and executions. The rest of the book takes us on a chapter-by-chapter account of a group of individuals caught up in the aftermath of the murder. Each individual represents a different component of Soviet society, from the lowly clerk to the high-ranking party functionary to the `oppositionist' already living in exile in Siberia.

Serge paints an intimate, vivid picture of each individual as they meet their fate. Like a storm at seas these people can see the storm on the horizon but they all seem powerless to either flea. They are swept up and prepared for show trials. The only option available to each is their ability to fight the omnipotent forces that want them to admit to crimes they did not commit and to implicate others in these same acts. The power of Serge's writing lies in his examination of the inner lives of his protagonists and their reasons for either accepting this fate or fighting to retain some shred of inner dignity. The outcome of each protagonist's story provides a cross section of human responses ranging from cringing supplication to death-defying resistance. The story of Ryzshik, the exiled oppositionist is particularly haunting. As with the others, he knows what is expected of him but he chooses to starve himself to death rather than confess to some non-existent crime.

The Case of Comrade Tulayev is most often compared to Koestler's Darkness at Noon. Although the comparison is very apt there are some critical differences in approach that bear mentioning. Darkness at Noon focuses on the self-reflection of one key player in the creation of the Soviet state, Rubashov. Koestler took one life, Rubashov's, and reflected on his own role (or guilt) in creating the state that was about to murder him. The emotional heart of Darkness at Noon (for me) is whether and why Rubashov would perform one last act for `The State". Serge, takes a broader look at the questions of individual guilt and collective responsibility. I think that by taking this broader look both Serge and the reader begin to think about, if not find a rational explanation for, how a society based on egalitarian ideals can allow itself to be transformed into a compliant, totalitarian state in less than a generation.

Victor Serge's Case of Comrade Tulayev is an excellent piece of writing. Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

Most of the other reviews of this book are right on the money and more articulate than I could be, so I won't try to repeat them. But I will say that I found this book to be a compelling piece of work; a classic. I never quite appreciated the depth of dysfunction, even depravity, of the Soviet system. It bewilders me that such an abomination took place in my lifetime. It frightens me that it could happen again. I just finished reading about the Spanish Inquisition, where the same terrible mechanics were perpetrated on the Spanish. Whether the motivating spark is political ideology or religious orthodoxy, demented societies like this can spring up like mushrooms. Communism was a massive crime upon the Russian people. And it provides little satisfaction that the criminals were often the victims of their own crimes. A devastating but outstanding book!