"Maybe some people are shy about writing, but I will write the real truth. . . . Is it really possible that
people at the newspaper haven't heard this. . . that we don't want to be on the kolkhoz [collective farm], we work
and work, and there's nothing to eat. Really, how can we live?"
--A farmer's letter, 1936, from Stalinism as a Way of Life
"This is a first-rate edition of and commentary on significant documents from the Stalinist 1930's. Stalinism
as a Way of Life offers a deep look into society, providing a rounded, complex picture of the U.S.S.R. in a turbulent
decade."
--Ronald Grigor Suny, Department of Political Science, The University of Chicago
"A salutary exposure of scarifying material that until now has lain concealed in the archives."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Siegelbaum and Sokolov have given us a treasure trove of great usefulness to historians of Stalinist Russia. .
. . Strongly recommended for academic libraries and as a valuable source for students of communism and Soviet history."
--Library Journal
"This remarkable collection of documents from the Soviet Union in the 1930s provides a wide-angle lens on the decade's
dizzying events. Through citizens' letters to newspapers and party officials, the reader is made aware of the confused
and often contradictory nature of Russian politics and society under Stalin. . . . By complicating the one-dimensional
account of a country terrorized into submissiveness, [Siegelbaum and Sokolov] have performed a worthwhile service."
--Leonard Benardo, New York Times Book Review
"A ground-breaking study of the collective psychology of the alienated Bolshevik elite which led directly to the
policies of the Great Purges."
--Oliver Ready, New Statesman
Submitted By Publisher, October, 2004
Summary
In this unique book, an abridged edition of an earlier highly praised work, we hear the poignant voices of those
who experienced firsthand the complex and perilous world of the Soviet Union under Stalin.
Table of Contents
Ch. 1. The Socialist Offensive
Ch. 2. "Cadres Decide Everything!"
Ch. 3. Stalin's Constitution
Ch. 4. "People Are Our Most Valuable Assets"
Ch. 5. Bolshevik Order on the Kolkhoz
Ch. 6. Happy Childhoods
