4:03 am in Eastern/Central Europe, Kiš, Danilo, Recommended, Russia & USSR, fiction, short stories | No Comments
by Danilo Kiš (1983)
A collection of metaphysical short stories set in various times and places, luminously darkened with the themes of fate and death’s impenetrability.
4:36 am in Eastern/Central Europe, Kiš, Danilo, Recommended, Russia & USSR, fiction, short stories | 3 Comments
by Danilo Kiš (1976)
Seven different yet casually interlinked short stories about revolutionaries, mostly centering around the Russian Revolution
6:04 pm in Bulgakov, Mikhail, Russia & USSR, fiction | No Comments
by Mikhail Bulgakov (1925)
A renowned Moscow scientist implanted the pituitary’s gland and the testes of a dead criminal into a stray dog with the unexpected result of Sharik turning into a complete human.
9:37 pm in Russia & USSR, Service, Robert, history | No Comments
From Nicholas II to Putin
by Robert Service (2003)
Lucidly written with a lack of political bent and a handful of wry humour, this revised and updated history of Russia is a useful general reference on Soviet past with the main focus on the period of communist government.
11:31 am in Eastern/Central Europe, Koestler, Arthur, Recommended, fiction | No Comments
by Arthur Koestler (1940)
A fictional account of a show trial during Stalin’s 1930s purges, Rubashov, the protagonist, once a revolutionary disillusioned by the regime, is abducted, jailed, tortured (psychologically) and finally confessed to a series of “counter-revolutionary” crimes he didn’t commit, for the ideals of the Revolution.