Molotov's Magic Lantern A Journey in Russian History

EUROPEAN HISTORY: FROM C 1900 -. When Rachel Polonsky went to live in Moscow, she found an apartment block in Romanov Street. One of the past neighbours was Stalin's henchman Vyacheslav Molotov. In Molotov's former apartment, Rachel Polonsky discovered his library and an old magic lantern. Molotov's library and his magic lantern became the prisms through which Rachel Polonsky renewed her vision of Russia. She visited cities and landscapes associated with the books in the library - Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Akhmatova and many less well-known figures. Some were sent to the Gulag by the man who collected their books. She writes exceptionally well about the spirit of great artists and the terrible past of a country ravaged by war, famine, and totalitarianism.