Russia Books

It is the time of the Russian revolution where anyone connected with the royal family is no longer safe. Anton has been trusted with command by the tsar to take two servant girls from the royal house into safety. He soon falls in love with one of the girls, Oksana who seems to be hiding a secret from him. The two are constantly at odds but Anton has vowed to keep her safe. When he finds out her secret, will he still keep his promise to her or will he betray her trust?

I was afraid when reading this book I would be lost because I hadn't read the 2nd and 3rd book in the series. I had read the first book, Ekaterina, and had enjoyed it very much. However this book reads as a novel by itself although reading the other books will probably help to connect the complete storyline. I'm a huge fan of Russian history especially when dealing with the Russian royal family. I have always found the rise and fall of the last Tsar of Russia and his family fascinating. This story weaves historical fact with fiction beautifully. It's a really good story too, with lots of suspense and romance. What I also enjoyed about this story is that while most stories during this time period focus on Anastasia, this one was mainly about Olga. It was nice to read about a different perspective. It was obvious lots of research went into writing this book. I could almost imagine I was part of the story myself, trying to get into disguise and running for my life. Even though I haven't read the two books in between I can see how the first book and the last book tie into together with lots of clues finally being revealed. Excellent historical fiction and highly recommended.

This final book in the "Hiers of Anton" series was superbly written and I enjoyed it so much. Downs and Warren have done an excellent job in this book, as well as the series as a whole, in telling the story of this Russian family and how they discover who God has called them to be. The story grips you from the beginning and the ending is awesome! This series was written backwards, starting with the most current family members and ending with the oldest. I look forward to reading the series again, only in reverse! Downs and Warren have won a fan in me!

"Oksana", the fourth and final book in the Heirs of Anton series, is by far the best of them all! "Oksana" delivers a monumental punch within the first few chapters that, despite some dragging parts in the middle of the book, will keep you entranced until the very end. The romantic element in this novel also feels more authentic than in the previous novels, even if it is far-fetched. "Oksana" ties up all the loose ends and questions of the Heirs of Anton books in some unexpected ways, and delivers a fantastic and genius ending to the series.

I'd say more, but chances are, if you have been reading the series, you already love it, and already plan to read the final book. If you have not read the previous three novels, I encourage you to read them as they were designed to be read, in reverse-chronological order ("Ekaterina" first, then "Nadia", then "Marina", and finally, "Oksana").

After finishing "Ekaterina", the first book of the Heirs of Anton series, I wondered why on earth I would want to read the next three novels, when the mystery had been solved in the first one? Sure, a few questions lingered, but not enough to really hook me. But somehow I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I bought the rest of the series - and I am SO GLAD that I did! Each book in this series has been a joy to read, each complex in and of itself, and yet also contributing to the underlying plot that is woven throughout all four novels. This is, without a doubt one of the best fiction series I have ever had the pleasure of reading!
(I don't give out 5 star ratings very often or easily, so i truly recommend this series!)

Grade: A

Just before the Royal House of Romanov in Russia is forced into house arrest by the Revolutionists, Imperial Tsar Nikolai Romanov entrusts one his most precious belongings to a young Mennonite, Anton Klassen. Agreeing to protect and escort two of the Tsar's servants to safety, Anton travels to the palace to retrieve Oksana and Yulia.

Oksana, however, carries many secrets with her as Anton takes her away, including the fact she is not who she claims to be. Originally born Olga Nikolaeva Romanov, Grand Duchess of Russia, she uses the name of the faithful chambermaid who exchanged places with Olga in the palace. Trained to be her body double, the real Oksana chose of her own free will to remain behind to save Olga. Now under a borrowed name, Olga will have to learn to cope with a new life, even as she waits to be reunited with her family.

I find it very interesting that the books in this series have been done backwards as it were, with each book in the series going further into history instead of forward. Oksana is probably the best book in the Heirs of Anton series, aside from the first one, Ekaterina. Downs and Warren have written a wonderful romance combined with suspense. Oksana was a very well done novel.

I thought this book was very poetic and interesting. I really like the way Wirick wrote short, inventive vignettes about a place most people think of as a frozen wasteland. His detailed descriptions of faraway people and places enables the reader to imagine life in a world far removed from anything they've ever experienced. He obviously did some extensive research and has captured the true spirit of Siberia, both past and present. His glorious command of the English language was imaginatively used to paint vivid pictures of fascinating distant cultures and lands.

The vignettes of Richard Wirick's Siberian Postcards form a portrait of Russia's outback, a wilderness whose forests, steppes and decayed industrial cities are little known to Westerners fond of nouveau riche Moscow and St. Peterburg. Wirick, who adopted an infant daughter from a Siberian orphanage in 2005, has schooled himself in the region's history and folklore. He has studied the legends of Siberian shamans, the explorations and conquests of the Cossacks, the crimes committed in the aftermath of the Revolution. His visits to children's homes have given him compelling evidence of the "demographic catastrophe" that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, leaving nearly a million Russian children abandoned in decrepit orphanages. His impressions of Siberia are set down with poetic precision; in his often poignant stories, every word tells. The critical praise offered by English poet Hugo Williams is warranted in Wirick's case: this is, as Williams says, "a brilliantly executed masterpiece."

An adoptive father myself, I found Rick Wirick's book absolutely stunning. You really get to see the strangeness--from both sides (adoptive family and adopted child)--of transnational adoption. The book very sensitively deals with the politics of uprooting a child from her native culture, but it does so in its chosen form: lyrical, elliptical "postcards" sent with some urgency to the global world in which we all live. The writing is exquisite, both historically and culturally informed. Think of Rick Wirick as a poetic ambassador, the kind we ought to employ at the State Department. Do NOT miss this book. It is fabulous.

Richard Wirick takes the literary sacred and the nonfiction profane and cracks them together, two eggs in a bowl. Someone needs to talk about what it means to adopt a child, someone needs to talk about Russia in what seems like its posthistorical phase, someone needs to talk about wildflowers, someone needs to talk about the distinct character of Siberia, and quietly through it all, that someone needs to talk about himself. Wirick does all this by skirting round the edges of narrative -- similar to Ben Marcus in his Notable American Women -- and the fact that there is fiber and marrow and heart beneath the words makes it that much more remarkable. A truly transformative book.

The best Russian aviation book out there...it has it all.
They have added just about evry variation and every modification to every airplane the russians ever thought of.

This book is an impressive and meticulous look at Soviet Aviation.

PROS:
Extensive, exhaustive and thoroughly detailed (Gunston even covers details such as shape/size of nosewheel hubcaps etc.). Covers literally every single plane/variant/sub-type ever made.

Superb diagrams, images and spec

Ekranoplanes -- amazing information. A must have for Red aviation enthusiasts.

CONS
Too laconic
B/W images only :-(((
Historical information covers only development and engineering.Not enough information about actual performance/strenghts/weaknesses. Information/opinions about performance is sorely lacking.

SUM:
An alternative to Janes...seriously

Many books tout, "new information never before seen from the Soviet archives", but few really deliver anything substantial. Mr Gunston though, has achieved what many historians hoped would happen with former Iron Curtain material coming to light: a truly enlightening book. Many of the details of the Soviet design bureaus, let alone some of the experimental aircraft have never had their stories told before. The depth of this work exceeds anything I've seen in the West, or Russia. The listings of aircraft before 1917 are almost worth the price alone. However, the prose is terse to say the least, one would have thought an additional few pages could have been spared for descriptions/tech data. Also, some of the comments are, well if not quite from the sales brochure, they're close. Mr Gunston has a reputation for taking manufacturer data at face value. Certainly his comments on the MiG21 and 29 don't give the reader the full story of real combat limitations of these otherwise fine designs.
That said though, this an encyclopedia no aviation enthusiast, or Russian historian should be without. Well worth the money.

This book is a must-have for all people interested in aviation of our "coldwar-eastern enemy". The often different approach of russian designers to aircraft design gave us some very surprising en extotic aircraft types. Much more than in the west, soviet aircraft were being designed and built for an operational purpose. The result often was an aircraft, very rugged and suited to it's operational requirements but often lacking in economic operations. Solutions were solutions, no mather how expensive or uneconomical. Off course some of the soviet aircraft are still unrivalled in their class. The IL76 is still one off the most rugged heavy transports and if you look at the technical propulsion system of the Lockheed X-35 S/VTOL demonstrator, one can see that it is directly derived from the YAK141 prototype. The russian designers often were much more practical in approach and with limited resources they achieved very much. This book contains them all. From the early "kites" till Ekranoplans! The definitive work on this subject!

Outstanding photography

I sent this book as a gift to my brother, who is a printer. He thought that pains had been taken with the photography to produce such fine prints. He compared it to another book of Restoration painters that he had once bought at the Guggenheim, having been thrilled with the original exhibition, but said that the Restoration photography had been careless and therefore did not print well, whereas the Hermitage collection exhibited outstanding photography. I didn't buy books that were available in St. Petersburg at the Hermitage because they didn't look good, but these were both beautiful and plentiful. I can't comment on the accompanying text, as I didn't read it.

I had very high expectations from "Paintings" when I ordered it, and they were all met! The volume contains beautiful fine quality, mainly full-page reproductions from the famous collection. "Paintings" is a beautifully designed, very substantial size volume which also offers Colin Eisler's very informative yet not imposing style of writing with which she guides us through the many periods of western art and the history behind Catherine the Great's collection. I, a Russian, can only appreciate the thoroughness with which the Hermitage collection is compiled in the "Paintings." I bought it along with "Paintings in the Louvre," both volumes are of the same format as if in the same series and will always be our priceless source for admiring some of the world's most treasured canvases.

Context: I'm not an academic or a scholar; I'm a regular guy who likes visiting museums when I travel and I wanted to do a little researach before I left. This book worked well for my daughter and I to determine which parts of the museum deserved the most time (on a short trip) and to get a better understanding of the works. I'm not qualified to evaluate it from an academic perspective, but as a layman it was exactly what we needed.

I sent this book to my mother after we toured the Hermitage this summer. She loved it. Lots of narrative, which she may not take time to read, but the pictures are great.

I don't like writing reviews but I believe I owe this one to Pozner. To those of you who don't know him, he is not only a man of incredible destiny but arguably on of the smartest men in Russia.

So much in one book: history of Soviet Union, family history, intense human relationships etc.

This writing by Pozner provides an honest look into his life personally and his perceptions of the U.S., world, and the Soviet Union, as a Soviet citizen. He was not the average Soviet citizen however. He was one of the fortunate few who were allowed to leave his country and spend time abroad. He was afforded the rare glimpse of American life and culture during his time there in the 1930s. This obviously is a part of him, as is his other numerous experiences. In addition, he also candidly shared his personal life with us. (When he saw his old-flame coming the opposite way on an escalator, for example). Pozner is down-to-Earth and it's easy for a reader to like and to relate to him.

I read this book when it first came out and went over it again recently, 14 years later, finding it in an old box of mine. His writings prove that he had good instincts on where his nation and culture, and the world was heading at the time he wrote "Parting with Illusion." He has the oration and writing ability to explain his viewpoints as well as the perceptions of many Russians when he wrote this book in 1989. He discussed Stalin and his legacy, and the graft and corruption that crept into the USSR, becoming commonplace by the 1960s.

Now, 14 years later, I wonder: where is Vladimir Pozner? I haven't heard or seen him since the late 1980s or perhaps early 90s.

At the time, he was articulate, and an astute observer of current affairs. Possessing a gifted knack for passing his observations on.

Today, in 2003, where is he now?

A truly excepional book and my all time favorite... An incredibly personal account of an extraordinary life of a true citizen of the world ... along with an insightful look into the drama of modern Russian history.
Pozner talks about his childhood, his parents, first glass of vodka and his first love, his marriages, career, spiritual and political struggles...
Plus a personal account of WWII, Stalin's purges, the Thaw, the Iron Curtain and Perestroika.

This book was a present to me when I was a senior in college and what a gift it was! The Russians often painted as the cold number one enemy came to be just as human as anyone. The author's struggle between being a journalist in a communist country certainly makes me, a journalist in a world that protects free speech, feel very humbled and fortunate.

It's humanity's greatest test when one is forced to question your own country's integrity. Yet the author has succeeded in standing by his principles. Extremely educational (and easy reading for students) for those who are not familiar with Russian history and diplomacy. It's been years since I read it and I look forward to picking it up again.

Having read Le Carre, Clancy, and Condon, I rate this new novel as one of the best I have ever read. This is a thriller with historical interest. A real page turner to say the least.

Eugene Golub debut novel Protokol, (written with the assistance of Quinton Skinner), an action/suspense story of the "Cold War" and set in Rome, Warsaw, and Moscow. David Olen is a global architect and developer who is up to his neck in international intrigue. Knowing that everything in life is about the art of the detail, he must take the secret only he knows and run in this thrilling, tense, provocative and exciting thriller of behind-the-scenes drama threatening to erupt into destruction, collapsing and government and scandalizing the Vatican. Protokol is recommended reading for those who enjoy ripping good stories of international intrigue.

In 1998 St. Petersburg, Russia, GlobusBank official Alexei Sokolov heads to his meeting with officials from the European Development Bank. GlobusBank is partnering with the American firm Olen Europe to renovate a historical building. However, two Mercedes block the vehicle containing Alexei. Men leave the other cars, approach Alexei's auto, and assassinate him.

The cold-blooded killing of Alexei impacts the Russian presidential election. That in turn begins the potential toppling of the current delicate balance of global power like a series of dominoes if secrets are revealed. David Olen travels to Europe to prevent an international collapse. He knows first hand of the deal set in the 1970s between a clandestine American government agency, the Soviet Union, and the Vatican that chose the Pope. If the agreement surfaces global relationships and confidence could be destroyed.

On first look, readers will brush aside PROTOKOL: A NOVEL OF INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUE as the imagination of the authors. However, as the audience digs deeper into the action filled plot with ever increasing suspense, the readers will realize the premise is plausible and the details make one wonder did it really happen that way? The only reason not to believe it happened that way is inductive as this book is published with the writers still alive. Conspiracy thriller fans will love this exciting tale that substantiates many beliefs and demand Eugene Golub and Quinton Skinner look at Yalta next.

Harriet Klausner

Protokol is an electrifying fictional story of international intrigue that had me asking "Is it true?" The story weaves pieces of history of the Cold War in such a way that it was exciting, gripping and very plausible. I couldn't put it down. It is a real page-turner. The characters captured my imagination in this moving story that illustrates just how far people will go in their quest for money and power. In this story, everything is a deal.

The story begins in 1998, GlobusBank is partnering with the American firm Olen Europe, headed by David Olen, international real estate developer, to renovate a historical building. The sudden cold-blooded killing of Alexei Sokolov, GlobusBank Official, in St. Petersbug, Russia starts to upset the current delicate balance of global power. David Olen travels from his home in Chicago to Europe to prevent a pack made in the 1970s between an American government agency, the Soviet Union, and the Vatican that selected the pope from resurfacing and putting his life and reputation at risk. The story describes how high-profile political figures, successful businessmen, and criminals may have become reluctant partners in their quest for power and money to reshape the course of Western history.

The author, Eugene Golub, is the founder and Chairman of Golub & Company. In 1989, Golub & Company entered the international marketplace through its subsidiary, Golub-Europe, now GE Capital Golub-Europe, L.L.C., a Company whose members are affiliates of Golub & Company and GE Capital Corporation. That entity was the first major U.S. real estate company to undertake development projects in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia just prior to their re-emergence as market-driven economies. With Golub's vast real estate experience, this exciting story of international intrigue will force you to review events in history and perhaps change the way you think and ask---could this really happen?
Dr. Margot B. Weinstein

In many ways Oberg is the Carl Sagan of space engineering. He's worked in the trenches at NASA as an engineer (Johnson Space Center in Houston 1975-1997) but he has a talent for bringing his area of expertise to the masses. He's big, friendly, engaging, and surprisingly telegenic for an engineer in his fifties. He speaks English, French, and Russian and has used his language skills and friendly demeanor to gain access to the heart of the Russian and European space establishments. He's in the golden rolodex. He gives testimony before congress. He appears on PBS, cable news, and the Discovery channel. He writes for a wide range of publications about space engineering.

Oberg is probably best known for authoring Red Star in Orbit, a history of the Soviet space effort up until 1981. In 1991, PBS transformed his book in a documentary series. HBO has optioned Red Star in Orbit for some future made-for-TV miniseries.

Oberg is also a proud, card-carrying member of CSICOP. He was part of a small maelstrom of controversy in 2004 when it was revealed NASA had contracted him to write a book that finally takes on the "moon landings were a hoax" crowd. The book was to address the hoax "proof" point by point and showing why the thesis is based on a poor understanding of basic physics. Oberg was to be paid $15,000 for the book. Critics felt that if NASA made it an official publication it would give credibility to the hoax theory. Oberg himself declared he'd write the book on his own dime.

What's fascinating about Oberg is his involvement as a skeptic in the world of UFO nuts. For years, and to this day, he's been a regular haunt on newsgroups like alt.alien.visitor. With humor and a vast store of knowledge he takes on the "they're up there!" UFO crowd. It's quite a joy to watch the wild eyed UFO nuts accusing Oberg of being a NASA/CIA stooge, falsely attributing quotes to him, and generally just raging at someone who not only doesn't share their point of view but does not share it based on a sound body of historical and technical knowledge they lack. The man has patience. He seems to best the UFO fringe time and time again. It's a joy to watch.

Oberg was and is one of America's experts on the Soviet space program. This book reflects his knowledge on the subject. One of the questions answered in this volume is "Did the Soviet's race the US to the moon?" The answer is a strong yes. Did the US beat them? Again, the anwer is a strong yes. This is a good book by one who knows

Mr. Oberg, an internationally recognized expert on the Russian (FSU) space program, provides an excellent description of the triumphs of the Soviet space program. The story is fascinating, and the author clearly respects his subjects. What's special about Oberg, though, is his perspective on Soviet affairs. He is also a scholar of Russian studies, and rather than simply recounting historical data and technical details of the Soviets' space efforts, he also outlines the details of the political realities which the space program faced. It makes a nice companion to studies of the US space program. Highly recommended.

Just wanted to post a 5-star review to help offset the effect of the reviewer who was impaired...

Kevin Murphy, a scholar of Soviet history at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, has written "Revolution and Counterrevolution: Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory" as a bottom-up chronicle of the experience of the Russian working class in the period from the beginning of the 20th century up to the height of Stalinism. There are many histories of this period, but Murphy argues that too many of them are top-down, primarily political histories, and that they are often cherry-picked in terms of subjects to fit a particular ideological interpretation of Russia's revolutionary history. Therefore, Murphy has chosen one particular metal factory in Moscow, named "Hammer and Sickle" (formerly the Guzhon plant), stating that this way it is impossible to selectively choose examples, and also emphasizing the central role that metal production was given by successive Soviet governments, for whom the political loyalty of these workers was high priority.

What follows is a familiar (at least to people with knowledge of the period and place) but well written in-depth history of this factory, in particular focusing, as the subtitle indicates, on class and the class struggle. Murphy stresses that other factors, such as culture, daily life, the experience of women, religion, and so forth are also important topics, but these all get a fairly perfunctory nod, with the clear focus being on the traditional topics of the economic struggles and experiences of the workers and their political views and activism. There is a very extensive and precise discussion of the many committees, strikes, and other such collective undertakings of the workers, almost too much; but as such, Murphy does give us a very good view of what the general life and reproduction of the average proletarian was during this period, certainly one of the most important issues for understanding a self-declared "workers' state". He also does not fail to put the specifics of the factory into a broader context, giving the necessary background in terms of state policy, Civil War, famines, political fighting and so forth and then returning to the factory to tell us the impact of these developments. This produces an at times almost documentary movie-like day-to-day view of the factory workers' life.

Murphy's exposition follows the general critical socialist (Trotskyist) view of the successes of the Soviet Union during the early period, despite the ravages of the Civil War (during which the original proletariat upon which the Party was based was almost entirely destroyed), with a period of stability during NEP, and then in the late 1920s an increasing take-over of Stalin and the Stalinists, which are portrayed as systematically dismantling the socialism of the USSR and replacing it by what Murphy explicitly describes as 'counterrevolution'. Many of Murphy's criticisms are apt, if well-known by now, but often the arguments also appear opportunistic, in particular when he contrasts the government's policies and views with the suggestions of the United Opposition, led by Trotsky; which follows the opportunism of that Opposition itself. For example, the Opposition immediately latched on to the grievances of the workers which concentrated on the lowering real wage due to rampant inflation and the increasing pressures of industrializing with practically no resources, as well as lack of housing, but what is not mentioned is that Trotsky et al. originally came into conflict with Stalin because they felt that industrialization should have been undertaken faster and more thoroughly! The same goes for many of the resentment against industrialization on the part of the workers, which Murphy tries to make much of - he repeatedly explains how despite the decreasing standards of living, the Opposition never really had any chance at delegitimizing the existing government, let alone overthrowing it, and that they were never a threat in terms of completely subverting the acceptance of the government by even the old proletarian activists, but Murphy never shows us how this was possible if the Stalinist government was so detested. Indeed many of the criticisms of Murphy himself as well as the workers of the time were quite correct, but one does not get the impression that there was any serious alternative available, and certainly not in the shape of Trotsky's United Opposition. This by no means justifies the Stalinist policies, but one gets the feeling the explanation for the other side of the historical story is missing. Murphy himself puts the main blame on the eradication of the old proletariat and its replacement by politically non-conscious and undisciplined peasants-turned-workers as a result of Civil War and disease, as well as the destruction from on high of the more or less independent unions.

Another issue is the perpetual problem with mainly documentary histories of this sort, which is that it is difficult to judge the 'representativeness' of given complaints and statements by individual workers - this is by no means Murphy's fault, but it does mean that even if an editorial line by Murphy is supported by one or two worker quotations, it is difficult to ascertain how meaningful those are. I do not suspect any moment that Murphy has manipulated the material, but this is just a problem that comes with the territory, which goes just as well for similar documentary works by Kotkin, Steinberg, and others.

Be this as it may, on the whole this is an excellent and insightful bottom-up history in the best socialist traditions of describing the 'people's experience'. Murphy has made good and judicious use of the archives material available, and has made the most of the limited scope of his subject matter. It is the freedom of the competent and just historian to have his/her own interpretative (political) line, as long as the facts are not stretched to fit the view instead of the other way round, and Murphy has (as he says in his introduction as well) done his best to reflect critically on the orthodox Trotskyist interpretation. As a result, this book is simply a very good monograph, and useful for all interested in the history of the period.

Kevin Murphy's Revolution and Counterrevolution: Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory makes an enormous contribution not only to the study of the Russian Revolution, but to political and social historiography in general. Exploring the lives of workers in the Guzhon factory (later the Hammer and Sickle Works) in Moscow between the 1890s and 1932, Murphy deftly analyzes how "a movement based on egalitarianism and freedom transformed into a system based on exploitation and repression". An exhaustively researched micro-history of one factory in the heady days of the revolutionary events of 1917-1924 and the Stalinist counterrevolution of the mid- to late 1920s, Murphy puts paid to the Cold War textbook notion that the Russian Revolution led inescapably to the horrors of Stalinism.

Based on a wide range of archival sources opened to researchers after the fall of the Soviet Union, Murphy demonstrates that even during the harsh privations of the Civil War (in which the United States, Britain and France sent thousands of soldiers to defeat the Revolution) and the New Economic Policy (NEP) from 1921-1928, metal workers in Moscow sustained open, democratic and effective factory committees. Workers struck and organized demonstrations against conditions in the factory, but they continued to support the early Soviet state with which they felt a close political affinity. Indeed, the revolutionary Soviet government democratically negotiated a system of effective and popular dispute arbitration which involved over 6 million workers. There was an active culture of protest and shop-floor organization, most workers were union members, women workers participated in special women's meetings to advance their interests, and opposition to state policies was tolerated. Union organization was so well developed in 1925 that the factory director later complained that trade union representatives and not managers held real power in the factory. As Murphy writes: "`The early Soviet participatory institutions differed markedly from those of both the Tsarist and Stalinist eras. It was workers' trust and involvement in workplace institutions that gave the factory regime an essential degree of legitimacy."

Murphy does not deny that the period from 1921-1928 saw the rise of a Stalinist counter-revolution that effectively smashed the impressive democratic gains of the revolution in the workplace and in society as a whole. But, contrary to the traditional historiography, he convincingly argues that this was not a preordained destiny nor a linear path. The gradual weakening of workers' control from 1921-1928 was not based on a popular mandate among the workforce for Stalinism, but on management repression and the control of food distribution that was used to discipline the workers. The implantation of the coercive policies of forced industrialization, and political repression in society at large, was a highly contested process in which workers and citizens fought to maintain control.

Revolution and Counterrevolution effectively challenges the academic orthodoxy and political conservatism among historians of the Russian Revolution that there was a straight line between 1917 and Stalinism. This position has been used ever since the Revolution as a stick with which to beat any attempt at social and political transformation. Murphy effectively demolishes the notion that the early Soviet state terrorized the working class and that Stalin had a popular base among the population. He joins an impressive group of radical historians such as Steve Smith, David Levine and Alexander Rabinowitch who stress the popular, democratic nature of the Russian Revolution and the real if short-lived gains that Russian workers achieved through actively taking part in their own emancipation. This book is highly recommended to all those interested not only in the Russian Revolution, but to readers interested in twentieth-century political and social history, social movements, the working class and radical historiography.

Prof.Dr. Sean Purdy, Departamento de Historia, Universidade de Sao Paulo

By looking at the development of the Russian working class and the Russian Revolution through the lens of workers at one factory, Kevin Murphy provides an invaluable resource for understanding the dynamics of workers' struggle.

With access to hitherto closed archives, Murphy traces the debates and militancy amongst workers in one factory. We learn how the rise of Stalinism required a concerted effort to destroy workers' organizations and that it was a battle. Workers didn't simply roll over or embrace Stalinism.

For anyone interested in this period of history, I highly recommend this book.

I read "Revolution and Counterrevolution--Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory" by Kevin Murphy (published by Haymarket Books) and found it to be one of the most interesting and useful books I've
read in a long time.

My understanding of the process of the degeneration of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinism was profoundly altered by reading it.The interpretation that I had always gotten was that the working class disintegrated during the civil war and though it grew numerically during the New Economic Policy , it never recovered its economic strength or any political will and the bureaucracy grew apace with the decline of the working class. From Murphy's book, we learn that there was a real economic revival of the working class,
that workers' control was at least somewhat reasserted and that the class
struggle was alive through the whole period up to the rise of Stalinism.

Murphy's emphasis on the reformist strategy of the bureaucraticly degenerated workers' state coopting the early New Economic Policy militancy helps explain why the working class never developed a strong enough independent alternative to defeat rising Stalinism. The other factor of course was the confusion of the Opposition and its sporadic opposition to rising Stalinism. Russia thus shows the need for
a revolutionary party positively in 1917 and the failure that resulted
from the lack of one in the late 20's.

The overall impression I get from Murphy's book is even more optimistic than before. In spite of the total destruction of
the economy, millions of deaths, cannibalism, the loss of 40% of its
territory in 1918 and almost all of it outside the Moscow and Petrograd districts at the depth of the Civil War, some form of workers state ,however degenerated, persisted until 1928-9. With all the horror the workers of Russia faced, it still took Sate Capitalism ( Stalinism) nearly 12 years to consolidate power. Far from revolution automatically producing tyranny, the prospects for success in a much more developed world economy are so much greater than they were in 1917. But it does put an even stronger imperative on internationalism.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the Russian Revolution or the prospects for fundamental social change today.

Thanks so much to Kevin Murphy for putting in the time and effort to produce such an important addition to our understanding!

What would one do if he or she had the power to completely change the social, cultural, political, religious, and economic structure of an existing society and create a utopia? Richard Stites, professor of history at Georgetown University, offers a fascinating look into the "revolutionary dreams" and fantasies of utopian thinkers articulated in the "feelings, thoughts, words, and actions that express, evoke or symbolize what has been called 'the utopian propensity'" (p. 3). This spiritual and mental expressionism of the revolution, encompassing the people, the state, and the radical intelligentsia, was deeply rooted in the "traditions of popular and religious utopia" and "manifold layers of previous [Russian] history" (p. 3). These utopian visions were enormously altered by Russia's industrialization, what Stites calls its "technological revolution" that resulted in an almost religious worship of the machine and American icons Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford. (p.3, 252). Stites culls from a vast array of imaginative sources including science fiction, to illustrate the experimental "programs and designs" in city planning, communal living, dress, speech, art and culture of a perfect society that could have been but was doomed by Joseph Stalin's scalpel and systematic "fantasctomy" (p. 235).                 Various conflicting emotions and ambiguities surface throughout Stites work. The essential conflict stems from the polarization of rationality versus far-flung daydreaming. To further illustrate this friction, the author introduces the variety of forms in which utopian visions take and an equal number of social/political groups that adhere to its varied manifestations. For example there are administration utopia, "a rational light beamed into the perceived darkness of the barbarous village world" versus popular/peasant utopia, based on the concept of Pravda (truth) and volya (freedom) (pp.15-18). The revolutionary iconoclasm that declared war on the luxury and symbols of the old regime, culture (Nihilism), and intellectualism (Makhaevism) through wanton vandalism, had to eventually be stifled by the very establishment that implemented it (Bolsheviks) lest every national treasure be destroyed. The conflict over urban versus rural life also presented a quandary. Cities were known for being centers for cultural and political activity as well as havens for crime, vise and the squalor of industrial waste. There was even thought of eliminating the cluster of cities all together in favor of a continuous avenue of modular housing that stretched in a straight line far into the vast Russian hinterland. Stites seems to not take a stand against the more absurd side of utopian daydreaming. The author does, however, differentiate between its two main political protagonists, V.I. Lenin and Stalin. Stites perceives Lenin as sympathetic to the utopian propensity, however, with one rational foot firmly placed in reality. Stalin, on the other hand, had both feet cemented in a realist agenda of "spontaneous euphoria and terror" (p. 227). Perhaps the oddest ambiguity of all is a "fantasy state" or "panegyric utopia" under Stalin, rising from the ashes of the revolutionary utopia Stalin supposedly hated so much. According to Stites, Stalin "detested disorder, freedom of expression, experimentation for its own sake, and especially experimentation in building autonomous communities and promoting equality," all of the attributes of revolutionary daydreaming. Stites concludes, "Stalin's intense hatred of revolutionary utopianism and his emerging totalitarian system were not simply two independent ingredients of Stalinism but inextricably related" (p. 246). The most important theme of the book is "the Russian Revolution drew on a rich tradition of ritual culture, of forms traditions and motifs rooted in the past" (p. 79). Stites draws from an impressive list of Russian and western literature to stress this point. One comes away with a better understanding of the connection between the old peasant traditions and what was to become some of the basic tenants of communism, yet, like other scholars before, Stites does not succeed in bridging the gap between peasant and revolutionary intelligentsia. Nevertheless, Stites has contributed a provocative analysis that should stand the test of time. Stites acknowledges the lack of primary sources but hopes that his work will invite similar scholarly works. Stites, himself has contributed a significant sequel with _Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society Since 1900_ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) as well as, his previous work: _The Women's Liberation Movement in Russia_ (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978). Stites has also edited a number of anthologies dealing with Russian history.

It's hard to fully describe a book like this, except by saying that the author has really outdone himself in surveying his subject. And even that is an understatement. Richard Stites' "Revolutionary Dreams" is by far the best book on Russian utopianism ever written, and it is both impressive in its scope and quality and inspiring in its portrayal.

Stites' book describes the manifold ways in which utopianism, and revolutionary novelty, were introduced into every aspect of life and society in Russia during the revolutionary period (roughly 1917-1928). This goes from science fiction books depicting the utopias and dystopias of the future, to socialist burials and marriages, to children called "Melor" (Marx-Engels-Lenin-October Revolution), to communal living in apartments, to garden cities, to egalitarianism in dress and pay, to popular festivals, and so much more. Stites also pays extensive attention to the various top-down ways in which revolutionary reformation of society was attempted, such as the League of Time, the neo-Taylorists, the Godbuilders, the Atheist societies, and so on, all of which sought to remold the old society into a new and shining future.

The author does a fantastic job of showing how after the October Revolution there was, among artists and intellectuals but even among peasants and workers in Siberia, a general feeling that anything could now be done, that anything truly was possible. Now was the time to build the future on a better basis than anything that had gone before. Because there had been different utopian currents before the Revolution, as Stites describes in his opening chapter, this led to very different conceptions of what should count most in the new society; in particular the struggle between efficiency and modernization utopians on the one hand and the freedom and equality utopians on the other hand was a perpetual one. But in these days it was very well possible for societies to form and try to design and build Russia according to their own views of the future (as long as they were leftist), without this leading to repression or death, such as would later happen with Stalinism. In this, Stites also demonstrates the essential difference between Soviet society in the Leninist period and the later USSR from Stalin on.

We learn all about Constructivism and Futurism in art, about the symphony orchestras without director, about the peasant anti-landlord movement, about the ambivalent attitude towards the architecture and sculpture of the Czarist society, about Lunacharsky and his Commissariat for Enlightenment, about Zamyatin and "Engineer Menni", about iconoclasm and godless religion, and about Mozart's requiem for those fallen in the struggle against oppression. In short, this book is absolutely essential reading for anyone whose heart still goes out to the possibility of a better world.

A beautifully written and insightful exploration of political thought in Russia during the industrial revolution.

This is one of the best pieces of Russian History I have read, better than Billington or Pipes to be sure. Stites explores the long tradition of Russian Utopias and cultural myth, he digs up amazing bits of early Soviet cultural practice, and carefully analyzes it all with an impressive set of theoretical tools. Best of all this is an extremely enagaging book, nothing dry about its careful historical work, just fascinating subject matter in a clear, sensible form. I was so engaged by Revolutionary Dreams when I first saw it in a friend's library that he had to lend it to me to get me to go home. Finally, I know of nowhere else that you can learn about what made the Rosa Luxemburg chocolate bar special.

I loved loved loved this exhibit when it was in NYC!!

I bought the book like a year ago & I am very cheap, but it was so worth it. I save my $$$ for what I really want.

This book will let you experience some of the magic the is the wonder and beauty of, "Russia".

Love
CHiz :OP
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I bought it as a gift, didn't take out of plastic cover thus I could not rate it.

I went to the Guggenheim yesterday to see the show Russia! It was amazing and the response was overwhelming...lines around the block all day. The show was as good as any that I've ever seen...and I have been to the Hermitage, Russian Museum,The Met, Louvre, Prado etc...this show was spectacular! Now, come and see it for yourself. It closes on January 11th, 2006 and if you cannot get here to see it PLEASE buy this book! It's a steal at $47.25...in fact buy both books! This sells for $75.00 at the show and believe me, is well worth it! I am a fan of Socialist Realism and the work of Nesterov, Surikov, Vasnetsov (His Knight at the Crossroads is a work of genius!)and of course Repin. They are all here and the works are printed beautifully and give you a perfect feel for the exhibition. Russia is a land of superb artwork, in many forms. Primarily painting here yet buy this book and you will not be dissapointed......superb, superb and superb! All responsible for this exhibition deserve the highest praise...this is what is best in world culture......Peace and Slovim Godim!(Happy New Year!)

Everyone should see the great Russian art in this collection. It shows the soul of a great country.