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Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s Paperback – September 1, 1997
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The result of a unique international collaborative investigation by Russian, French, and Swiss scholars into hundreds of private, unpublished diaries found in remote libraries, archives, and family holdings, Intimacy and Terror paints a broad picture of Russian life during the harshest years of Stalin's reign. The ten diaries reveal the day-to-day thoughts of ordinary citizens, some far removed from political turmoil, some closely enmeshed. Together they paint an extraordinarily broad portrait of Russian life in the thirties; their insights into the daily life of that time have astonished even the Russian historians who read the original manuscripts. The diarists range from the ambitious literary bureaucrat who moves forward by denouncing his colleagues to the young unlettered careerist learning the ways of Soviet success; from the wife of a government bureaucrat, who writes in a pure Stalinist prose, to the candid thoughts and uncertainties of a dissident; from a provincial sailor on a distant Arctic vessel to Moscow intellectuals who meet and recount their conversations with Anna Akhmatova. Some of the diarists are wholly oblivious to the terrors of Stalin's purges; others see the failures of the regime as clearly as those writing today.
To set the diaries in context, the book begins with a "Chronicle of the Year 1937"―an extraordinary montage comprised of excerpts from the daily newspaper Izvestiya juxtaposed with corresponding entries from am collective farmer's diary―and also includes a chronology of major events in the Soviet Union during the latter half of the decade. The diaries bring us the true-life counterparts of characters we remember from classic Russian literature. Intimacy and Terror provides an unprecedented, intimate view of daily life in Russia at the height of Stalinism.- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe New Press
- Publication dateSeptember 1, 1997
- Dimensions6.25 x 1.25 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101565843983
- ISBN-13978-1565843981
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Soviet history in a new key. . . A rare and extraordinary portrait of Soviet society in a critical decade, comprising fear, bravery, bathos, tragedy, and even humor―in sum, the broad range of human responses to inhumanity." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Eloquent. . . . An impressive collection of personal diaries written in the Soviet Union during the harshest years of Joseph Stalin's rule." ―Wilson Quarterly
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Natalia Korenevskaya is a writer and scholar living in Moscow, where she works for Progress Publishers.
Thomas Lahusen is a professor of Slavic languages and literature at Duke University, specializing in Soviet literature and culture of the 1930s and 40s.
Product details
- Publisher : The New Press (September 1, 1997)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1565843983
- ISBN-13 : 978-1565843981
- Item Weight : 1.22 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.25 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #944,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,108 in Russian History (Books)
- #13,697 in European History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2012Kudos to authors who demurred in comment or interpretation beyond that required to move the text from one vernacular to another. Very substance of result illustrates inefficacy to render judgment over any other's existence, proof being the eclectic representation of each life portrayed.
This collection of précis portrays element of personality which Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels seemingly dismissed in deference to unitary, singular goal. Collective farmer, life defined by weather condition. Ne'er do well whose tumultuous life was a study in hilarity, yet whose inner turmoil, simply expressed in common eloquence, spoke to a revolving theme of human enterprise. Dyed-in-the-wool allegiant whose peasant origin catalyzed insecurity, a force necessarily expugnable in a reformulated embrace. Bard whose suppressed expression by mandate of existence lived only in diary.
My lesson learned from this reading: Communism's ideals exist personally endogenous. Government with its unending litany of futility is not the vehicle of inducement. Thank you, people of Russia and satellite attache, for that enlightenment.
May I expand lesson to lesson(s)? As a necessary adjunct, communism cannot be the ubiquitous embrace of country. Bannered demarcation of domestic and foreign cannot perceive common.
Your lessons will be different.
Conclusively apropos, the last diary entry speaks of a dream, one whose transcendence liberated yet another object of subjugation. Bas relief remolded into bold relief, the final character, on September 6, 1953, made infinite the dream which he penned fourteen years prior. A dream which mortality had so spartanly conceived, even more astringently achieved.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2011The translation is very accurate yet it preserves the original meaning. No fancy words or cliché newspeak, and even a child can understand the meaning of every sentence. I will recommend this book as reading materials for teaching or research on Russian history.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2012Although I was never able to finish this, it wasn't because it was a bad book; on the contrary, it's an excellent collection that would be a worthy textbook for a Russian history course. I like how the diarists were not all famous people or anything; one, for example, was just a poor middle-aged farmer. It was just that this is hardly pleasure reading and I found I couldn't commit to the whole thing, 400+ pages of small print.