Adam Hochschild

Explores how Russians--prison survivors, historians, concentration camp guards, and others--are healing the wounds inflicted by long-repressed memories of the former leader and recounts the efforts of many to locate relatives who disappeared during Stalin's tenure.

Russians Remember Stalin

The Unquiet Ghost

Taylor

Absolutely worth the read. This is more memoir style than investigative research, but knowing that going in makes it a very enjoyable piece. Hochschild definitely doesn't disappoint in his writing - having read King Leopold's Ghost first, The Unquiet Ghost is definitely a more personal work, written in first person, not an exposé but a careful probing into a hugely interesting subject - as Hochschild asks throughout the book, were Soviet-era Russians executioners or victims? Is it possible to be both? In a culture of fear and repression, is the transformation from victim to executioner inevitable? It's a very compelling series of questions that the author brings the reader back to throughout his documented travels in Moscow, Karaganda, and Kolyma. The book is written as a prime example of interdepartmental studies, using history and literature as the bases for sociological observation and some really soul-searching metaphysics. I highly recommend this book to the everyday reader as well as to academic historians.

The Unquiet Ghost Russians Remember Stalin