Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Random House (2016), 496 pages
Description
History. Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � A symphonic oral history about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia, from Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY � LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times � The Washington Post � The Boston Globe � The Wall Street Journal � NPR � Financial Times � Kirkus Reviews When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing �a new kind of literary genre,� describing her work as �a history of emotions�a history of the soul.� Alexievich�s distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation. In Secondhand Time, Alexievich chronicles the demise of communism. Everyday Russian citizens recount the past thirty years, showing us what life was like during the fall of the Soviet Union and what it�s like to live in the new Russia left in its wake. Through interviews spanning 1991 to 2012, Alexievich takes us behind the propaganda and contrived media accounts, giving us a panoramic portrait of contemporary Russia and Russians who still carry memories of oppression, terror, famine, massacres�but also of pride in their country, hope for the future, and a belief that everyone was working and fighting together to bring about a utopia. Here is an account of life in the aftermath of an idea so powerful it once dominated a third of the world. A magnificent tapestry of the sorrows and triumphs of the human spirit woven by a master, Secondhand Time tells the stories that together make up the true history of a nation. �Through the voices of those who confided in her,� The Nation writes, �Alexievich tells us about human nature, about our dreams, our choices, about good and evil�in a word, about ourselves.� Praise for Svetlana Alexievich and Secondhand Time �The nonfiction volume that has done the most to deepen the emotional understanding of Russia during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union of late is Svetlana Alexievich�s oral history Secondhand Time.��David Remnick, The New Yorker.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member southernbooklady
I know it is trite to talk about books being "profoundly moving" but that's what Alexievich's books are to me. Not just "interesting" or "fascinating" but moving, these relentless, passionate, bitter, hopeful, cynical, compassionate, bewildered, apathetic, angry, excited, agonized accounts of what
But in the end, despite story after awful, heartbreaking story, what emerges is a picture of a people that is not just compassionate, but loving. And the entire book -- all these stacks of people's comments and outbursts and feelings -- felt completely honest. At a time when journalism is more and more manipulative, Alexievich's brand of oral history comes across as incredibly sincere, human. She really deserved that Nobel Prize.
I find myself wondering what it would look like if Svetlana Alexievich wrote a book about the United States, about the transition represented by Obama and then by Trump. I have a feeling I wouldn't like what she would find.
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was gained and what was lost with the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Russia. There is one section that begins with a mother's account of her son -- who committed suicide -- and goes on to talk to the boy's friends and their own reactions, and I have to say, I could barely stand to read it. The pages were just saturated in grief. And frankly, it made everything on the news, every twitter storm, look utterly pathetic and pointless. But in the end, despite story after awful, heartbreaking story, what emerges is a picture of a people that is not just compassionate, but loving. And the entire book -- all these stacks of people's comments and outbursts and feelings -- felt completely honest. At a time when journalism is more and more manipulative, Alexievich's brand of oral history comes across as incredibly sincere, human. She really deserved that Nobel Prize.
I find myself wondering what it would look like if Svetlana Alexievich wrote a book about the United States, about the transition represented by Obama and then by Trump. I have a feeling I wouldn't like what she would find.
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LibraryThing member streamsong
This book is written in a similar style to the only other book of Nobel laureate Alexievich's that I have read: Voices From Chernobyl. Both volumes feature recollections of people who have lived through the events. In this case , these are people who lived through the breakup of the Soviet
The dissolution of the USSR was much more chaotic and violent than I imagined. While older people struggled that the ideology they had based their lives on was no longer relevant, they also faced the dissolution of their work places and the loss of their pensions. Professional people ended up on the street selling small goods for whatever tiny sums they could get.
Many people longed for their previous lives and felt they had traded a lifetime of idealism for salami in the shops.
The USSR satellite countries saw violence. Russians and other minorities were purged, and killed in the streets by citizens who had formerly shared the status of USSR citizens. The reverse also happened with Russian citizens in Russia purging those from former member countries.
The crumbling of the social and economic left huge holes which led to the rise of the Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin.
Those who lived through this era tell their accounts vividly. As with the Chernobyl book, I came away with a much better understanding of both the events and the way individual lives were upturned.
A fascinating and highly recommended read.
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Union.The dissolution of the USSR was much more chaotic and violent than I imagined. While older people struggled that the ideology they had based their lives on was no longer relevant, they also faced the dissolution of their work places and the loss of their pensions. Professional people ended up on the street selling small goods for whatever tiny sums they could get.
Many people longed for their previous lives and felt they had traded a lifetime of idealism for salami in the shops.
The USSR satellite countries saw violence. Russians and other minorities were purged, and killed in the streets by citizens who had formerly shared the status of USSR citizens. The reverse also happened with Russian citizens in Russia purging those from former member countries.
The crumbling of the social and economic left huge holes which led to the rise of the Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin.
Those who lived through this era tell their accounts vividly. As with the Chernobyl book, I came away with a much better understanding of both the events and the way individual lives were upturned.
A fascinating and highly recommended read.
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LibraryThing member byebyelibrary
Hands down the best book I have read this year. The Nobel committee knew what it was doing when it gave Svetlana Alexievich the literature prize. These monologues from ordinary citizens of the former Soviet Union are as compelling and dramatic and insightful as novel I have ever read. This is the
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work of a person with a genius for listening. This is a dark book. Perhaps the darkest book you will ever read. It is a catalogue of human suffering, cruelty, weakness, depravity and sadness. There is no cheap redemption. No phony optimism for phony balance. The book's starkest truth is that the USSRs descent into "cannibal capitalism" is not just their story. It is the story of the end of the twentieth century and the dawn of our disconnected age. Never have I come across a book so devoid of phony sentimentality. Alexievich has clear affection and pity for her subjects but will not let them get away with lies. Show Less
LibraryThing member PDCRead
In 1991 the USSR imploded after seven decades of communism. It briefly flirted with capitalism, before settling down to autocratic rule under Putin. In this hefty tome, Alexievich partakes in conversations with a varied cross section of people, and has interviewed scores of individuals with the
These people have witnessed the collapse of their society; some are glad to see the back of it and others mourn its loss. Rather than ask them what they think of society and where they think it should be, she asks about the everyday, their families, their lifestyle and the numerous ways that they eek out a life in post-Soviet Russia. From this narrative of the mundane the bigger picture comes together. It is sometimes a heart wrenching account of a fractured, splintered society and those who speak bare their souls to her.
It is dense, complicated and makes for uncomfortable reading. But, the picture it paints reveals the suffering of the people, their hopes, fears and present day anxieties. But, it is immensely rewarding, as it revels the character of a people in a touching portrait.
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intention of finding out how those left in the country of Russia think and feel now. She calls this people., Homo sovieticus, those that were left after the Marxist-Leninist experiment ended.These people have witnessed the collapse of their society; some are glad to see the back of it and others mourn its loss. Rather than ask them what they think of society and where they think it should be, she asks about the everyday, their families, their lifestyle and the numerous ways that they eek out a life in post-Soviet Russia. From this narrative of the mundane the bigger picture comes together. It is sometimes a heart wrenching account of a fractured, splintered society and those who speak bare their souls to her.
It is dense, complicated and makes for uncomfortable reading. But, the picture it paints reveals the suffering of the people, their hopes, fears and present day anxieties. But, it is immensely rewarding, as it revels the character of a people in a touching portrait.
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LibraryThing member Steve38
In the end Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich turned out to be a hard read. The last of the many interviews in the book is with a young woman student in Minsk who joined the protests against one of the previous rigged election won by Mr Lukashenko. She was arrested, jailed and thrown out of
Throughout the book the tendency is for people to look back nostalgically to things lost. Only one person out of the whole cast wholeheartedly welcomes the current state of present day Russia. A young woman seeking every opportunity to make her fortune. But then Ms Alexievich does not interview the political elite or those successful in business. She finds people with a personal story to tell. Of being excited by the potential of political change then of being disappointed and demoralised by the results of those changes. Other themes persist which are constant threads in Russian life. Drink, early death, domestic violence, casual brutality all mixed together with a love of nature and an appreciation of literature. So, a hard read but a fascinating one.
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university. Will Mr Lukashenko succeed again in holding on to power? Maybe. A steady thread through the many interviews of people's memories of the disappearance of the Soviet Union is that the news and politics tends to happen in capital cities and on TV. Russia is a vast country and for those living hundreds and thousands of miles away from Moscow in smaller towns and villages life goes on much the same whether the ruler is a Tsar, a Secretary General or a President. It may well be the same in today's Belarus.Throughout the book the tendency is for people to look back nostalgically to things lost. Only one person out of the whole cast wholeheartedly welcomes the current state of present day Russia. A young woman seeking every opportunity to make her fortune. But then Ms Alexievich does not interview the political elite or those successful in business. She finds people with a personal story to tell. Of being excited by the potential of political change then of being disappointed and demoralised by the results of those changes. Other themes persist which are constant threads in Russian life. Drink, early death, domestic violence, casual brutality all mixed together with a love of nature and an appreciation of literature. So, a hard read but a fascinating one.
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LibraryThing member bkinetic
During the Soviet era I had wondered what life was like behind the iron curtain. Solzhenitsyn provided part of the picture but here Alexievich fills the canvas with a broad portrait of the lives of people from all walks of life. Overall it isn't pretty, especially the slow-motion horror of the
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Stalin era. Perestroika and the Yeltsin presidency were promising developments yet they came and went, leaving even modest hopes dashed. In any case you are able to see the interior life of the Russian people here in rich detail. The writing is excellent even in translation. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ken-Me-Old-Mate
A while back I looked back over my reviews and noticed the lack of 5 stars from me for many books that I really liked, appreciated and admired so I decided to stop this semi-conscious censorship of review scores. Now if a book really is a 4 star book I mark it as such and if a book is a 5 star
The collapse of the USSR is most referred to as the collapse of socialism or the collapse of communism, take your pick. But is that all it was? can really just sum up that block of history in those throw away lines. Well, comrade. in the West we can do whatever the fuck we like as long as it is not complex and requiring of thought.
There is so much sadness in this book you will shed tears if you have a heart. I always like that quote from Herr Putin: "Anyone who doesn't miss the Soviet republic doesn't have a heart, but anyone who wants it back doesn’t have a brain".
One thing we must be acutely aware of is that everything we have everr heard or probably ever will hear about the USSR, either past or present, is Western propaganda. In the West our news has always been so doctored that in reality we can never know anything about Russia with any certainty. The current media pants shitting about Trump's alternative facts just makes me puke, like what about all the lies those fuckers have been giving for all those years in the guise of what? "true facts"and I am not a Trump supporter!
So here we are back in Soviet Russia, with stories from Russian hearts about life, death, hunger, suffering, betrayal and much worse. I don't think that much has been filtered here, after all, who is left to filter it? You will get slices of life under the Soviet regime told mostly in the first person. It is hard reading in places and heartwarming in others. I guess you could describe this as a series of auto-biographies.
There are a number of things that have stuck with me and resonate. The feeling that they were working for a better tomorrow, that they were building the future (that phrase appears a lot) with their bare hands. How strong an influence the War was and is on Russia. I think one of the saddest things about the book was how they were cheated out of their future by thugs and capitalists. How they thought they were going to get, and really wanted, a more open form of socialism instead of the free market disaster they ended up with. How they went from having a shared purpose in Socialism to discovering that in the free market we are not working towards anything, we just exist to shop.
How pensioners went from being able to live on the pension to having to beg for food. How money became worthless, how the free gas and electricity, free because it was owned by everyone, became unaffordable. How all their shared wealth went into the hands of gangsters. How murder became commonplace, how violence ruled, it always did to an extent but previously the enemy was well defined. How the police went from being hated to now being feared. How all those western goods, yearned for by so many for so long, finally appeared only to be completely unaffordable and mere trinkets compared to what was lost.
The sense of betrayal is mirrored only by the opening of the records previously kept secret so you could see who reported your grandafther or father or mother or brother and saw them imprisoned sometimes to never return. To learn that these enemies were in fact your best friends and neighbours.
Such sadness to also realise this was one of the last places that humans shared a common goal on such a vast scale. And I mean shared in the sense of living it every day and not just in politicians election speeches. We all know it was flawed but that does not make it any the less remarkable.
This is one of those books I wish I could read again as if I had never read it before.
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jobby then it gets the full 5 and not 4.The collapse of the USSR is most referred to as the collapse of socialism or the collapse of communism, take your pick. But is that all it was? can really just sum up that block of history in those throw away lines. Well, comrade. in the West we can do whatever the fuck we like as long as it is not complex and requiring of thought.
There is so much sadness in this book you will shed tears if you have a heart. I always like that quote from Herr Putin: "Anyone who doesn't miss the Soviet republic doesn't have a heart, but anyone who wants it back doesn’t have a brain".
One thing we must be acutely aware of is that everything we have everr heard or probably ever will hear about the USSR, either past or present, is Western propaganda. In the West our news has always been so doctored that in reality we can never know anything about Russia with any certainty. The current media pants shitting about Trump's alternative facts just makes me puke, like what about all the lies those fuckers have been giving for all those years in the guise of what? "true facts"and I am not a Trump supporter!
So here we are back in Soviet Russia, with stories from Russian hearts about life, death, hunger, suffering, betrayal and much worse. I don't think that much has been filtered here, after all, who is left to filter it? You will get slices of life under the Soviet regime told mostly in the first person. It is hard reading in places and heartwarming in others. I guess you could describe this as a series of auto-biographies.
There are a number of things that have stuck with me and resonate. The feeling that they were working for a better tomorrow, that they were building the future (that phrase appears a lot) with their bare hands. How strong an influence the War was and is on Russia. I think one of the saddest things about the book was how they were cheated out of their future by thugs and capitalists. How they thought they were going to get, and really wanted, a more open form of socialism instead of the free market disaster they ended up with. How they went from having a shared purpose in Socialism to discovering that in the free market we are not working towards anything, we just exist to shop.
How pensioners went from being able to live on the pension to having to beg for food. How money became worthless, how the free gas and electricity, free because it was owned by everyone, became unaffordable. How all their shared wealth went into the hands of gangsters. How murder became commonplace, how violence ruled, it always did to an extent but previously the enemy was well defined. How the police went from being hated to now being feared. How all those western goods, yearned for by so many for so long, finally appeared only to be completely unaffordable and mere trinkets compared to what was lost.
The sense of betrayal is mirrored only by the opening of the records previously kept secret so you could see who reported your grandafther or father or mother or brother and saw them imprisoned sometimes to never return. To learn that these enemies were in fact your best friends and neighbours.
Such sadness to also realise this was one of the last places that humans shared a common goal on such a vast scale. And I mean shared in the sense of living it every day and not just in politicians election speeches. We all know it was flawed but that does not make it any the less remarkable.
This is one of those books I wish I could read again as if I had never read it before.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
I wasn't sure how much I would value this book, but it turns out: I value it immensely. Alexievich achieved at least two things here. First, she has written a tremendously sensitive book about otherwise despised human beings. Reading this should make it impossible for anyone to take seriously the
All that said, I can't imagine many have the intelligence, character, or work ethic to reproduce the method. God knows I wouldn't.
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indiscriminate demonisation of those who supported the Soviet regime, which has replaced the infantile praise of them, among the liberal intelligentsia in this country, at least. Second, she has more or less shown that journalism can be great literature. The form is at least as important as the historical material here; this is a perfect way to write about abstractions. Fiction writers are always told not to write about abstractions, but to get to them through the individual; Alexievich gets to the abstraction through countless individuals, and that approach works far better than the deep psychological dive. All that said, I can't imagine many have the intelligence, character, or work ethic to reproduce the method. God knows I wouldn't.
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LibraryThing member elimatta
Wonderful in its way, but so endlessly, repetitively grim. In the end I skimmed the last third, unable to face any more brutality.
LibraryThing member Mikalina
How does the ordinary man perceive History when it descends upon them? Aleksijevitsj is not interested in what happened as much as what the ordinary man understood of what happened. How is freedom interpreted by the common man? Freedom to consume obviously. Freedom for the cynical to be
A story then of how little we all understand of our position in the world. Of how History is made of masses of individuals on the move, that cannot account for or does not understand how their own movements ended up as the History as it turned out. A dark comedy of the discrepancy of outcomes that must come from movements based upon what we wish for, and actions taken based on what is.
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opportunistic as well. Freedom, for the few, not to loose your soul for dollars. The result for the country of the opportunists´ freedom and the losers´ feelings when they were not amongst the upper third gainers of the capitalist revolution they hailed. The book is a story of the tragedy of the individually poorly understood responsibility that follows freedom. A story of idealism and of human folly. And of greed. Greed is never far of anywhere where dollar moves in as the bottom line.A story then of how little we all understand of our position in the world. Of how History is made of masses of individuals on the move, that cannot account for or does not understand how their own movements ended up as the History as it turned out. A dark comedy of the discrepancy of outcomes that must come from movements based upon what we wish for, and actions taken based on what is.
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LibraryThing member LovingLit
This is a unique book- the collected voices of many Russians over many years. The Author has collected peoples' stories told in interviews. With her own voice edited out, it has resulted in a story of Russia and the former USSR that is very personal and very deep.
I am struck of course by the
The propaganda of Soviet times can come across as cheesy from the outside (how could they all fall for that? etc.) but when you read the heartfelt accounts of people who believed in their leaders, believed in the power of the people etc, you really see how much it meant on a personal level to have that collective identity. I haven't properly formulated my thoughts on it yet, but there is also a lot in there about happiness and how it comes about. The fundamental ingredients for it seem to be human connections and a plan (or maybe, hope, or a common goal or purpose). And some accounts in this book about Soviet times certainly show that this is at a loss under capitalism.
There is so much in this book to think on, and I can thoroughly recommend it.
I am struck of course by the
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violence and depravity so many in the book describe, which, although must be told as is intertwined with so many aspects of recent history of this place, is just so....visceral. The violence is back to back with hardship and struggle. It's hard to read. But what I did get from this book is a real sense of how a nation of people have had the whole basis of their identities changed- which of course happened when socialism was ousted and capitalism installed.The propaganda of Soviet times can come across as cheesy from the outside (how could they all fall for that? etc.) but when you read the heartfelt accounts of people who believed in their leaders, believed in the power of the people etc, you really see how much it meant on a personal level to have that collective identity. I haven't properly formulated my thoughts on it yet, but there is also a lot in there about happiness and how it comes about. The fundamental ingredients for it seem to be human connections and a plan (or maybe, hope, or a common goal or purpose). And some accounts in this book about Soviet times certainly show that this is at a loss under capitalism.
There is so much in this book to think on, and I can thoroughly recommend it.
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LibraryThing member SigmundFraud
Powerful if horrifying stories. Oral histories told of life by people of all ages during both during Soviet times and Russian times. The inhumanity of man towards man is beyond belief. In many ways it is worst than the Nazi holocaust because it lasted for more than two generations. Brutality
Who sold Russia out? the Jews."
"The Jews and the Yanks are our enemies."
"Kikes! They are the root of all evil....A Russian has nowhere to turn to. They crucified Christ."
"Who would take a Jewish baby? Jews had no right to have kids."
"Liquidate the Commissars and the Jews,"
"Perestroika is a CIA operation to destroy the USSR."
"War and prison are the two most important words in the Russian language"
And on and on it goes. It is stunning and as I said frightening. I don't know how one could live in such an environment. Obviously many were murdered for no reason. Astounding though a riveting read
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continues to exist. This book requires a strong stomach but it is worth it.. Life has had little value in the USSR or even in Russia of today. And antisemitism is virulent. Let me share a few quotes with you to give you and idea of what life was like.Who sold Russia out? the Jews."
"The Jews and the Yanks are our enemies."
"Kikes! They are the root of all evil....A Russian has nowhere to turn to. They crucified Christ."
"Who would take a Jewish baby? Jews had no right to have kids."
"Liquidate the Commissars and the Jews,"
"Perestroika is a CIA operation to destroy the USSR."
"War and prison are the two most important words in the Russian language"
And on and on it goes. It is stunning and as I said frightening. I don't know how one could live in such an environment. Obviously many were murdered for no reason. Astounding though a riveting read
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LibraryThing member TheCrow2
It's hard to categorise Aleksievic's book.Interview novel? What's that? Is it literature at all or just a historical document? But as soon as you start to read, it's easy to realise that the question itself is meaningless. The Nobel prize is in good hands. The only small criticism I could find that
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it's a bit overwritten. a bit less would be more. Show Less
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
5402. Secondhand Time The Last of the Soviets, by Svetlana Alexievich Translated by Bela Shayevich (read 29 Aug 2016) The author won th 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature although I did no realieze that when I decided to read this boo. It is made up of interviews the authro conducted of various men
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and women after the fall of the USSR. The interviews are not very rigorously edited so they tend to go on and on--long after one gets t he idea of the interviewed person's slant on Russian life and history. Many of the interviews are doleful and one is annoyed at the stupidity of some of the persons interviewed. Nearly all of the women interviewed seemed to have had husbands who were drunks and viciously abused their wives. Many of the interviews expressed disappointment with the capitalistic system and were sure they were better off when the Communists were in power--even though they know of the horrors of Stalinism. Much of the book is depressing to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
Svetlana Alexijevitsj interviews people in post-Soviet Russia. If you're ever feeling ebullient, so full of joy that you could just float away, this is the book that will bring you back to earth. People LOVED Stalin in spite of the oppression which is detailed to a nauseating degree. The misogyny
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is beyond belief. Frequently people say how much Russians need life to be bad, to experience pain so that their souls can be free. So misogyny, severe gender roles, a strict class system, racism, evil for the sake of being evil, evil as just part of a day's work, betrayal by everyone from one's family to the state - the book does not make the reader long for a trip to Russia or inspire great faith in Putin. It seems that the only way to control the people during Stalin's brand of communism was to instill in them extreme romance and idealism. Poetry and Russian literature were honored, people sat around their kitchen tables discussing philosophy. Money and private ownership were denigrated. The Soviet people were told how great they were to have defeated Germany during the second world war and how much this was due to Stalin's leadership. The problem was that Stalin then took the most romantic and idealistic and crushed them. Those who weren't crushed, and even those who managed to survive the crushing clung to the idea of their great communist Motherland. Now with the advent of capitalism, even their ideals are crushed as the state continues to oppress the new Russian people in the name of greed. The whole book is unrelenting misery. It'll be a while before I read another of her books. Show Less
LibraryThing member annbury
A wonderful book.
A wonderful book. My wife and I are grateful that we lived when we did and where we did. We both made a ton of money in businesses that have disappeared. We know that if we were living in Russia, we would have been wiped out by the fall of communism. The author takes homo
There are hardly any authors who have done this. The stories she tells are wildly interesting. To some extent, I can understand the Soviets better after reading this book; why Putin appeals to so many, why they feel nostalgia for Stalin, one of the great
murderers of history, and why they are so barbaric to each other. To some extent, this
is not unlike the US in that growth has definitely slowed, and the Dream is harder to achieve. We might elect a Republican tomorrow which would be a disaster.
A wonderful book. My wife and I are grateful that we lived when we did and where we did. We both made a ton of money in businesses that have disappeared. We know that if we were living in Russia, we would have been wiped out by the fall of communism. The author takes homo
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sovieticus as her topic and does a great job.There are hardly any authors who have done this. The stories she tells are wildly interesting. To some extent, I can understand the Soviets better after reading this book; why Putin appeals to so many, why they feel nostalgia for Stalin, one of the great
murderers of history, and why they are so barbaric to each other. To some extent, this
is not unlike the US in that growth has definitely slowed, and the Dream is harder to achieve. We might elect a Republican tomorrow which would be a disaster.
Show Less
LibraryThing member hvg
Outstanding series of interviews of how the people from the former Soviet Union look upon their lives and situation etc. If you have read Chernobyl Prayer, you will have to read this as well.
LibraryThing member rdwhitenack
An amazing look at life in the former USSR. A really good audiobook, but often confusing as to who is narrating (6 different readers, some with similar voices)
LibraryThing member SigmundFraud
Powerful if horrifying stories. Oral histories told of life by people of all ages during both during Soviet times and Russian times. The inhumanity of man towards man is beyond belief. In many ways it is worst than the Nazi holocaust because it lasted for more than two generations. Brutality
Who sold Russia out? the Jews."
"The Jews and the Yanks are our enemies."
"Kikes! They are the root of all evil....A Russian has nowhere to turn to. They crucified Christ."
"Who would take a Jewish baby? Jews had no right to have kids."
"Liquidate the Commissars and the Jews,"
"Perestroika is a CIA operation to destroy the USSR."
"War and prison are the two most important words in the Russian language"
And on and on it goes. It is stunning and as I said frightening. I don't know how one could live in such an environment. Obviously many were murdered for no reason. Astounding though a riveting read.
Show More
continues to exist. This book requires a strong stomach but it is worth it.. Life has had little value in the USSR or even in Russia of today. And antisemitism is virulent. Let me share a few quotes with you to give you and idea of what life was like.Who sold Russia out? the Jews."
"The Jews and the Yanks are our enemies."
"Kikes! They are the root of all evil....A Russian has nowhere to turn to. They crucified Christ."
"Who would take a Jewish baby? Jews had no right to have kids."
"Liquidate the Commissars and the Jews,"
"Perestroika is a CIA operation to destroy the USSR."
"War and prison are the two most important words in the Russian language"
And on and on it goes. It is stunning and as I said frightening. I don't know how one could live in such an environment. Obviously many were murdered for no reason. Astounding though a riveting read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member questbird
A collection of monologues from people who lived through the transition from Communism to Capitalism in the former Soviet Union. There are stories from all walks of life. They tell of a people betrayed yet again by their masters but nevertheless striving for a peaceful life. The curation of the
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monologues and the presence of the author is more obvious than in Voices from Chernobyl. I learned a lot about Russia of the 80s and 90s -- a very turbulent time. The only omission I could find was that the author did not interview any of the so-called Gangsters who ruled the streets for a time. Many of the other stories mentioned them, so it was a shame none of them wanted to speak. Show Less
LibraryThing member bostonbibliophile
All of the other reviews here are right... it's an amazing book, and it's also incredibly dark and depressing. like one reviewer I skimmed the last few chapters. It's a lot of misery to take in at once. But it's an important testimony and needs to be read and appreciated for what it documents about
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peoples' lives during and after the Soviet Union. There are no big surprises, except the pounding consistency of the stories. Show Less
LibraryThing member msf59
“Today, people just want to live their lives, they don’t need some great Idea. This is entirely new for Russia; it’s unprecedented in Russian literature. At heart, we’re built for war. We were always either fighting or preparing to fight. We’ve never known anything else—hence our
“Our people need freedom like a monkey needs glasses. No one would know what to do with it.”
"The liberals are working off their piece of the pie. They want us to think of our history as a black hole. I hate them all: gorbachev, shevardnadze, yakovlev - don't capitalize their names, that's how much I hate them all. I don't want to live in America, I want to live in the USSR...”
“They were fooled by the shiny wrappers. Now our stores are filled with all sorts of stuff. An abundance. But heaps of salami have nothing to do with happiness. Or glory. We used to be a great nation! Now we’re nothing but peddlers and looters… Grain merchants and managers…”
^This an oral history of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of a new Russia. The author interviewed dozens of people over twenty years. This is a stellar achievement on so many levels. Hearing these distinct voices, gives the reader more perspective and understanding than a stack of nonfiction, devoted to this period. Some are heart-warming and patriotic but most will rip your guts out. The pain and hardship most of these people go through is heart-breaking and devastating.
My biggest take away from this monumental work, is how much better I now understand communism and capitalism and how our propaganda machines, working furiously, on both sides, have completely distorted both.
I would also like to give a shout-out to Bela Shayevich for an outstanding translation.
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wartime psychology. Even in civilian life, everything was always militarized. The drums were beating, the banners flying, our hearts leaping out of our chests. People didn’t recognize their own slavery—they even liked being slaves.”“Our people need freedom like a monkey needs glasses. No one would know what to do with it.”
"The liberals are working off their piece of the pie. They want us to think of our history as a black hole. I hate them all: gorbachev, shevardnadze, yakovlev - don't capitalize their names, that's how much I hate them all. I don't want to live in America, I want to live in the USSR...”
“They were fooled by the shiny wrappers. Now our stores are filled with all sorts of stuff. An abundance. But heaps of salami have nothing to do with happiness. Or glory. We used to be a great nation! Now we’re nothing but peddlers and looters… Grain merchants and managers…”
^This an oral history of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of a new Russia. The author interviewed dozens of people over twenty years. This is a stellar achievement on so many levels. Hearing these distinct voices, gives the reader more perspective and understanding than a stack of nonfiction, devoted to this period. Some are heart-warming and patriotic but most will rip your guts out. The pain and hardship most of these people go through is heart-breaking and devastating.
My biggest take away from this monumental work, is how much better I now understand communism and capitalism and how our propaganda machines, working furiously, on both sides, have completely distorted both.
I would also like to give a shout-out to Bela Shayevich for an outstanding translation.
Show Less
LibraryThing member yarb
Alexievich makes a strong case for the Russian (and other ex-Soviet) people having the most miserable history of any people ever. Whether it's serfdom, socialism, or free-market capitalism, the Russians find a way to maximise the misery for all (or almost all) involved. The tapestry of torment is
Most obviously it's about the collapse of the USSR and the various dislocating effects it had on Alexievich's interviewees. But another reading becomes dominant: that such existential dislocations are a Russian malaise, fated to recur no matter the political system. Someone in the book quotes (I forgot to note the source), "in Russia everything can change in five years, but in 200, nothing". Salami is a recurring motif, an emblem of plenty. As one voice reminisces of the early 90's:
Everyone dreamt of a new life... Dreams... People dreamt that tons of salami would appear at the stores at Soviet prices and members of the Politburo would stand in line for it along with the rest of us. Salami is a benchmark of our existence. Our love for salami is existential...
But the outcome is different:
There's loads of salami at the store, but no happy people. I don't see anyone with fire in their eyes.
But as well as being an obscure object of desire, salami is a processed meat, and its recurrence in these oral histories calls to mind the sausage grinder of the gulag or the siege of Leningrad or the people-processing of the Soviet state in general. So many of the horrorshows related in these pages come down to blood and guts:
One night, three of us were left behind as the rear guard. We cut open the belly of a dead horse, tossed everything out of it, and climbed in. We spent two days like that, listening to the Germans go back and forth. Shooting at them from time to time. Finally, the forest was completely silent. We climbed out covered in blood, guts, and shit... half-insane. It was night... We saw the moon...
And the absurdities of the war and the gulag are mirrored once the almighty dollar is unleashed on the remains of the empire. This guy's story reminded me of Milo from Catch-22:
...I sold toys. One time, I sold off an entire lot wholesale for a truckoad of carbonated beverages, traded that for a shipping container of sunflower seeds, and then, at a butter plant, traded it all in for butter, sold half of the butter, and traded the other half for frying pans and irons... Now I have a flower business...
The polyphonic approach doesn't always pay off. A few of the voices fail to fully cohere; sometimes when several people speak in quick succession the narrative throughline gets tangled. One or two stories, like the woman who falls in love with a lifer, seem beside the point, included for novelty. But the book is overwhelmingly successful in anatomising the Russian pysche and its manifold contradictions. The persecutors are also victims; the victims also chastise themselves. Half the characters are poets or lovers of poetry; the yearning Romantic Russian character we see so much of in Dostoevsky is every bit as much in evidence here. "Russian people need the kind of idea that gives them goose bumps and makes their spines tingle." The question I was left with was, is this attitude the root of Russia's perpetual cycle of sorrow, or the result of it?
Even today, many people want to go back to the Soviet Union, except with tons of salami.
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woven from many individual threads: tales of arbitrary violence, dispossession and loss of every kind, endless hunger, and physical and mental torture of every description. And these strands knit the post-Soviet gangster-capitalism together with the more familiar sufferings of Stalinism, giving the book a symmetrical, diptych structure.Most obviously it's about the collapse of the USSR and the various dislocating effects it had on Alexievich's interviewees. But another reading becomes dominant: that such existential dislocations are a Russian malaise, fated to recur no matter the political system. Someone in the book quotes (I forgot to note the source), "in Russia everything can change in five years, but in 200, nothing". Salami is a recurring motif, an emblem of plenty. As one voice reminisces of the early 90's:
Everyone dreamt of a new life... Dreams... People dreamt that tons of salami would appear at the stores at Soviet prices and members of the Politburo would stand in line for it along with the rest of us. Salami is a benchmark of our existence. Our love for salami is existential...
But the outcome is different:
There's loads of salami at the store, but no happy people. I don't see anyone with fire in their eyes.
But as well as being an obscure object of desire, salami is a processed meat, and its recurrence in these oral histories calls to mind the sausage grinder of the gulag or the siege of Leningrad or the people-processing of the Soviet state in general. So many of the horrorshows related in these pages come down to blood and guts:
One night, three of us were left behind as the rear guard. We cut open the belly of a dead horse, tossed everything out of it, and climbed in. We spent two days like that, listening to the Germans go back and forth. Shooting at them from time to time. Finally, the forest was completely silent. We climbed out covered in blood, guts, and shit... half-insane. It was night... We saw the moon...
And the absurdities of the war and the gulag are mirrored once the almighty dollar is unleashed on the remains of the empire. This guy's story reminded me of Milo from Catch-22:
...I sold toys. One time, I sold off an entire lot wholesale for a truckoad of carbonated beverages, traded that for a shipping container of sunflower seeds, and then, at a butter plant, traded it all in for butter, sold half of the butter, and traded the other half for frying pans and irons... Now I have a flower business...
The polyphonic approach doesn't always pay off. A few of the voices fail to fully cohere; sometimes when several people speak in quick succession the narrative throughline gets tangled. One or two stories, like the woman who falls in love with a lifer, seem beside the point, included for novelty. But the book is overwhelmingly successful in anatomising the Russian pysche and its manifold contradictions. The persecutors are also victims; the victims also chastise themselves. Half the characters are poets or lovers of poetry; the yearning Romantic Russian character we see so much of in Dostoevsky is every bit as much in evidence here. "Russian people need the kind of idea that gives them goose bumps and makes their spines tingle." The question I was left with was, is this attitude the root of Russia's perpetual cycle of sorrow, or the result of it?
Even today, many people want to go back to the Soviet Union, except with tons of salami.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Narshkite
I can't recall the last time I learned so much from a book. It is no secret that Putin wants to recreate the Soviet Union, but I now more fully understand that promising the return of the great Soviet state is one of the ways he stays in power. We are taught to look at increased freedom as
A lot of these stories are very hard to read. I could not simply flip through the pages and pages of savage acts recounted here, each one more stomach churning and heartbreaking than the last. It was hard to read about the breakdown of families, the rampant alcoholism and its impact. the abuse of women and of people with darker skin (the Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Tajiks and others are referred to by the Russians as darkies.) Hardest for me was the recounting of the brutal murders of the "kikes" (that term is used frequently) the one group all the groups have decided to blame and to hate. When my grandmother was a teenager she was forced to watch with her mother and her other siblings and in-laws as her father and three eldest brothers were forced by Lenin's soldiers, along with other men in the village, to dig a hole, into which they were all shot in a barrage of gunfire. Some babies were snatched from mothers and thrown into the hole just for extra fun, and then more rounds were shot into the hole just in case anyone had survived. Those not shot were made to fill in the hole with dirt. She and her two younger siblings were eventually smuggled out and sailed to America, but she was never whole, never not terrified. It was very personal for me to read those stories, and the stories of the cruel murders of people found trying to help Jews. One Russian woman who took in an 8 and 10 year old whose family had been slaughtered was lashed to the back of a motorcycle and forced to run "until her heart exploded." The children she had cared for were hacked into pulp, there was nothing left to bury.
I read about all this, and I realized Putin is not a one-off monster crazily bombing children's hospitals and shelters -- his actions are completely in keeping with nearly every Russian leader who preceded him. Within the official archives released during Perestroika there is a record of an official coming to tell Trotsky that people in Moscow were starving, and Trotsky told him to shut up and to let him know when the food shortages were so bad that mothers were killing and eating their babies. Putin learned from the masters.
One thing that is clear from all the stories is that if you tell people they can stop thinking, that you will provide them with the only "facts" and all they need to do is come to rallies to show their admiration for the leaders to be safe many of those people will love you. That is all many people want, certainty and something to display religious zeal for. Welcome to America in the 21st century -- Putin was not the only person who learned from the masters.
I had been reading this in print, but decided to grab the audio and listen to this while I switched out my winter clothes (I acknowledge I have a shopping problem and that for most people this would not be 8 hours of work. The good news is that I have a 4 foot high pile of things to give away, and I finished the book.) The book was extraordinary in both formats, but I really did enjoy this oral history as an oral history and wish I had listened to rather than read the first 2/3.
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unambiguously positive, but I can see now that there is still a large portion of the population that has suffered in the years since Perestroika. So many people gave up so much willingly for the communist dream, only for everything to change overnight. People were now told that making money was the way to greatness, the polar opposite of all the messaging they had ever received. Actions that would have been illegal at all times since 1917 were now the most highly prized. The patriots, the loyal Bolsheviks were left in the dirt. And in many of the former Soviet bloc nations people who had lived together as neighbors when everyone was Soviet were now torturing and murdering one another as they reclaimed their pre-soviet nationalities and remembered they hated one another.A lot of these stories are very hard to read. I could not simply flip through the pages and pages of savage acts recounted here, each one more stomach churning and heartbreaking than the last. It was hard to read about the breakdown of families, the rampant alcoholism and its impact. the abuse of women and of people with darker skin (the Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Tajiks and others are referred to by the Russians as darkies.) Hardest for me was the recounting of the brutal murders of the "kikes" (that term is used frequently) the one group all the groups have decided to blame and to hate. When my grandmother was a teenager she was forced to watch with her mother and her other siblings and in-laws as her father and three eldest brothers were forced by Lenin's soldiers, along with other men in the village, to dig a hole, into which they were all shot in a barrage of gunfire. Some babies were snatched from mothers and thrown into the hole just for extra fun, and then more rounds were shot into the hole just in case anyone had survived. Those not shot were made to fill in the hole with dirt. She and her two younger siblings were eventually smuggled out and sailed to America, but she was never whole, never not terrified. It was very personal for me to read those stories, and the stories of the cruel murders of people found trying to help Jews. One Russian woman who took in an 8 and 10 year old whose family had been slaughtered was lashed to the back of a motorcycle and forced to run "until her heart exploded." The children she had cared for were hacked into pulp, there was nothing left to bury.
I read about all this, and I realized Putin is not a one-off monster crazily bombing children's hospitals and shelters -- his actions are completely in keeping with nearly every Russian leader who preceded him. Within the official archives released during Perestroika there is a record of an official coming to tell Trotsky that people in Moscow were starving, and Trotsky told him to shut up and to let him know when the food shortages were so bad that mothers were killing and eating their babies. Putin learned from the masters.
One thing that is clear from all the stories is that if you tell people they can stop thinking, that you will provide them with the only "facts" and all they need to do is come to rallies to show their admiration for the leaders to be safe many of those people will love you. That is all many people want, certainty and something to display religious zeal for. Welcome to America in the 21st century -- Putin was not the only person who learned from the masters.
I had been reading this in print, but decided to grab the audio and listen to this while I switched out my winter clothes (I acknowledge I have a shopping problem and that for most people this would not be 8 hours of work. The good news is that I have a 4 foot high pile of things to give away, and I finished the book.) The book was extraordinary in both formats, but I really did enjoy this oral history as an oral history and wish I had listened to rather than read the first 2/3.
Show Less
LibraryThing member br77rino
An excellent collection of reminiscences from those who lived through the USSR. And it’s from some who abhored it, and some who adored it.
Awards
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — 2016)
Arthur Ross Book Award (Bronze Medal — 2017)
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (Shortlist — 2016)
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation (Longlist — 2017)
Prix Médicis (2013)
TA First Translation Prize (Winner — 2017)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2016)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (History — 2016)
NPR: Books We Love (2016)
Boston Globe Best Book (Fiction — 2016)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2016)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (History — 2016)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Nonfiction — 2016)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2016)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2013 (1e édition originale russe)
2014 (1e traduction et édition française, Lettres russes, Actes Sud)
2016-07-09 (Réédition française, Babel, Actes Sud)
Physical description
496 p.; 6.6 inches
ISBN
0399588809 / 9780399588808