I came home today from my holiday to find a Christmas present off my wish list a-waitin’ for me.
I’ve been wanting this book for a long looooong time. My library has not felt complete without it, frankly. And yet – I’m gonna hold off on reading it for a while – too much pain, too much evil, and I need a break after Rape of Nanking. But – as always – I will let you all know when I read it, let you know my thoughts on Conquest’s great work. I’ve read Conquest’s biography of Stalin (Stalin: Breaker of Nations), and I also read the book he wrote on the 1930s famine in the Ukraine (called The Harvest of Sorrow) – but this, I believe, is considered to be his master-work. Well, it’s a re-assessment of the information he brought forth in the original book (published in the 60s, I think).
From the back cover of this mammoth book:
When it first appeared, The Great Terror was universally acclaimed as the definitive work on Stalin’s purges. Edmund Wilson hailed it as ‘the only scrupulous, non-partisan, and adequate book on the subject …’ It later received equally high praise in the Soviet Union, where it is now considered the authority on the period. When Conquest wrote the original volume, he relied heavily on unofficial sources, but with the advent of glasnost an avalanche of new material became available. Conquest mined this enormous cache to write a substantially new edition of his classic work, with many of his most disturbing conclusions being verified under the light of fresh evidence.
The “re-assessment” was published in 1990. Incredible.
Very psyched to read it.
I read this book a while back. The best thing about the opening of the Soviet archives is that we learned that the worst of our suspicions were really, really true. All those people that spent years raging against the Cold War, insisting there was no threat, that this Stalin fellow wasn’t that bad of a guy, the Rosenburgs didn’t do it, etc. They shut up right quick when this book came out. Without so much as an apology or a simple “I was wrong.”
Robert Conquest’s books on the Soviet Union and Stalin are important, sobering historical works. After him, there really was no debate left in the ideological/political “debate” surrounding the USSR’s particular experiment in social utopia–at least not among those honest enough to admit the truth. It says something about the state of journalism and political debate today that so few know the truths Conquest reveals, while so many know the corresponding realities of Hitler and Nazi Germany.
On a lighter note–a belated Merry Christmas to you and yours, Sheila. I have been without power, and in the dark(literally and figuratively)since Wednesday.
I’ve always been amazed at how THOROUGH the Nazis and the Russians were at keeping records. From experiments done by Mengele to dossiers on the most mundane diplomat serving in the USSR. It’s led me to believe that truly, these monsters never thought for a minute what they were doing was wrong in the least. Or why would they leave such a paper trail?
And that makes me shudder. That such evil could be visited on humanity and not one person in power thought, “Maybe we shouldn’t be writing this down.”
Conquest rules.
This is the book which Conquest wanted to call “I told you so, you f&*king fools”, because it is almost a completely new book from The Great Terror, but his publisher wouldn’t let him.
makes me want to go spit on every dick i see in a che tshirt.
Hmmm… maybe you’ll get another Christmas present today, something you could read right away?
Wavey P. here (of knotted cherry stem fame). I lived in eastern Ukraine for two years and actively maintain close ties with dear friends there. I can still hear my friend Vladimir speak of how his grandmother was the only surviving member of the famine from her family of eight.
Still, some pensioners in the east still pine for the days of Communism. When Ukraine declared independence, the impact that actually trickled down was that most lost their life savings. A large part of the division today in Ukraine between the east and west (not to oversimplify a very complex issue) is that the population in the east does not have the money or reason for that matter to travel west, so they do not see the positive changes in, for instance, Poland or Slovakia. What they do see is that they are no longer able to freely travel to see their families in Russia.
Note: these are merely personal observations
I’ll need to read Conquest. Many years ago, I read Hedrick Smith’s The Russians for a class in the government & politics of the Soviet Union I was taking. My twenty-years-removed impression–I hasten to point out that it may be unfair–is that it was a gloss job. Not on the order of Walter Duranty, perhaps, but some definite lily-gilding there.
i must have been in the same class, ken; i remember reading that as well and thinking the same thing. i’m going to pick up this book tonight.
I wish I could say I thought it then, Mr. Bingley. My reaction at the time was, alas, more like “well, that’s a relief then. Won’t be so bad when they conquer us.” (exaggeration for effect)
I’ve learned since then.
the dr zhivago-esque cover was a clue for me, ken. it was, hell, 1984 or so and they had shot down korean air 007, and i thought ‘what is this crap? they’re commies, dangnabbit!’, but as the lone reagan supporter in many of my classes (as an aside, why is it that college republican organizations are always run by such dweebs?) i’d just nod as the professor went on and just move along…