Soviet Life

Beginning with the death of Stalin in 1953, the "sixties" era in the Soviet Union was just as vibrant and transformative as in the West. The ideological romanticism of the revolutionary years was revived, with renewed emphasis on egalitarianism, equality, and the building of a communist utopia. Mass terror was reined in, great victories were won in the space race, Stalinist cultural dogmas were challenged, and young people danced to jazz and rock and roll. Robert Hornsby examines this remarkable and surprising period.

Somewhere in the world there is a poet whom millions of people know by heart, quote at weddings and funerals, teach to their children before the children can read, and treat as a kind of shared inner weather. He is, by general agreement, the greatest writer his language has produced. And almost no one outside that language has read him. For the English-speaking reader, Alexander Pushkin occupies roughly the place that Lord Byron occupies for a Russian: a famous name, a respectful nod, and a strange blank where the actual experience of the poetry ought to be.

Stalin had ruled with an iron fist for nearly 30 years before his death in 1953, just as Stalin was preparing to conduct another purge. With his death, Soviet strongman and long-time Stalinist Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), became the Soviet premier...Khrushchev made his most audacious and ultimately costly decision by attempting to place nuclear warheads at advanced, offensive bases located in Cuba...the Cuban Missile Crisis would show the Kennedy Administration’s resolve, force Khrushchev to back down, and ultimately sow the seeds of Khrushchev’s fall from power.

Bloomsbury presents Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire, written and read by Howard Amos 'A different level of insight to anything I’ve read for a long time about Russia.' - Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia 'Exquisitely observed.. Full of empathy, Amos...