Russia Books

Dune provides a reasonably objective account of the October Revolution and the Civil War without embellishment or historical name-dropping (Lenin and Trotsky are hardly mentioned). The editors have done history a service by making his writing available in this format.

Dune provides a reasonably objective account of the October Revolution and the Civil War without embellishment or historical name-dropping (Lenin and Trotsky are hardly mentioned). The editors have done history a service by making his writing available in this format.

This book is a joy for the armchair traveler. It takes you back to a place and a time, to a Turkish winter in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. Burnaby's style is immediate, and compellingly readable. He lets you feel the mud, the cold, the mood of the times -- and the exotic east. It's great stuff. Crossing Anatolia by horseback in the winter, trying to track down rumors then circulating in Europe of anti-Armenian sentiment among the Turks, Burnaby finds the rumors to be baseless. But through every step of his wild goose chase, while we follow him through village after village, Burnaby describes in colorful detail the environment, and the people he meets. The first three-quarters of this book read like fiction, like a good, rollicking adventure story. It doesn't have a crisis near the end, like an adventure novel would, but Burnaby's story is all the better for being true.

Who in their right mind would voluntarily undertake an expedition on horseback thru Asia Minor in winter...Frederick Burnaby did in the year 1876, a time of intrigue in the Ottoman Empire and Russia where the forces that shaped WWI and 20th century alliances took root. This is an opportunity to travel back into time and traverse Asia Minor prior to the invention of the automobile. You will meet people from all classes and cultures; Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Persian and more. Burnaby tells of his trip with dry humor and with a suprisingly enlightened view of women, considering the times. This is a good read and worth the price of the book. For adventure travelers with time and money on their hands, retracing Burnaby's route on horseback would be a challenge even today.

This is the story of Hugh Koehler, scion of the St. Louis brewing family, and reputed illegitimate son of the crown prince of Austria. (Remember Mayerling.)
He grew up in society, attended Harvard, and then the US Naval Academy. Upon graduation he served in China, then in the Great War commanded a subchaser group based in Ireland.
He became noted for his incisive reporting and after the war, visited Germany, sat in on the peace conference, and then went via the Black Sea to Russia where he observed the fighting in South Russia during the Russian Civil War.
This period was the highlight of his life. He died at a comparatively young age in his fifties as did his father and grandfather before him.
Many of his reports on the situation in the Balkans read as if they were written ten years ago, not eighty, especially the conflict between Greeks and Turks.
Well written and well worth the reading. Belongs on the same shelf as the books by the British agents who operated in Central Asia during the same period.

This book follows an American Naval Officer on his assignment to observe the White Russian forces on the Crimean penninsula. Hugo Koehler arrives when Baron Vrangel is in charge and the war is winding down, but is not yet concluded. Interesting insight and observations are made; this book is a must for those with an interest in this part of Russian history.

In 1984, The Ecco Press published a handsome thirteen-volume edition of The Tales of Chekhov containing the highly respected, if somewhat dated, English translations of Constance Garnett. The original thirteen volumes were subsequently supplemented by two additional volumes, "The Unknown Chekhov: Stories and Other Writings," translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky (a volume which is still in print under the auspices of another publisher) and "Notebook of Anton Chekhov," translated by S. S. Koteliansky and Leonard Woolf. While I was fortunate to have purchased the entire paperback set at a pittance during a remainder sale (and it remains one of the favorites of my book collection), it is, alas, sadly out-of-print.

"The Party & Other Stories," volume 4 of The Ecco Press edition, contains eleven stories written during the period from the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s. These are stories from Chekhov's so-called "middle period," the years after Chekhov had finished his medical studies and began writing and publishing the longer, more serious psychological studies whose characteristics became a universal ascription for short stories of that sort: "Chekhovian." As Harold Bloom has written, "the formal delicacy and somber reflectiveness [of Chekhov's stories] make him the indispensable artist of the unlived life, and the major influence upon all story-writers after him."

Every one of the stories in this volume is a remarkable example of Chekhov's ability to write in simple, straightforward fashion, while, all the time, illuminating with almost microscopic precision the internalized, psychological lives of his characters. As one commentary on Chehov's writing during this period has noted, apropos of the stories in this volume (and in contrast to Chekhov's early humorous stories): "Characters are no longer perceived satirically, as social archetypes, but seen from within. And the inner life revealed is often an unhappy one, the characters' `real life' being in sharp contrast with their `world of desire,' reached only through memory or fantasy."

The stories range from long to short, each a near-perfect model of the short story, worthy of enjoyment and careful study. The longest of the stories, "A Woman's Kingdom," tells of Anna Akimovna, the daughter of a factory owner who, as a young girl, mingled with the working classes, only to find herself the lonely, single, middle-aged heiress and proprietor of those same factories later in life. It is a remarkable exploration of Anna's loneliness and of her yearning to return to the life of her childhood, as well as of the separation between owner and worker in an industrialized Russia. As Anna says, longingly: "Yes, I'll go and get married. I will marry in the simplest, most ordinary way and be radiant with happiness. And, would you believe it, I will marry some plain working man, some mechanic or draughtsman."

In the title story, "The Party," Chekhov brilliantly probes the mind, the thoughts, the silent unhappiness and dissatisfaction of Olga Mihalovna, a pregnant, married woman who clearly does not like her philandering, brash husband or her social obligations. In a passage that strikingly illustrates both the luster of Chekhov's art and the deep-seated discontent of the character of his story, Olga stands watching her guests, the partygoers of the story's title, glide by in boats:

"Olga Mihalovna looked at the other boats, and there, too, she saw only uninteresting, queer creatures, affected or stupid people. She thought of all the people she knew in the district, and could not remember one person of whom one could say or think anything good. They all seemed to her mediocre, insipid, unintelligent, narrow, false, heartless; they all said what they did not think, and did what they did not want to. Dreariness and despair were stifling her; she longed to leave off smiling, to leap up and cry out, `I am sick of you,' and then jump out and swim to the bank."

These are just two of the stories. The volume also contains "The Kiss," a story that no less a literary arbiter than Bloom considers the best of Chekhov's early stories (written in 1887, when Chekhov was 27 years old). And the rest are equally good, demonstrating why Chekhov is considered among the greatest practitioners of the story-writer's art.

If you can, find this volume and the others in The Ecco Press's wonderful edition of Chekhov and read them all. If you can't, then find another edition. Just read Chekhov. You will not be disappointed.

...

"The Party & Other Stories," volume 4 of The Ecco Press edition, contains eleven stories written during the period from the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s. These are stories from Chekhov's so-called "middle period," the years after Chekhov had finished his medical studies and began writing and publishing the longer, more serious psychological studies whose characteristics became a universal ascription for short stories of that sort: "Chekhovian." As Harold Bloom has written, "the formal delicacy and somber reflectiveness [of Chekhov's stories] make him the indispensable artist of the unlived life, and the major influence upon all story-writers after him."

Every one of the stories in this volume is a remarkable example of Chekhov's ability to write in simple, straightforward fashion, while, all the time, illuminating with almost microscopic precision the internalized, psychological lives of his characters. As one commentary on Chehov's writing during this period has noted, apropos of the stories in this volume (and in contrast to Chekhov's early humorous stories): "Characters are no longer perceived satirically, as social archetypes, but seen from within. And the inner life revealed is often an unhappy one, the characters' 'real life' being in sharp contrast with their 'world of desire,' reached only through memory or fantasy."

The stories range from long to short, each a near-perfect model of the short story, worthy of enjoyment and careful study. The longest of the stories, "A Woman's Kingdom," tells of Anna Akimovna, the daughter of a factory owner who, as a young girl, mingled with the working classes, only to find herself the lonely, single, middle-aged heiress and proprietor of those same factories later in life. It is a remarkable exploration of Anna's loneliness and of her yearning to return to the life of her childhood, as well as of the separation between owner and worker in an industrialized Russia. As Anna says, longingly: "Yes, I'll go and get married. I will marry in the simplest, most ordinary way and be radiant with happiness. And, would you believe it, I will marry some plain working man, some mechanic or draughtsman."

In the title story, "The Party," Chekhov brilliantly probes the mind, the thoughts, the silent unhappiness and dissatisfaction of Olga Mihalovna, a pregnant, married woman who clearly does not like her philandering, brash husband or her social obligations. In a passage that strikingly illustrates both the luster of Chekhov's art and the deep-seated discontent of the character of his story, Olga stands watching her guests, the partygoers of the story's title, glide by in boats:

"Olga Mihalovna looked at the other boats, and there, too, she saw only uninteresting, queer creatures, affected or stupid people. She thought of all the people she knew in the district, and could not remember one person of whom one could say or think anything good. They all seemed to her mediocre, insipid, unintelligent, narrow, false, heartless; they all said what they did not think, and did what they did not want to. Dreariness and despair were stifling her; she longed to leave off smiling, to leap up and cry out, 'I am sick of you,' and then jump out and swim to the bank."

These are just two of the stories. The volume also contains "The Kiss," a story that no less a literary arbiter than Bloom considers the best of Chekhov's early stories (written in 1887, when Chekhov was 27 years old). And the rest are equally good, demonstrating why Chekhov is considered among the greatest practitioners of the story-writer's art.

If you can, find this volume and the others in The Ecco Press's wonderful edition of Chekhov and read them all. If you can't, then find another edition. Just read Chekhov. You will not be disappointed.

Advance Reviews

"Brilliant, subtle, and richly documented, Burds's study of how the village and urban worlds remade one another puts the study of the peasantry, of urbanization, and of industrialization in Russia on a wholly new footing. His eye for the telling details of social relations, consumption, reputation, and the principles of navigation between two worlds illuminates subject after subject." - James C. Scott, Yale University

"The book contributes in fundamental ways to the historical debate about Russian development before the revolution. . . . It is original, brilliantly researched, and fascinating reading." - Lynne Viola, University of Toronto

"This excellent book . . . makes an important contribution to the fields of peasant studies, Russian history, and historical anthropology in general. Burds' analysis is original, lucid and convincing. . . . A pleasure to read. His main argument is that the village community dealt with the threat of change by anthropomorphizing it. The village community responded to the threat of modernity by anathematizing the most vivid symbols of modernity: agents with contact with the outside world. And the peasant migrant workers embodied this contact in the eyes of villagers. . . . While most historians have long tended to focus on high politics, Burds' work presents a strikingly new view of Russia's `grand failure' from below. . . . Burds analyzes the `culture of denunciation' as a process of constructing the enemy other out of the new forces threatening traditional village relations." - Hiroaki Kuromiya, Indiana University

"Jeffrey Burds' excellent study of the distinctive patterns of entrepreneurial activity, market strategies, and a commodity culture among nineteenth-century Russian peasants can serve as an important `usable past' for post-Communist Russia, as it strives to find historical precedents and native roots for today's market reforms." - Brenda Meehan, University of Rochester

Published Reviews

"The strength of [Burds'] presentation is [his] rich, well-informed description of specific cases, often with long quotations from primary sources new to the literature, together with a complete command of the modern literature in peasant Russia." - James T. Flynne, College of the Holy Cross [Choice, November 1998]

"Using archival and published sources, Jeffrey Burds examines the impact of peasant migratory labor (otkhod) on villages of the Central Industrial Region. As he notes, this study is a "needed corrective" to previous treatments of otkhod which have been focused primarily on the impact of peasant migrations on urban development. Instead, Burds offers an interpretation of how familial and communal institutions incorporated increasing contact with town life and the market into their survival strategies during the onslaught of post-emancipation socioeconomic changes. Analysis begins by examining the threat of increasing otkhod in the village. Given krugovaia poruka (collective guarantee) the departure of entire families resulted in increased fiscal burdens for others. Futhermore, sons frequently found factory work easier and more rewarding than life on a farm. This threatened the ability of fathers to control sons and posed a challenge for communal elders seeking to extract urban earnings by binding migrants to the village. Finally, migrant laborers who returned to the village with changed tastes were potential sources of "moral corruption"--another threat to traditional social structures. Chapters 3, 4, and 7 discuss strategies communes and parents used to meet these challenges. A key strategy involved the control of passports. Otkhodniki remained responsible for assessments on their allotments. The commune ensured that it got some of this money up front as a "departure fee" before issuing of a passport, and often included a contract stipulating additional payments. Occassionally, communes arranged to have employers garnish otkhodnik wages. Communal and parental pressure to marry also served to tie otkhodniki to their rural roots, as did communal involvement in rural hiring. There were also legal options: refusal to issue another passport; threatened auction of property; and forcible recall to the village under police guard. Moral transgressions were checked by a "culture of denunciation"--the practice of labeling as "heretics" those migrants who seemed too attached to urban ways. To avoid any or all of these problems otkhodniki relied on "benefactors" (the maligned kulak) and the preservation of their village reputation. Migration, Burds notes, was a two-way street. Many migrants failed, and most became sensitized to fluctuations in the business cycle. Urban earnings could be just as uncertain as harvests. This helps explain why the majority of those with no allotment sent wages home. Maintaining a place in the village was a prudent hedge against an uncertain market. At the same time, urban contact encouraged a "culture of acquisition" in the village. This discussion constitutes the most original part of the book. The culture of acquisition meant not only new consumer tastes but also the gradual development of a café and shopping culture. As otkhod earnings invaded the village, the increased demand for goods led to the creation of fixed shops and taverns (which, through the sale of franchises, also provided a way for the commune to siphon urban earnings). The most significant consequence of this was not the fact that peasants now had a more convenient source of drink, but that they now interacted in a new way. The saloon became the center of village life, a source of news about a variety of topics, a place to make deals, and a place to show off new acquisitions. This infusion of otkhod earnings and newly acquired tastes created higher consumer expectations--an increase in the "break-even point" peasants used to evaluate their standard of living. Burds suggests that any "rural crisis" at the end of the last century must be assessed against this more dynamic conception of peasant needs. . . . . Burds's book is essential reading for all those with interests in the peasantry and economic development." --David Darrow, University of Dayton [The Russian Review, 1999]

"Jeffrey Burds's _Peasant Dreams and Market Politics_ is an original, insightful interpretive study of the Russian peasantry confronting new challenges and opportunities during the late-19th century. The book focuses on peasant outmigration in the Central Industrial Region (encompassing the 300 kilometers around Moscow) in the period between the abolition of serfdom (1861) and the first significant rebellions against the tsar (1905). This was a period when an expanding commodity economy provided new opportunities for migrant peasant workers to gain supplemental incomes to offset the redemption taxes that their families and villages were collectively obligated to pay in exchange for taking possession of land formerly owned by the gentry. But, peasant outmigration also brought with it new threats for the traditional Russian peasant commune, which had to guard against the permanent resettlement of productive individuals or whole families who could place the remainder of the commune members under greater economic hardship as they endeavored to meet their tax obligations. The commune's efforts to contain these threats, and the manner in which the commune and individual peasants adapted to changing opportunity structures and outside influences, represent the most original and illuminating features of this book. . . . This book is an extremely interesting, informative, and well-researched ideographic work by a skilled historian. It is based on 3 years of archival research and analysis of ethnographic material, ranging from police records and peasant memoirs to written agreements among peasant households and their communes. It is written in a language accessible to specialists as well as nonspecialists. For area specialists familiar with the story of industrialization and peasant outmigration in prerevolutionary Russia, this book will offer a needed corrective for some of the more simplified, conventional characterizations of Russian peasant behavior. Valuable insights also can be gained from Burds's original treatment of the significance of reputational concerns in village life and his analysis of how commune norms and practices were influenced by, and deployed to contain, an expanding commodity economy." - Rudra Sil, University of Pennsylvania

This book is even more than just a wonderful tale of morality. It gives a hint of the joy of the ineffable that can hardly be spoken of in words. It can be felt--through the beautiful story, through the illustrations, and through something "between the lines".

I'd like to note that The Peddlar's Gift is the winner of the 1999 Sydney Taylor Award in the category of books for younger readers. This is an annual literary prize awarded by the Association of Jewish Libraries for excellence in children's books with strong Jewish content. The award is named after the late Sydney Taylor, the author of the All-of-a-Kind Family books.... Heidi Estrin, Association of Jewish Libraries, South Florida Chapter

Thurston is history professor at Miami U.,Ohio,his books include: "life & terror in Stalin's Russia".(1996)..which might be considered subtitle for this well documented book. Of 5.74 million Soviet POW's, an estimed 60% died in prisons by end 1941. Stalin refused aid to all POWs held..even his own son. Contributors include German & Russian top scholars.

Robert Thurston and Bernd Bonwetsch ably collaborate to edit The People's War: Responses To World War II In The Soviet Union, an informative wealth of writings drawn from notable scholars and historians on how ordinary soviet citizens responded to the experiences, horrors, and deprivations of war, including Stalinist leadership and the Nazi invasion of the motherland. The contributors draw upon a wealth of archival and recently published material, much of which was not previously available until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Here detailed is the calculated destruction of a Jewish town by the Germans, an chilling picture of life in occupied Minsk, cultural developments, women's roles in combat, the morale of ordinary Red Army troops, and more. A balanced, comprehensive picture of civilian life behind the front lines, candid descriptions of command structure and the repressive power of the soviet state, and the reaction, cooperation, and opposition to them by the soviet people, all provide a wide ranging, complex, and revealing historical portrait not previously possible and highly recommended for students of Soviet studies, World War II history, and the endurance of the human spirit under even the most difficult of circumstances.

This may be one of the best-documented historical studies of life for science professionals in the former Soviet Union. Sadly, it is sickening!
I frankly came away with the feeling that there is very little demonstrable difference between fascism and communism at this level. It also answered a question that had always haunted me: why was Soviet theoretical science so advanced while the practical application of that science and engineering failed so miserably under communism in Russia? This book answers that question.
I think anyone who is concerned about the relationship between scientists and government should read this excellent work by Vadim J. Birstein.
One shocker for me: I had no idea that such violent anti-Semitism existed at so many levels in the former Soviet Union. Hitler and Stalin had a lot more in common than even I could have guessed!
(...)

Vadim Birstein has captured the sad and evil essence of Soviet Science. I always was mystified why theoretical science and math were so advanced in the former Soviet Union while APPLIED science/math and engineering failed so miserably. This book explains the reasons why.
The other revelation is that experimentation on political prisoners was commonplace in the former Soviet dictatorship. I guess Nazi Josef Mengele had his communist counterparts in Russia.
But throughout this madness I was shocked to find violent anti-Semitism running rampant throughout the State Organs, which controlled all science, engineering and medicine in Russia. It turns out that Hitler and Stalin had more in common than even I had ever suspected!
Required reading for those concerned about big government influence on scientific and medical research.

I learned so much from this book. It is absorbing and I would love to share it with my students. Peter the Great is a very interesting figure and I wish I had been introduced to him earlier in my life.

I handed this to my 11 year old son to read independently. I wasn't sure it would hold his interest since it lists the intended audience as much younger. However, he finished it one sitting, brought it back to me and said, "Before I read other history books, I want to read more about Peter the Great!" What more could one ask of a book? Now to try to find something that takes that next step...

BTW, he has also read a couple of her other books and enjoys them all. I asked if he would be interested in whatever else Diane Stanley has published and he expressed great eagerness.

If you are interested on learning about German and Austro-Hungarian war plans on the Eastern front, this is the book you should get. Count von Schlieffen did not only think on his war against France; he was aware of the menace Russia and Serbia meant not only for the German Empire, but also for Austria-Hungary. This book is outstanding -from my point of view- mainly because of the sources on which the resaerch is based. Also, it is so well written that on can actually imagine the austro-hungarian forces being transferred from one front to another on overcrowded rail tracks, as well as the German High Command considering which moves to make on the East. Mr. Tunstall also deals with Conrad von Hotzendorf, Imperial Chief of Staff of Austria-Hungary, whose constant mistakes seem to have put the Empire in such awckward position that without German help one can seriously doubt if they could have lasted more than one year of war. This is a must read for any really interested on the First World War.

I have read this book twice now and have never found an insipid moment. This book refocuses history as we know it. Tunstall is brilliant, commendable, unrelenting. I am looking forward to many future succusses in literature.