tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post8409290857582868712..comments2023-10-08T03:32:33.151-04:00Comments on bookeywookey: Secret writings on Stalin's reign of terror (Books - Children of the Arbat - Anatoli Rybakov)Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-53440699397588076632007-08-18T09:41:00.000-04:002007-08-18T09:41:00.000-04:00Sheila - Actually, I'm just up to the second of t...Sheila - Actually, I'm just up to the second of those trips into Stalin's psyche and have begun to realize how that is going to propel the story. As I look at the cast of characters in relation to him, whether they are loyal communists or rebels, it seems like a bee hive with its queen, or even like an ant hill. They all seem to fulfill some program, even if they have individual lives.Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-12788052038786877052007-08-17T20:28:00.000-04:002007-08-17T20:28:00.000-04:00Oh and Ted - recently Children of the Arbat was ma...Oh and Ted - recently Children of the Arbat was made into a mini-series in Russia - and to this day, the book is controversial - even after everything.<BR/><BR/>I'd love to see the mini-series - the book feels very cinematic to me.<BR/><BR/>To me, though, the value in it is in the portrait of Stalin - and the whole lead-up to the Kirov murder - which is when Stalin really took the gloves off. Kirov was the excuse ... Robert Conquest calls the murder of Kirov the most important murder of the 20th century - even more so than the assassination of franz ferdinand. And I think he has a point (he wrote a whole book about it.)<BR/><BR/>Okay, I'll shut up now.<BR/><BR/>I'm just psyched you're reading it, Ted. Stalin and everything about him is one of my obsessions (uhm, obviously??) so this book was a must-read for me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-17441658412649029702007-08-17T20:24:00.000-04:002007-08-17T20:24:00.000-04:00To me, the astonishing thing about this book is th...To me, the astonishing thing about this book is the portrait of what it was like inside Stalin's head. The psychological interior portrait. Most biographers throw up their hands in bafflement when faced with evil such as Stalin - I've read pretty much every Stalin biography there is - and none of them ever "explain" him - something is always missing - there is a dark mystery at the heart of this man (there were those who said stalin had the most deadly and RARE of combinations in dictators: capriciousness and patience. Most dictators fail because of their impatience - they reach too far too soon and fall. Stalin NEVER over-reached. He knew how to wait.) - anyway, it is a type of pathology rarely studied or even mentioned (because the left in the West still has a vested interest in seeing Stalin as a "bad example" of something they still believe in - a socialist utopia. It is too often brushed off as "he was a madman". Way too easy. Stalin was FAR from mad. Rybakov - more than any other writer I have ever seen - gets inside Stalin's head. And no, the writing isn't all that clever - or brilliant - like Bulgakov - but he nails Stalin. <BR/><BR/>Don't read a biography of Stalin (unless you read books about what he DOES). The clues to Stalin's psychology are not in his childhood or his pain or whatever - the clues are in his ACTIONS. That is where the trail is - because he got what he wanted. Sometimes it took years ... but he got what he wanted.<BR/><BR/>It's a shattering portrait.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-41465150255295530662007-08-17T03:02:00.000-04:002007-08-17T03:02:00.000-04:00sounds interesting! I haven't read that much Sovi...sounds interesting! I haven't read that much Soviet lit (depressing), but I think I'm going to have to join Sarah in undertaking a Russian discovery. :)Evahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06703372903532502944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-3580139601231716412007-08-16T20:41:00.000-04:002007-08-16T20:41:00.000-04:00Sam, I know what you mean, even though I try to br...Sam, I know what you mean, even though I try to bring them to the used bookstore after about 4 or 5 years, there are a few that just sit there and sit there because I know I should. Catch 22, The Rings of Saturn, At Swim Two Birds. One day, one day.Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-37411547810499523732007-08-16T18:24:00.000-04:002007-08-16T18:24:00.000-04:00I'm ashamed to admit that I've had Children of the...I'm ashamed to admit that I've had <I>Children of the Arbat</I> on my shelves since the first week it was published in the U.S., a mint first edition copy, and that I have not yet read it. Maybe this will finally get me to open it up and get started...about 25 years late.Sam https://www.blogger.com/profile/17448913705757509608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-84145297977935562712007-08-16T10:55:00.000-04:002007-08-16T10:55:00.000-04:00As a fellow Russian nut, It will be good to discus...As a fellow Russian nut, It will be good to discuss these with you. What a time in history! What passions made this mess!Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-20583677763535764632007-08-16T10:18:00.000-04:002007-08-16T10:18:00.000-04:00Both Children of the Arbat and Heavy Sands are goi...Both <I>Children of the Arbat</I> and <I>Heavy Sands</I> are going on my Russian authors list! I'm looking forward to hearing more about Rybakov as you read him. Thanks for a dose of Russian!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com