I'd add to that list Vladimir Nabakov, even if he was an expatriate Russian (but then so was Solzhenitsyn for a while), and who knows how many lesser known literary lights Russia produced. I am reading Remembering the Darkness, a collection of diary excerpts, essays and letters from women who endured the Gulag, edited by Veronica …
I'd add to that list Vladimir Nabakov, even if he was an expatriate Russian (but then so was Solzhenitsyn for a while), and who knows how many lesser known literary lights Russia produced. I am reading Remembering the Darkness, a collection of diary excerpts, essays and letters from women who endured the Gulag, edited by Veronica Shapovalov. Heartbreaking, raw, brutal.
And if by Russian, we are also talking about the Soviet Union, we can't fail to list best selling authors Lenin and Stalin, although some might have preferred to use their books for not just a book burning event, but an involuntary suttee of the two monsters.
Can’t believe I missed Nabakov off the list when Sam wrote about Lolita here last week! 🙈
Now you mention it, I’d be curious to read Lenin and Stalin actually. I remember seeing some of their books in Ceaușescu’s former home in Bucharest last year. I’d presume Lenin would be an excellent writer, while Stalin would be a bore. I wonder if they’d fit my expectations or not
No, they wouldn't. I've waded through some of each, Stalin and Lenin, and it was like watching the movie Titanic! You know how the story will end. I read Che Guevara's Africa journals and was amazed by his full throated racism, but eventually saw variations of it in most doctrinaire Soviet writing. Lenin surprised me with his hatred of everything outside his orbit. I even took time to read Ghadaffi's Green Book and Mao's Red Book, and all I learned was that I must have a lot of determination to finish reading that shit. When you know that what they were pushing ended with the deaths of over 100,000,000 people, what good can come from their bilge? For reasons I don't understand, people still brag about being trained Marxists, but try to find someone bragging about being a trained Nazi or Fascist, or who really enjoys Mein Kampf. They are scarce.
And don't get me started about the ghost written books by candidates during campaign season. Haven't read one; won't read one.
Russia.
I'd add to that list Vladimir Nabakov, even if he was an expatriate Russian (but then so was Solzhenitsyn for a while), and who knows how many lesser known literary lights Russia produced. I am reading Remembering the Darkness, a collection of diary excerpts, essays and letters from women who endured the Gulag, edited by Veronica Shapovalov. Heartbreaking, raw, brutal.
And if by Russian, we are also talking about the Soviet Union, we can't fail to list best selling authors Lenin and Stalin, although some might have preferred to use their books for not just a book burning event, but an involuntary suttee of the two monsters.
Can’t believe I missed Nabakov off the list when Sam wrote about Lolita here last week! 🙈
Now you mention it, I’d be curious to read Lenin and Stalin actually. I remember seeing some of their books in Ceaușescu’s former home in Bucharest last year. I’d presume Lenin would be an excellent writer, while Stalin would be a bore. I wonder if they’d fit my expectations or not
No, they wouldn't. I've waded through some of each, Stalin and Lenin, and it was like watching the movie Titanic! You know how the story will end. I read Che Guevara's Africa journals and was amazed by his full throated racism, but eventually saw variations of it in most doctrinaire Soviet writing. Lenin surprised me with his hatred of everything outside his orbit. I even took time to read Ghadaffi's Green Book and Mao's Red Book, and all I learned was that I must have a lot of determination to finish reading that shit. When you know that what they were pushing ended with the deaths of over 100,000,000 people, what good can come from their bilge? For reasons I don't understand, people still brag about being trained Marxists, but try to find someone bragging about being a trained Nazi or Fascist, or who really enjoys Mein Kampf. They are scarce.
And don't get me started about the ghost written books by candidates during campaign season. Haven't read one; won't read one.