Russia Books

This is a detailed and carefully documented history of American-Soviet relations during the Reagan and Bush administrations. As such, it covers the period of relative confrontation during Reagan's first term, the re-emergence of a form of detente during his second term, and the expansion of detente under Bush 1 into a form of cooperation with the Soviets in ending the Cold War. Written clearly and organized well, this is a fairly dense read because of the level of detail and documentation. It is also quite long at 800 pages. The organization of the book is interesting. The first 500 pages are a detailed, chronogically ordered account of Soviet-American relations. The remaining 300 pages are a series of more topically oriented chapters beginning with an summary/analytic chapter on Soviet-American relations during this period. Chapters on European-American-Soviet diplomacy, Asian-Soviet-American relations, and American-Soviet competition in the 3rd world follow, with a concluding chapter that gives an overview of the Cold War.
This is an outstanding work. The author's background is unusual. Garthoff was a career diplomat specializing in Soviet and Eastern European affairs who became a scholar after retiring from the Foreign Service. Garthoff brought long personal experience with diplomacy as well as considerable analytic intelligence to this task and the book reflects a tempered and critical approach to a number of contentious issues.
Garthoff's analysis of the Reagan administration is rather critical. While he employs moderate language, he faults the Reagan era policy makers for being unduly alarmist and unecessarily confrontational. He makes a very good case that Reagan's policies towards the Soviet Union were much less consistent than is commonly thought. He shows also that the Reagan administration was internally divided on important issues and that this reduced policy coherence. Reagan himself comes off as well intentioned but frequently out of touch and perhaps even willfully ignorant. Garthoff's most negative comments are directed, though the quality of his language remains neutral at all times, towards the more conservative ideologues with the Reagan administration, particularly those with positions at the Pentagon. Garthoff's depiction of the Soviet leadership during Reagan's first term, whose personnel changed considerably as aged leaders died in serial order, is somewhat surprising. Despite the changes in leadership, Soviet policy makers were in several ways more consistent than the Americans and in a diplomatic context, even somewhat more moderate. Despite oscillations in American policy, the Soviet leadership continued to seek accomodation in important areas like arms control and had a relatively moderate response to the American increases in defense budgets, which they (and others, for example, many European governments) found threatening. Policy realities eventually forced the Reagan administration to embark on a defacto course of detente in his second term.
Of course, the heart of this book are the parts dealing with the end of the Cold War. In Garthoff's view, the key actor was Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev is presented as a transforming figure, determined to change the basic features of Soviet society and international relations. American policies and American policy makers, like Reagan, are presented as playing an essentially reactive role in the events ending the Cold War. This is quite controversial in many circles. Garthoff was actually subjected to vilification by American triumphalists and in particular, by the substantial number of people who see Reagan as the architect of the Cold War victory. Readers interested in an example of attacks on Garthoff should look up Richard Pipes review of this book in the journal Foreign Affairs which contains some unjustified and nasty personal attacks. I can say only that Garthoff makes a compelling case for his conclusions, cites a great deal of evidence, including quite a bit of Soviet documents, and I think his analysis makes sense in the context of the entirety of the Cold War. Some of Garthoff's conclusions may be revised as more documentation emerges, particularly from Soviet archives, but its unlikely that the overall analysis will be shown to be incorrect. A nice feature of this book is that the publisher has placed all footnotes, and they are extensive, on the same page as the intext citations. This has become increasingly uncommon in the publishing industry but really enhances readibility.
This book also has an interesting contemporary resonance. There are clear analogies between some Reagan and Bush 1 era policy positions and those of the present Bush administration. This is not surprising as some of the major actors in the earlier administrations, like Dick Cheney, are also important in the present administration. The emphasis on military force, unilateral American action, obsessive concern with state-sponsored terrorism, and reluctance to test ideological concerns against reality are common themes of both Reagan 1 and Bush II. Even the establishment of the Dept. of Defense as a stronghold of strongly ideological right wing views is similar in these 2 eras. Its a cause for concern when two very different sets of problems evoke a stereotyped policy response.

I can't disagree more with the Washington Post review. I started reading it because I had nothing else better to do and then suddenly I was transported into Stalinist era of the 1930s. I feel I need to find out what I can about this author who has achieved something close to witchcraft by re-creating the psychological (un)reality of that era. I almost laughed when I read the reviewer's complaints about how the details don't add to the intrigue/suspense. There is NO suspense; only the utter illogic of possible imminent violent end to one's life for no reason which IS the definition of the Stalinist era. How this guy called Jerome Charyn about whom I know nothing accomplish this in a rather slim book much better than all the volumes of Solzhenitsyn who was actually there, I have no idea.
Fatma Isikdag

Book review by Carol Just Halverson, St. Louis Park, Minnesota

There once was a person who grew-up in North Dakota and dreamed about traveling to places with a different landscape of mountains and valleys, lakes and trees and bustling cities where excitement waited at every turn. That person left the prairie in search of place, found a new geography and settled down. After a few years, memories of the broad North Dakota horizon with it's trademark golden grain fields and stands of sunflowers in tall salute beckoned that person to listen once again for the distant call of the Western Meadowlark.

Whether you are the person longing to revisit the North Dakota prairie, or you are lucky enough to live there, plan to read Philo T. Pritzkau's recently published novel, Growing Up in North Dakota: A Memoir.

Pritzkau, retired Professor of Education at the University of Connecticut, is the son of German-Russian immigrant parents who homesteaded near Burnstad, Logan county, North Dakota in 1886. Born in 1902, Philo T. Pritzkau's first twenty years were spent on his parent's homestead and, while the text is written in the 1990's, it is the memory of Pritzkau's prairie youth that supplies every detail in this narrative of life in the first decades of the 20th century on the North Dakota prairie.

Anyone with the mildest curiosity about rural life at the turn of the century will not only enjoy, but can expect to learn a great deal from this memoir. Pritzkau doesn't assume his reader knows or understands farm or ranch life and painstakingly describes every step of rural life as he knew it. He includes details of the planting to harvest cycle, identifying various crops and their planting sequence, the haying and raking process, threshing, hauling, storing and selling grain, care of livestock, breaking horses, bartering eggs and cream, and the importance of the family poultry, garden and canning regimen. I value my rural North Dakota roots and the experiences of my ancestors more after reading Pritzkau's first person account of farm life.

Pritzkau doesn't stop there. He pays homage to both parents of their role in shaping his life, their support of his desire for higher education and keen interest in local and national politics. He also writes about his rural school experience and the mentors within his community who encouraged him to learn the critical thinking and debate skills that prepared him for a life-long career in the academic community.

Lest you think this memoir paints a portrait of a charmed life, think again! Pritzkau does not "sugar coat" rural life. He tells of year-round hard work from dawn to sundown, but there is no "poor me" message here, rather a dignified acceptance of his life as it happened.

The Pritzkau household was a dedicated partnership with a firm commitment to the land and each other. Father Pritzkau's dreams for his farm were balanced with mother Pritzkau's conservative opposition to debt, mirroring many successful farming endeavors across the prairie where partnership meant husbands and wives had a voice in the decision making process.

My favorite chapter, "Building the Granary" takes the reader from father Pritzkau's earliest dreams of a new granary to the finished product that remains standing today. While describing in detail the building process from start to finish, Pritzkau emphasizes the teamwork required by the entire family and the pride the family took in the finished product. He writes, "the basement walls are as strong today as they were when built over seventy years ago. That granary is really a monument to Dad's determination to build something that would last."

Root cellars, butchering, food ways, repairing harness, religion, hilarious tales of early family automobiles all await Pritzkau's readers. It is no surprise that his daughter, author Patricia Pritzkau MacLachlan, most famous for her novel Sarah, Plain and Tall and made-for-television movie of the same name, credits her father as the inspiration for many of the prairie stories in her own writing.

Perhaps all who read this book will be inspired to identify and share their stories and like the author will feel the life and landscape of the prairie in their soul. Philo T. Pritzkau shares his soul in Growing Up in North Dakota: A Memoir. It is good reading.

Carol Just Halverson, storyteller, writer and oral historian, grew up on a farm in LaMoure County, ND. Her company, LIFETIMES, a video-communications business, helps others identify and document their family stories.

This book is a wealth of fascinating information, past and preasent facts mixed in an informative and useful manner. It makes great reading for anyone planning a trip to Latvia as well as anyone with any curiosity about a small unique country.

The first real survey publication in almost 100 years. Edited by V K Tuzov and contributed to by the creme of Russian .entomologists, collectors-yes,Nabokov is here,and naturalists. Splendid 4 color illustrations and English text throughout. Recommended to amateur and professionals alike. Vol 11 will cover Danadae,Nymphalidae and others. Also maps and high quality line drawings.

This book is a learning experience. It is somewhat difficult reading, but it contains so many valuable lessons about life. The book made me think of Buddhism, although it was never mentioned. It is filled with descriptions of the torture the inhabitants of the gulags went through; on looking back on reading these I concluded that it was important to laboriously read and think about all of these painful experiences in order to genuinely feel the insights the author gained. Here is a condensed quote: "It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years... how a human being becomes evil and how good... it was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sense within myself the first stirrings of good...And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil... good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains.. an unuprooted small corner of evil." But I feel this message would not really have gotten to me if I hadn't read all about the horrible prison experience.

GURPS Russia is a very beautiful sourcebook, describing a setting which is almost completely unknown to the "average" RPG player and Game Master. Inside this book you will find the details of a rich history, together with the description of very foreign, mysterious customs and beliefs, such as a forced coexistence of ancient pagan cults with Orthodox Christianity. Perhaps most important, you will feel the strange mood of Russian folklore, whose values and patterns are quite different from the ones the average Western person is accustomed to. In one word, the material inside GURPS Russia will provide the GM information enough to run a successful campaign with a distinct and peculiar flavor. It is not important whether you want a historical setting or the wildest high fantasy: the information on Medieval Russia found in this book will cover both with ease. One footnote: in Russia, the Middle Ages effectively ended in 1725 (Death of Peter the Great)! This opens interesting possibilities for crossover campaigns... If you are interested in historical campaigns in a low-tech setting, this book is a must!

This book is the best of Jan Hart's collection. It should be made into a movie. The great illustrations are by Charles Shaw. The original story is a description of Mrs. Hart's grandmother's immigration from Russia to the USA. It is created for young readers. It is 18 chapters and 110 pages of text, with a glossary of Yiddish terms at the end.

Excellent book about a personal experience of immigration from Russia to Canada. In addition, a lot of general information of Mennonite settlements in Russia, experience during the Russian revolution, and immigrations.

The author downplays his own evolution from being born in Russia, extreme poverty in Alberta, and how he managed to obtain an education and many considerable achievements and contributions.

If you really like helicopters you must have this book. You can read the incredible description of the creation of the vertical flight made by Hunt, that share with us his many years of working on Igor's team. The photos are very nice and you can't stop before the last page.