The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

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The award-winning author of "A Peoples Tragedy" and "Natashas Dance" has written this landmark account of what private life was like for Russians in the worst years of Soviet repression.

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Publisher’s Weekly (07/23/2007)
One in eight people in the Soviet Union were victims of Stalin's terror-virtually no family was untouched by purges, the gulag, forced collectivization and resettlement, says Figes in this nuanced, highly textured look at personal life under Soviet rule. Relying heavily on oral history, Figes, winner of anL.A. Times Book Prize forA People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924 , highlights how individuals attempted to maintain a sense of self even in the worst years of the Stalinist purges. More often than not, they learned to stay silent and conform, even after Khrushchev's thaw lifted the veil on some of Stalin's crimes. Figes shows how, beginning with the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, the Soviet experience radically changed personal and family life. People denied their experiences, roots and their condemned relatives in order to survive and, in some cases, thrive. At the same time, Soviet residents achieved great things, including the defeat of the Nazis in WWII, that Russians remember with pride. By seamlessly integrating the political, cultural and social with the stories of particular people and families, Figes retells all of Soviet history and enlarges our understanding of it. Photos.(Oct. 2)

ISBN: 0805074619 | EAN: 9780805074611
Publisher: Metropolitan Books  | Publication Date: November, 2007

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