The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin
Adam Hochschild, Author Viking Books $22.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-670-84091-5
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Hochschild spent the first half of 1991 in the former Soviet Union interviewing gulag survivors, former camp guards and members of the secret police, writers, artists, human rights activists, neo-Stalinists and ordinary citizens about their opinions of Stalin. This haunting and powerful report reveals that the dictator's legacy persists in widespread denial, amnesia, numbness and pervasive fear among people whose lives were scarred by mass arrests, killings and Stalin's spy network. Hochschild ( The Mirror at Midnight ) traveled to Kolyma, site of the deadliest camps; he interviewed Valentin Berezhkov, who was Stalin's English-language interpreter and privy to the regime's inner circle; he visited Moscow's KGB archives and was given files of American victims of the gulag. Comparing Stalin's purges to the witch craze of early medieval Europe, Hochschild attributes this ``self-inflicted genocide'' partly to Russians' age-old habits of scapegoating and passive obedience. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to New York Times Magazine . (Mar.)
boilingfrogsinpants on December 2nd, 2018 at 05:53 UTC »
There's an old Russian joke from that time period because of how the NKVD operated. The NKVD would often knock on your door at night and take you away, so Russian citizens were terrified of getting a knock on the door at night. So the joke goes - Vasily and his wife Natalia are sleeping soundly in their home when they hear a knock at the door in the middle of the night. Vasily looks over to his wife, frightened and walks slowly to the door, his heart is pounding. He opens the door to see his neighbor who exclaims "Vasily your house is on fire!", Vasily replies with "Oh thank god! I thought it was the NKVD!"
Oberon_Swanson on December 2nd, 2018 at 05:06 UTC »
I remember a story of a place like this from one person. They heard a knock on the door late at night. Then their neighbours voice came. "Don't worry, it's nothing serious. But I thought you should know our house is on fire and yours might catch fire too.'
copperholic on December 2nd, 2018 at 04:33 UTC »
I wonder how many generations it will take Russia to get over it's fucked up past that came after a fucked up past that came after another fucked up past.