Other Russia - Softcover

Interviewing dozens of people who have emigrated or defected from the U.S.S.R. to various countries in the West since 1917, Glenny, a British translator, and Stone, author of Europe Transformed 1878-1916 , here compile compelling oral accounts of religious and political persecution under communism. Several Jews of diverse backgrounds are among those interviewed, but most of the speakers are from the ranks of the aristocracy, the upper bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia; recreating their lives in pre- or post-revolutionary Russia, all convey their courage and ambivalence at leaving. Commentaries by the authors provide insights into the reasoning of those who fled, and although the book is not, as Glenny and Stone acknowledge, a full-scale history of Soviet emigration, it is nonetheless worth reading for its depiction of the personal turmoil of the emigre.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is an anthology of recollections of 20th-century Russian emigres taken from interviews, manuscripts, and little-known published sources. Through these dramatic tales of individual suffering, flight, and exile, the authors describe the 20th-century emigration of Russians, especially the more educated classes, and Jews, from their native land. They provide insight into both the nature of exile itself as well as a unique perspective upon the history of the Soviet Union in three periods: 1900-21, 1922-45, and 1946-86. Well edited and translated, these memoirs should be enjoyable and edifying for a wide range of readers, from generalists to scholars.
-Rena Fowler, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.