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Available
Description
Archangel tells the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle-aged former Oxford historian who is in Moscow to attend a conference on newly opened Soviet archives. One night Kelso is visited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a former bodyguard of the secret police chief, Lavrentii Beria. The old man claims to have been at Stalin's dacha on the night Stalin had his fatal stroke, and to have helped Beria steal the dictator's private papers, among them a notebook. Kelso decides to use his last morning in Moscow to check out the old man's story. But what starts as an idle enquiry in the Lenin Library soon turns into a murderous chase across night-time Moscow and up to northern Russia - to the vast forest near the White Sea resort of Archangel, where the final secret of Josef Stalin has been hidden for almost half a century… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member John
This is the third novel I have read by Harris, the first being Fatherland (set in Germany in the 60s in an era when Germany won the war), and Enigma (set in the context of the code-breakers at Bletchley Park in England); in fact I was surprised not to find Harris in the index to these pieces which
This time, Harris picks present-day Russia, but with a strong backward-look to Stalin, more particularly, a search for a diary that Stalin may have kept and which Beria stole from the Kremlin safe on the night that Stalin lay dying of his stroke. The diary has been buried ever since, until its existence is revealed to Fluke Kelso, British historian on the Soviet Union and expert on Stalin, who starts off an wild chase to find it. The story gets stranger: it is not Stalin's diary, but that of a young Komsomol girl from Archangel who is brought to Moscow to serve on Stalin's personal staff about 18 months before he dies, and who bears his child. This is a boy, whose existence is unknown, but who would clearly respresent one of the news stories of the century (hence Kelso is tied up with an aggressive journalist who is in on the story), and who would be a messiah for the neo-fascists who play a substantial role in modern Russain politics. The plot twists and turns, and has a number of surprises, but it is tightly woven and and ends with an unexpected, but logical consequence of its actions. One reviewer described this as a mix of the fast-paced action and plot of Fatherland, with the detailed historical research of Enigma, and I think that is a fair description.
Harris did his research on Stalin, and has some interesting interpretations that he puts the mouth of Kelso presenting to a colloquim of scholars.
...there can be no doubt that it is Stalin rather than Hitler who is the most alarming figure of the twentieth century...not merely because Stalin killed more people than Hitler--although he clearly did-- and not even because Stalin was more of a psychopath that Hitler--although clearly he was...it is because Stalin, unlike Hitler, has not yet been exorcised. And also because Stalin was not a one-off like Hitler, an eruption from nowhere. Stalin stands in a historical tradition of rule by terror which existed before him, which he refined, and which could exist again. His, not Hitler's, is the spectre that should worry us.
I also enjoyed the book for the memories it brought back of our time in Moscow. Kelso stays in the Ukraine Hotel, right across the street from where we lived, and notes the traffic on Kutuzovsky Prospect, the wide street that we lived on. His descriptions of the buildings and countryside are true
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means that I read both of these before 1996. This time, Harris picks present-day Russia, but with a strong backward-look to Stalin, more particularly, a search for a diary that Stalin may have kept and which Beria stole from the Kremlin safe on the night that Stalin lay dying of his stroke. The diary has been buried ever since, until its existence is revealed to Fluke Kelso, British historian on the Soviet Union and expert on Stalin, who starts off an wild chase to find it. The story gets stranger: it is not Stalin's diary, but that of a young Komsomol girl from Archangel who is brought to Moscow to serve on Stalin's personal staff about 18 months before he dies, and who bears his child. This is a boy, whose existence is unknown, but who would clearly respresent one of the news stories of the century (hence Kelso is tied up with an aggressive journalist who is in on the story), and who would be a messiah for the neo-fascists who play a substantial role in modern Russain politics. The plot twists and turns, and has a number of surprises, but it is tightly woven and and ends with an unexpected, but logical consequence of its actions. One reviewer described this as a mix of the fast-paced action and plot of Fatherland, with the detailed historical research of Enigma, and I think that is a fair description.
Harris did his research on Stalin, and has some interesting interpretations that he puts the mouth of Kelso presenting to a colloquim of scholars.
...there can be no doubt that it is Stalin rather than Hitler who is the most alarming figure of the twentieth century...not merely because Stalin killed more people than Hitler--although he clearly did-- and not even because Stalin was more of a psychopath that Hitler--although clearly he was...it is because Stalin, unlike Hitler, has not yet been exorcised. And also because Stalin was not a one-off like Hitler, an eruption from nowhere. Stalin stands in a historical tradition of rule by terror which existed before him, which he refined, and which could exist again. His, not Hitler's, is the spectre that should worry us.
I also enjoyed the book for the memories it brought back of our time in Moscow. Kelso stays in the Ukraine Hotel, right across the street from where we lived, and notes the traffic on Kutuzovsky Prospect, the wide street that we lived on. His descriptions of the buildings and countryside are true
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LibraryThing member dougwood57
Robert Harris puts academic has-been Fluke Kelso at the center of a tall tale with a solid foundation in the 'wild west' days of post-Soviet Russia. Hookers, mafia, a publicity-mad newshound, former Soviet tough guys, and modern Russian cops all play roles in this page-turner that delves back to
I've read three of Harris's works now - Pompeii, Imperium, and Archangel. Contrary to some other reviewers, I enjoyed this book more than Pompeii and found it to be more of page-turner than Imperium (I thought Imperium was a bit more of a serious book - closer to literature than mass market paperback like Archangel).
I suppose the ending, criticized by others as implausible, does require one to perform a sizeable suspended disbelief, but if you pull that off, the ending hangs together. It's just a creepy lot of fun to see how Professor Kelso is going to get out of this mess and the crazy company he's keeping.
Highly recommended.
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the cult of Stalin - and brings that cult into today. The scariest thing about this book is that it's based partially in the reality that Stalin remains a shockingly popular figure in Russia today, which also lends the book an uncomfortable veneer of plausibility. I've read three of Harris's works now - Pompeii, Imperium, and Archangel. Contrary to some other reviewers, I enjoyed this book more than Pompeii and found it to be more of page-turner than Imperium (I thought Imperium was a bit more of a serious book - closer to literature than mass market paperback like Archangel).
I suppose the ending, criticized by others as implausible, does require one to perform a sizeable suspended disbelief, but if you pull that off, the ending hangs together. It's just a creepy lot of fun to see how Professor Kelso is going to get out of this mess and the crazy company he's keeping.
Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member miketroll
Imaginative, well-researched thriller set in the USSR following the death of Stalin.
LibraryThing member tcarter
A workmanlike thriller set in modern (ish) Russia. Pages keep turning, although some of the "twists", particularly the final one are telegraphed a bit too much to keep the suspense really high. Although the basic premise of the plot is, I think, just about feasible, there are too many occasions
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where rank, and unlikely, foolishness is required from his characters to keep the story going. The most interesting, and successful, thing about the novel is it's exploration of the importance of a sense of history to understanding the present, and the tension between the long view of the academic historian and the focus on the present of the disposable media. Show Less
LibraryThing member skulli99
A well crafted political suspense novel, very belivable, excellent.
LibraryThing member PIER50
Not sure about this one. It seemed to me to be a non-thrilling thriller. I found it rather slow to get going and the 'thriller' aspect only happened in the last 60 pages or so. I also found the ending a bit contrived and not terribly believable
LibraryThing member Zare
Great thriller centered on modern day [and past] Russia. Best Harris’s work after “Fatherland”.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member Oreillynsf
For me it was rather insular and slow-moving. Not up to the standards of other Harris thrillers.
LibraryThing member FPdC
Another good thriller by the author of Fatherland.
LibraryThing member edwardsgt
I had the strange experience reading this of at certain stages thinking I'd read it before, finally concluding I had. This is a complex story set in Moscow and Archangel with a mixture of real characters (eg Stalin) and invented ones, woven seamlessly into an interesting "What if" story.
LibraryThing member Crayne
Having only ever read Harris once before (Fatherland), I wasn't really sure what to expect. If Fatherland had been an odd duck in terms of style and subjectmatter, perhaps I'd be disappointed with Archangel. I wasn't. The two books are oddly alike in that they deal with the discovery of "the truth"
Harris' writing is smooth and uncomplicated enough to follow for non-native speakers, but not simple enough to be jarring. His characters don't always receive the fleshing-out they might have warranted, but they are believable and sympathetic, even if they probably shouldn't be.
His portrayal of Russia, both historically and in its current state tickles the imagination and feeds the hunger for knowledge. I have found myself reading up on names dropped, events depicted and on the country in general.
All in all an intrigueing read and an engaging book.
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years after the seconde World War. Now, Fatherland's truth is perhaps on a bit more grander scale, but essentially, the themes match.Harris' writing is smooth and uncomplicated enough to follow for non-native speakers, but not simple enough to be jarring. His characters don't always receive the fleshing-out they might have warranted, but they are believable and sympathetic, even if they probably shouldn't be.
His portrayal of Russia, both historically and in its current state tickles the imagination and feeds the hunger for knowledge. I have found myself reading up on names dropped, events depicted and on the country in general.
All in all an intrigueing read and an engaging book.
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LibraryThing member davros63au
Robert Harris always writes an engaging, well researched and interesting thriller. After I started Archangel I read up on Russian history, as it was written in such a way, I was left wondering what are the generally accepted historical facts here and what is the author making up. He has plenty of
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twists to keep you turning the pages with a satisfying conclusion. I’m now upset that I’ve run out of Robert Harris fiction until he writes the next in his Cicero series. Show Less
LibraryThing member starkravingmad
Sub-par Harris mystery. Convoluted and confusing plot, and simply not that interesting. Ending was a mess - unclear what happened, or why it mattered
LibraryThing member jphamilton
From the author who rewrote the history of the Third Reich in a previous novel, Fatherland, comes this excellent new book dealing with present day Russia. Robert Harris truly knows how to write an intelligent page-turner. In Archangel, the main character is an Oxford historian who travels to Moscow
(4/99)
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for a convention concerning the newly opened military archives of the former Soviet Union. He becomes involved with what he thinks is a dangerous search for a missing secret diary of Stalin's, but Harris takes this novel much further. Soon the details of how Beria and his bodyguard took possession of the former Soviet leader's most secret writings during Stalin's fatal stroke are quite secondary. This reader found the story very interesting, quite plausible, and a great time - it's just hard to believe that Harris fit it all into just a four-day period of time. The author's views, insights, and knowledge of the Russia people give Archangel a feel that rings true, and his talents for storytelling give the novel a real edge. This is one of the best books of this genre that I have read in years. (4/99)
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LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
“But clever people all make one mistake. They all think everyone else is stupid. And everyone isn't stupid. They just take a bit more time, that's all.”
The story revolves around a historian Fluke Kelso and four days in his life in Russia. Fluke is in Moscow to attend a conference about the
There is enough historical fact to keep it interesting but is also reasonably sympathetic to the growing pains of the New Russia where the oligarchs now run everything rather than the state.The side story of Police chief Souvorin struggling with a burgeoning crime rate with far too few poorly paid men trying to solve the murder whilst also suspecting that some aspects of Russia's history is best left concealed.
On the whole the book was a good read if you are a fan of the thriller genre,is well written rattling along at a good pace to an implied rather than a definitive ending.An enjoyable diversion if not something that will live long in the memory.
The story revolves around a historian Fluke Kelso and four days in his life in Russia. Fluke is in Moscow to attend a conference about the
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opening up of Russia's archives when he is visited in his hotel room by an old man who claims to have been present at the death of Stalin and assisted in the concealment of a secret Stalin notebook. Kelso has three ex-wives,is pretty well broke and has failed to scale the heights that had been expected of him so when the old man is murdered he embarks on a search for the notebook and its contents. However, there are also far more powerful and sinister forces at play as some Russians want a return to it's old Communist ways.There is enough historical fact to keep it interesting but is also reasonably sympathetic to the growing pains of the New Russia where the oligarchs now run everything rather than the state.The side story of Police chief Souvorin struggling with a burgeoning crime rate with far too few poorly paid men trying to solve the murder whilst also suspecting that some aspects of Russia's history is best left concealed.
On the whole the book was a good read if you are a fan of the thriller genre,is well written rattling along at a good pace to an implied rather than a definitive ending.An enjoyable diversion if not something that will live long in the memory.
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LibraryThing member breic
Strange plot–is Stalin returning?—strange setting, but fun and readable.
> estimates that some sixty-six million people were killed in the USSR between 1917 and 1953 – shot, tortured, starved mostly, frozen or worked to death. Others say the true figure is a mere forty-five million. Who
> estimates that some sixty-six million people were killed in the USSR between 1917 and 1953 – shot, tortured, starved mostly, frozen or worked to death. Others say the true figure is a mere forty-five million. Who
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knows? Neither estimate, by the way, includes the thirty million now known to have been killed in the Second World War. To put this loss in context: the Russian Federation today has a population of roughly 150 million. Show Less
LibraryThing member tmph
Watched the 2005 BBC production with Daniel Craig (Aug 31, 2017). Not so good, but certainly watchable. But, I'm reading Tom Rob Smith's "The Secret Speech" so, evocative. Riga for the town of Archangel certainly puts me in the mood.
LibraryThing member jercox
Russians still look up to Stalin - what if he had a successor?
Often confusing, but very much in Robert Harris's style.
Often confusing, but very much in Robert Harris's style.
LibraryThing member donhazelwood
Not a very good ending.
LibraryThing member ecw0647
Robert Harris is the author of the very successful and previously reviewed Fatherland, the kind of novel I usually do not read because it relies on the “what if” kind of assumptions that I find trite and silly. But that novel worked quite well. It assumed that Hitler had won the war, that he
Harris adopts a similar conceit in Archangel. Fluke (interesting story behind the name) Kelso is a Sovietologist who stumbles into a drunken meeting with Papu Rapava, a former NKVD guard who claims he had been present at Stalin’s death and had helped Beria (a Politburo member and KGB chief) find and hide a a secret black notebook that was purported to contain Stalin’s diary. Rapava is murdered before Kelso can obtain all the details and the location of the diary that would represent, for Kelso, the find of a lifetime. He tracks down Rapava’s daughter, a hooker whom he persuades to help him find the diary. Unfortunately there are several pages missing, but they have enough information to try to locate a young girl that Stalin had brought from her village to play with. He and an American reporter who had stumbled on Kelso’s knowledge of the diary and who seems to know more about his satellite telephone equipment than the country he reports on, set off for Archangel in the Soviet north during the winter to find the girl and interview her in order to verify the information in the diary and collect more details about Stalin.
There are many who would stop them, however, and a top notch thriller results as Kelso makes a momentous discovery in Archangel.
Harris’s understanding of modern Russia, if accurate, is chilling. The book is filled with little details (Stalin had two webbed toes on his left foot) that give it a strong sense of reality. Harris must have spent considerable time there: ”At five past 10, the door opened, '' Kelso describes a nightclub, ''A yellow light, the silhouettes of the girls, the steamy glow of their perfumed breath. . . . And from the cars now came the serious money. You could tell the seriousness not just by the weight of the coats and the jewelry but by the way their owners carried themselves, straight to the head of the line, and by the amount of protection they left hanging around at the door. Clearly, the only guns allowed on the premises belonged to the management.''
Filled with corruption and violence, the country still reveres Stalin, even though through Kelso, Harris reveals Stalin to be a greater evil than Hitler during the twentieth century, if one counts the number of people each had killed. The Cold War is over, but Russia seems to be slipping into its own kind of darkness and the country that provided the background for so many first-rate spy stories continues to invoke a sense of noir and darkness that makes for a gripping read.
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had successfully hidden the details of the Holocaust, and that he was about to begin friendly relations with the United States under president Kennedy. The a Berlin detective stumbles across evidence of the killing of the Jews and the peace talks threaten to unravel bringing the war of officialdom down on the detective. It was a surprisingly good read.Harris adopts a similar conceit in Archangel. Fluke (interesting story behind the name) Kelso is a Sovietologist who stumbles into a drunken meeting with Papu Rapava, a former NKVD guard who claims he had been present at Stalin’s death and had helped Beria (a Politburo member and KGB chief) find and hide a a secret black notebook that was purported to contain Stalin’s diary. Rapava is murdered before Kelso can obtain all the details and the location of the diary that would represent, for Kelso, the find of a lifetime. He tracks down Rapava’s daughter, a hooker whom he persuades to help him find the diary. Unfortunately there are several pages missing, but they have enough information to try to locate a young girl that Stalin had brought from her village to play with. He and an American reporter who had stumbled on Kelso’s knowledge of the diary and who seems to know more about his satellite telephone equipment than the country he reports on, set off for Archangel in the Soviet north during the winter to find the girl and interview her in order to verify the information in the diary and collect more details about Stalin.
There are many who would stop them, however, and a top notch thriller results as Kelso makes a momentous discovery in Archangel.
Harris’s understanding of modern Russia, if accurate, is chilling. The book is filled with little details (Stalin had two webbed toes on his left foot) that give it a strong sense of reality. Harris must have spent considerable time there: ”At five past 10, the door opened, '' Kelso describes a nightclub, ''A yellow light, the silhouettes of the girls, the steamy glow of their perfumed breath. . . . And from the cars now came the serious money. You could tell the seriousness not just by the weight of the coats and the jewelry but by the way their owners carried themselves, straight to the head of the line, and by the amount of protection they left hanging around at the door. Clearly, the only guns allowed on the premises belonged to the management.''
Filled with corruption and violence, the country still reveres Stalin, even though through Kelso, Harris reveals Stalin to be a greater evil than Hitler during the twentieth century, if one counts the number of people each had killed. The Cold War is over, but Russia seems to be slipping into its own kind of darkness and the country that provided the background for so many first-rate spy stories continues to invoke a sense of noir and darkness that makes for a gripping read.
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LibraryThing member djh_1962
Rereading Harris’s 1998 thriller in 2023 is eerie. The idea that (without giving away too much) a new ‘strongman’ could emerge and take Russia back to the misremembered ‘glory days’ of Stalin seemed faintly plausible in the days of the Yeltsin presidency. Vide ubi nunc sumus.
Here anyway
Here anyway
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is another demonstration of why Harris leads the field in terms of highly literate, well researched, absolutely compelling novels. And I must stress the research. Every detail feels right from the bakelite telephones to the tortuous paranoid world of Kremlin politics. And whoever thought Stalin’s speeches could be put to such brilliant dramatic effect? What a display. Show Less
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2000)