The Soviet Century

An impressively evocative look at material life in the USSR, from gulags and the planned economy to Red Moscow perfume and the Soviet toilet - a lost civilisation of utopian fantasy and unbridled terror. * Financial Times * Who else could have a whole chapter on Soviet-era doorknobs? This is a fascinating book about the material loose ends, the pamphlets, the clothes, the non-existent phone books, the shop signs, the chest medals, and the bric-a-brac - among many other items - of the Soviet Union. . . . This is in my view one of the better books for understanding the Soviet Union. ---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution Formidable. . . . The emergence of this book in our intellectual landscape is timely, as we seek to better understand Russia in an era when systematic political, economic, social, and even cultural approaches have failed to explain or predict the current resurrection of the 'Soviet Leviathan.' Indeed, perhaps 'the devil is hidden in the details,' and by diving yet again into these minute but culturally rich details of Soviet banal routine, spiritual life, and rituals, we can make a step forward in our comprehension of why the dark side of 'Soviet civilization' keeps reemerging again and again. ---Oksana Ermolaeva, EuropeNow (Editor's pick) [A] magnum opus. . . . This invaluable study casts a lost world in a new light. * Publishers Weekly (Starred review) *