Best books about Cold War Russia/The Iron Curtain/USSR etc...

holy guacamole · 27-09-2018 1:07pm #1

Have always been fascinated by this period in history but, up until now, have only ever watched films or read fictional accounts of it (Child 44 the most recent example).

What I'd really love is to read a true-life, first-hand experience of what people went through during the post-war years in the USSR. I'm not particularly fussed about the era, but I suppose the 70s and 80s are of slightly more interest to me.

Does anyone know of books which fit this criteria and which might satisfy my curiosity about all things Cold War-related?

TIA

Hotblack Desiato · 27-09-2018 1:36pm

Not the USSR, but Stasiland by Anna Funder is a good read.

On a lighter note Hammer and Tickle: A Cultural History of Communism by Ben Lewis.

Communism is the only political system to have created its own international brand of comedy. The standard interpretation is that communist jokes were a form of resistance. But they were also a safety valve for the regimes and jokes were told by the rulers as well as the ruled—even Stalin told some good ones

...

A man dies and goes to hell. There he discovers that he has a choice: he can go to capitalist hell or to communist hell. Naturally, he wants to compare the two, so he goes over to capitalist hell. There outside the door is the devil, who looks a bit like Ronald Reagan. “What’s it like in there?” asks the visitor. “Well,” the devil replies, “in capitalist hell, they flay you alive, then they boil you in oil and then they cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives.”

“That’s terrible!” he gasps. “I’m going to check out communist hell!” He goes over to communist hell, where he discovers a huge queue of people waiting to get in. He waits in line. Eventually he gets to the front and there at the door to communist hell is a little old man who looks a bit like Karl Marx. “I’m still in the free world, Karl,” he says, “and before I come in, I want to know what it’s like in there.”

“In communist hell,” says Marx impatiently, “they flay you alive, then they boil you in oil, and then they cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives.”

“But… but that’s the same as capitalist hell!” protests the visitor, “Why such a long queue?”

“Well,” sighs Marx, “Sometimes we’re out of oil, sometimes we don’t have knives, sometimes no hot water…”

On the Cold War in general : Cold War (Jeremy Isaacs in collaboration with Taylor Downing), Bantam Press, 1998 ISBN 0-593-04309-X

echo beach · 27-09-2018 1:42pm

I haven't read it myself but Conor O'Cleary's The Shoe maker and his Daughter might be the type of book you are looking for.

iirishsham40 · 03-10-2018 8:45pm

You might enjoy "The Dead Hand" by David E. Hoffman.

It is the true story of the USSR's secret Nuclear and Biological weapons programs, with emphasis on the 70s, 80s and post-break up of the Soviet Union.

If you like politics, science and spy stories, it's great.

From Wikipedia:

"The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy is the winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction written by Washington Post contributing editor David E. Hoffman."

For a wider view of the Cold War, in 1998 CNN and the BBC did a24 part series, narrated by Kenneth Brannagh, series called "Cold War". There was an accompanying book, I see that it was mentioned in the above post:

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-War-Illustrated-History-1945-1991/dp/0316439533

I read both these books at my local library. You can check which public libraries in Ireland have these books using https://librariesireland.iii.com/iii/encore/?lang=eng

For another Cold War joke, here's one from the rapier wit of President Reagan:

"Three dogs meet in the park. One is American, one is Polish and one is Russian.

The American dog says to the other two dogs, "Whenever I'm hungry, I start barking and my owner brings me some dog food."

The Polish dog asks "What's dog food?"

The Russian dog asks "What's barking?"

neris · 04-10-2018 12:02pm

Not all cold war but the biography Stalin by Robert Service is a good read about Joe and the start of the cold war and the iron curtain

holy guacamole · 04-10-2018 1:30pm

Ended up buying Life and Fate, a fictional account of Stalinist Russia which has been called the War and Peace of the 20th century.

Downloaded samples of a few factual books, Stasiland, The Whisperers, Stalingrad, but they weren't quite what I was looking for.

Might try some of the other suggestions once I finish Life and Fate, which might take a while given it's almost 1,000 pages long.

divide_by_zero · 10-10-2018 8:52am

Memoirs by Petro Grigorenko

"These memoirs recount the full life and times of Petro Grigorenko, the only Soviet general ever exiled, a man familiar with power and with those who wielded it at the top of the Soviet hierarchy.

Grigorenko was born in the Ukraine in 1907. As a youth he witnessed the atrocities of the Reds and the Whites as the Russian revolution flamed into civil war--events recorded here with stunning authenticity. Drawn to the ideals of communism, he became a party member in 1927, a loyal officer in the Red Army during the 1930s, and, as a general in World War II, a much decorated hero.

It was after the death of Stalin that Grigorenko found himself menacingly at odds with the Soviet regime. Unable to remain silent about the injustices he saw around him, he moved into open opposition to many of Khrushchev's policies. That was more than a totalitarian state would permit. In 1964 he was stripped of his rank and imprisoned in a "special" psychiatric hospital. When released, like fellow celebrated dissidents Bukofsky, Sakharov, and others, he was kept under contact surveillance. In 1969 he was incarcerated again for five years, and in 1977, while visiting the United States with his wife, Zinaida, his Soviet citizenship was revoked. Living in exile he wrote this unique inside view of Soviet history, the vigor, honesty, and passion of which is reminiscent of the great Russian novels."

I read this book nearly 20 years ago and still recommend it not only as a great book to read but as an insight to Cold War Russia.

Best books about Cold War Russia/The Iron Curtain/USSR etc...

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