Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia

by Catherine Merridale

Release Date: 08 March, 2001

Edition: Hardcover

Price:

More Info

Amazing Book Weaves Historical Horrors InOne Vast Tapestry

One of the constants that I've noticed for many years is the near total ignorance that so many of us have about Russian/Soviet 20th Century History. It seems there has been more interest in soap operas and sitcoms than in the trials and horrors of the vast nation that was our cold war enemy for so many years. Having read dozens of great books on the wars, revolutions, famines etc. of the recent Russian past, it was great to run across one that brought it all together, even if this huge story on occasion becomes macabre in it's deathly persistance. For all those horror fans out there, try this book, and you'll really get a dose of the real thing. Suffering and tragedy completely foreign to most of us. Say the seige of Leningrad during WWII (barely known here), where a great city the size of Chicago loses over a million civilians, more than all the casualties of all the American wars.If you can find a copy, grab it!

Finally Justice to the Millions of the Soviet Dead

Not many people realize that over 50 million Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, etc. lost their lives unnaturally at the first half of the 20th century. This book, however unbalanced by its constance reference to the Orthodox Church and other mistakes, should be applauded by taking this grim statistic and analyzing its effects on the minds and mentality of the Soviet people. These facts have been hidden behind the Iron Curtain far too long for Westerners to be so blissfully ignorant. Bravo to Catherine Merridale for writing this excellent book.