East Baton Rouge Parish Library

The whisperers, private life in Stalin's Russia, Orlando Figes

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

The whisperers

bibliography

145431653

Orlando Figes

private life in Stalin's Russia

A landmark account of what private life was like for Russians in the worst years of Soviet repression There have been many accounts of the public aspects of Stalin's dictatorship: the arrests and trials, the enslavement and killing in the gulags. No previous book, however, has explored the regime's effect on people's personal lives, what one historian called "the Stalinism that entered into all of us." Now, drawing on a huge collection of newly discovered documents, The Whisperers reveals for the first time the inner world of ordinary Soviet citizens as they struggled to survive amidst the mistrust, fear, compromises, and betrayals that pervaded their existenceMoving from the Revolution of 1917 to the death of Stalin and beyond, Orlando Figes re-creates the moral maze in which Russians found themselves, where one wrong turn could destroy a family or, perversely, end up saving it. He brings us inside cramped communal apartments, where minor squabbles could lead to fatal denunciations; he examines the Communist faithful, who often rationalized even their own arrest as a case of mistaken identity; and he casts a humanizing light on informers, demonstrating how, in a repressive system, anyone could easily become a collaborator. A vast panoramic portrait of a society in which everyone spoke in whispers-whether to protect their families and friends, or to inform upon them-The Whisperers is a gripping account of lives lived in impossible times

Children of 1917 (1917-28) -- The great break (1928-32) -- The pursuit of happiness (1932-6) -- The great fear (1937-8) -- Remnants of terror (1938-41) -- "Wait for me" (1941-5) -- Ordinary Stalinists (1945-53) -- Return (1953-6) -- Memory (1956-2006)