Biography, Autobiography and Memoir in Russia since 1850

       1998, 118 pages, paperback, ISBN 978-1-900405-06-5, price: £9.95/$15.95

This unique book tells the story of those branded as 'kulaks' and rounded up in 1929 and 1930 in the Kurgan region of Russia. The words are those of the children and grandchildren of the yeoman farmers who suffered dispossession at that time. They were recorded by Olga Litvinenko, who was herself a granddaughter of Kulaks, and who is a Kurgan sociologist. The accounts have been translated by Professor James Riordan, formerly of the University of Surrey, who provides historical and geographical introductions.

Kurgan kulaks were faced by formidable conditions: temperatures of forty degrees below zero, hostile forest, inhuman gaolers, starvation and cruelty beyond belief. They did not give up; they banded together to survive. Where parents succumbed, the children battled on to tell the tale.

Reviewers write: 

'The oral history of Stalinism has a long way to go...We must hope that other historians will follow where Litvinenko and others like her have led.' Slavonic and East European Review.

'While the historian of collectivization will find little to surprise him, on the other hand his picture of the life of the Russian peasant in the 20th century will be significantly extended from a personal and very vivid perspective, especially in relation to life after deportation, which has only been treated in the literature very scantily so far.' Neue Politische Literatur. 

1999, 216 pp., paperback, illustrated, ISBN 978-1-900405-04-1, price £13.95/$24.95

This book is unique as the memoirs of insiders in Soviet nuclear research: Tsukerman (1913-1993) and his wife Azarkh (b. 1917). It depicts a lifetime of experience leading to the Soviet nuclear bomb, the vicissitudes of life for a scientist, and the problems in carrying out research and in obtaining suitable equipment. There are witty and affectionate pen-portraits of distinguished colleagues, and it takes us behind the veil of secrecy into life in the closed city where Soviet nuclear weapons were developed. It gives spine-chilling glimpses of the interference of security chiefs in scientific work and of the ways in which it was sometimes possible to outflank these people and to give some protection to Jewish and nonconformist colleagues.

Written in sensitive and poetic style, it also reflects Soviet reality from Jewish provincial family life in the 1920s to Moscow in the age of glasnost, and it portrays Tsukerman's adaptation to developing blindness.

The book appeared in Russia in 1994. It is fully edited for the Western reader by Michael Pursglove, a well-known Russian scholar who, like the translator, Timothy Sergay, is a long-standing friend of the authors and their families.

Reviewers write:

'A fascinating and unusual book...a personal history of the development of the Soviet atomic bomb ...Delightful stories come through and build up images of remarkable people under amazing conditions. The Editor's introduction and footnotes are superb...the book is most enjoyable and informative.' Notes and Records of the Royal Society.

'Tsukerman [describes] real life in a very closed and often strange realm of science. Especially for anyone interested in the history of nuclear weapons, laboratory culture, and Soviet science and technology history and policy, Arzamas-16 should not be missed.' ISIS.

2000, 123 pp., illustrated, paperback, ISBN 978-1-900405-07-2, price: £9.95/£15.95

Dora O'Brien studied Russian in the 1960s; thirty years later she was offered a job teaching English in a Moscow school. She lived for a year as a Russian, part of the local community. This book is a vivid account of how things were done in a Russian school at a time when the country and its schools were in transition. Old ways run in parallel with new Western-inspired methods, and the outlooks of different generations are more than ever on opposite tracks.

The book does more than explore the education system. It describes a series of encounters with Russian people, trying to explain their warmth, their resourcefulness in difficult times, their great sense of fun and ability to enjoy themselves.

Reviewers write:

'O'Brien's accounts are vivid, descriptive, entertaining and personal...Her  descriptions show a genuine affection for and appreciation of the people of Russia...[Her] story offers an account of one person's experiences, shedding light on aspects of Russian life and culture in this critical time of transition, which might complement more analytical texts.' Compare.

'From  Moscow is an eye-opener to those who are truly interested in the life and culture of Russia. I enjoyed every page and every line of the book...It is an enrichment for those who are studying Russia, whether it is politics, culture or education.' Anna Popova, Comparative Education.

Not part of the Russian Memoirs series, but of related interest:-

Leskov's biographical study of the English evangelist. For details see Translations of Russian Literature

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