Soviet Union

thorbarry

Hey guys, I've always been interested in the soviet union and its rise and fall. I am just wondering if anybody knows any good, general books about it. One that doesnt go into to much detail, but gives you a general idea of what happened. thanks

Denerick

E.H. Carrs multi volume history of the Soviet Union is the big book on the subject. Its huge and highly detailed, and personally I have only read vol.1.

There are several histories of the Soviet Union, the only other I have read which doesn't deal with the Revolution exclusively is Kenez's 'history of the Soviet Union from begining to end'. You'd like that book, not too pretentious, succint, and dealing with the problems from an economic POV.

Happy hunting!

(Also, the Making of Modern Russia by Lionel Kochen (I think that was his name) is along the lines of Kenez's book, though a little dustier.

mikemac

Gotta say it, the Soviet national anthem rocked!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2-zzmCmMVI

97i9y3941

was always fascinated about the union myself,have books on mao,stalin

Snickers Man

mikemac wrote: »

Gotta say it, the Soviet national anthem rocked!

It's still the Russian anthem, although they've probably changed the words. Not that I'd know, of course.

97i9y3941

yup putin brought it back,been an ex kgb man that he is,alot of russians would love to see the union back,anyways did any of you hear about this picture,only surfaced recently,the man wit the camera is putin

http://www.siberianlight.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/putin-reagan-moscow.jpg

McArmalite

Fred83 wrote: »

yup putin brought it back,been an ex kgb man that he is,alot of russians would love to see the union back,anyways did any of you hear about this picture,only surfaced recently,the man wit the camera is putin

http://www.siberianlight.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/putin-reagan-moscow.jpg

Interesting photo. Appearently Putin is quite good at Judo, when he was on a trip to Japan he took on a Japanese man and made the Japanese bloke tap out.

donaghs

Denerick wrote: »

E.H. Carrs multi volume history of the Soviet Union is the big book on the subject. Its huge and highly detailed, and personally I have only read vol.1.

There are several histories of the Soviet Union, the only other I have read which doesn't deal with the Revolution exclusively is Kenez's 'history of the Soviet Union from begining to end'. You'd like that book, not too pretentious, succint, and dealing with the problems from an economic POV.

Happy hunting!

(Also, the Making of Modern Russia by Lionel Kochen (I think that was his name) is along the lines of Kenez's book, though a little dustier.

Carr may have made one of the most in-depth studies of the rise of the Soviet Union, but he was also an ardent admirer of Soviet Communism, and a apologist for it, and for Stalin in particular. I wouldn't use him a your main source of info, maybe as further to give a balanced picture - or just as part of the Historiography of Russia. Simon Sebag-Montefiore's "In the Court of the Red Tsar" gave a good history of those times, but with the main focus from Stalin.

thorbarry

Denerick wrote: »

There are several histories of the Soviet Union, the only other I have read which doesn't deal with the Revolution exclusively is Kenez's 'history of the Soviet Union from begining to end'. You'd like that book, not too pretentious, succint, and dealing with the problems from an economic POV.

Cheers, i think i'll go for that one "history of the Soviet Union from begining to end', looks quite good. I think the ones by E.H. Carrs, might be a bit full on for me, but who knows, if i like this book, maybe i'll give em a try.. Thanks for the replies, its tough trying to find a decent book on the subject

Denerick

donaghs wrote: »

Carr may have made one of the most in-depth studies of the rise of the Soviet Union, but he was also an ardent admirer of Soviet Communism, and a apologist for it, and for Stalin in particular. I wouldn't use him a your main source of info, maybe as further to give a balanced picture - or just as part of the Historiography of Russia. Simon Sebag-Montefiore's "In the Court of the Red Tsar" gave a good history of those times, but with the main focus from Stalin.

Your quite right, and his somewhat postmodernist thinking came under fire in the wake of his 'What is History' mumbo jumbo.

And he also downplayed the Kulaks and all the other atrocities of Herr Stalin.

He's still a meticulous scholar though, and a great help overall. I'd reccomend his first volume to anyone.

97i9y3941

court of red tzar is brilliant book,some intresting info like stalin did research into longtivity,the same author wrote a prequel to the book, "young stalin",some fascinateing info like stalin visted england back in the 18 hundreds,was in berlin around same time hitler was homeless,although nobody knows if they met,also fathered a kid by a 14 year old,also shows alot of crimes that stalin covered up and people he had purged when he came into power