Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
Book Review: Remnick's master work
Summary: 5 Stars
David Remnick's "King of the World" is one of my favorite books, and it encouraged me to take on this meaty Pulitzer Prize winner. Remnick was on the ground as The Washington Post's Moscow bureau chief, and in this work he strings together all of his exhaustive reporting for a compelling account of the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
If you're running a mock U.N. at your school, I'd rate "Lenin's Tomb" as mandatory reading.
Book Review: Eyewitness to History
Summary: 5 Stars
Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick chronicles the point at which the rot at the center of the Soviet system became more powerful than the Communist Party's iron fist. Remnick is a storyteller telling the story of a riveting period in history. As he writes, "To live anywhere between Bonn and Moscow in 1989 was to be witness to a year-long polical fantasy. You had the feeling you could run into history on the way to the bank or the seashore." Lucky for us, Remnick spent 1989 (as well as the years before and after) in Moscow.Book Review: Useful history
Summary: 4 Stars
A useful history of the last days of Soviet rule and the early days of democracy in Russia, told through the stories of several, mostly prominent individuals. It provides a nice portrait of what exists, but lacks deep analysis to answer the question of why.Book Review: Vivid account of the supremely confused time
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is a compilation of short stories (each chapter a dozen pages or so) about the author's first-hand experiences in the Gorbachev's Soviet Union. From Baltic to Sakhalin and from coal miners to Gorbachev himself, from Stalin to Yeltsin and from Solzhenitsyn to Sakharov, the book paints the picture of the monolith's fall. This colorful collage describing the critical period in Russian history, combined with keen commentary, creates for the reader the distinct flavor of the time.For Russia, it was the age of confusion and disillusionment. Gorbachev's half-hearted reforms (the interest in truth ended where the Party interests were concerned, the pursuit of democracy gave way to the pursuit of the runaway republics etc.) were matched by the half-hearted '91 coup (no real plan, no propaganda with the military, Lenin wouldn't have approved).
For generations, Russian people did not know much of the sad history of their country and less still about the life in the West. The blissful ignorance was one thing that helped them in their miserable existence. Their various degrees of belief in the grand ideals were the other. With glasnost, Gorbachev aimed at opening the gates of truth while preserving the faith. In all honesty, it was impossible: the foundation for the faith was thoroughly rotten and relaxing the state control of mass media could only reveal it. All of a sudden, millions of people had to face hard evidence showing that the glorious history of their country never was. That the Bolshevik revolution was but a ruthless coup followed by a bloody terror. That many national heroes, all the way to Lenin, were privilege- and power-hungry maniacs. The Russian people had to go (and are still going) through an incredible adjustment of their understanding of right and wrong, brought about by a mere possibility of truth in the phrase of Molotov (himself not the most impeccable politician): "Compared to Lenin Stalin was a mere lamb". Similarly, it was a hard realization for many a soviet man that in the late 80's "an average Soviet had to work 10 times longer than the average American to buy a pound of meat". The full awareness of their tragic history and miserable reality must make it so much more difficult for Russian people to live in the country which is overwhelmingly corrupt, lawless and poor.
Remnick's parents and in-laws, all four having escaped from the old empire, could not imagine going back even for a visit, apparently having no faith in the Russian democratic changeover. On the other side of the ocean, the Russian military colonel excavating the Katyn massacre site, by disobeying direct orders from a KGB general to stop the work, believed in the prevalence of positive change in Russia. Today's Russia, with its authoritarian government and shady political and legal process, still leaves its democratic future a matter of faith.
By way of some criticism, Gorbachev brought about an incredible change. His glasnost and personal presence revived the anemic (or galvanized the non-existent) political forces unheard of in a largely Brezhnev-era Russia. He fought many of the first battles alone. The book does not make a case for that. Glasnost provided food for the hungry Soviet mind, but perestroika, restructuring, was supposed to change the way Soviet people live. The book could have benefited from taking on perestroika in some detail.
Overall, very enjoyable and engaging.
Book Review: horror stories from a Cold War childhood
Summary: 2 Stars
Wouldn't it be great if everything the Department of Education decided American children should learn in school about the U.S.'s international rivals were true? This book reminded me of my impressions of the Soviet Union when I was in elementary school. Now that I have lived in the former Soviet Union for some time, though, I feel that I have a more balanced perspective than the page-turning, thrilling portrait Remnick paints for us.It cannot be denied that some of the past century's most horrible developments did indeed occur within the borders of the then Soviet Union. At the same time, Remnick's simplistic and gray portrayal of Soviet society corresponds all too neatly to what I was taught about our then enemy in elementary school. Soviet society was both colorful and complex, and cannot be painted in the blase framework of ruling minority vs. oppressed masses, KGB vs. human rights activists, etc etc etc.
This is a successful work of journalism, which, unfortunately, means that it is a poor portrayal of reality.