Pictures of the Soviet Union as no one has seen them before. At the time they were taken, they were edited and controled by the government. Now see the Soviet Union how it really was. This is a must buy for anyone who is interested in Soviet history.

The excellent Cornerstones of Freedom series has been expanding beyond American History to include such topics as "The Fall of the Soviet Union." Actually, one of the key values of Miles Harvey's book is that it looks at much more than the end of the Soviet Union. Harvey provides a concise look at the creation of the Soviet Union with the Revolution of 1917 and provides a history of the country that focuses on the key elements that would come into play when Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader. The book does not end with Gorbachev's resignation on December 25, 1991, the day the Soviet Union officially came to an end. Harvey covers the major problems faced by the Russian government, which will certainly give young readers an adequate background for what they read in the media about what is happening there now that Yeltsin has been replaced.

"The Fall of the Soviet Union" covers the better part of the 20th century and undoubtedly provides more details and a more cohesive picture of what happened than students are likely to find in their World History textbook. The book is illustrated with black & white photographs for the period from Lenin to Stalin, and color photographs for the years of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. The scope of the book is nicely captured in the frontpiece photograph of a paint splattered statue to Lenin about to be toppled from its pedestal.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's "Far Rainbow" represents that strangest of amalgams -- an eerily beautiful story of a planetary disaster. From a population of millions, only a handful could be saved. Paradoxically, the event brings out the best of the inhabitants, who set about selecting those among their number who represent the best of its people, work, and aspirations. Among the greatest works of all postwar Soviet fiction irrespective of category, the sci-fi books of the Strugatsky brothers deserve to be reprinted and disseminated to a new generation.

Valentin Rasputin's "Farewell to Matyora" is an outstanding work of Russian literature that I highly recommend. Of course, such novels are better read in their native language, but for those of us who don't read Russian (I fortunately do!), this novel may be one of the only English-language translations available and, as such, is a great boon.

Valentin Rasputin has been called one of the most important voices of the post-Stalin era of Soviet literature. Indeed, it has been compared to Solzhenitsyn's masterpieces "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" and "Matyora's Home." One of Rasputin's shining graces is that he openly exposes the inward charms of Russian character and culture.

The story itself is about the destruction of a village to make way for a Soviet hydroelectric dam project. The dynamics between the older and younger members of the village and their feelings about their imminent departure from a place that has been home to them their whole lives forms the central conflict and interest of the novel. At the same time, the author reveals some of the deep-seated values about the relationship between man and nature that are key to Russian culture.

The blurbs on the back of the novel had a statement that I wanted to share:

"A haunting story with a heartfelt theme, 'Farwell to Matyora' is a passionate plea for humanity and an eloquent cry for a return to an organic life."

My strongest criticism of the novel is that the translator in many places seemed to come up short with ways to adequately portray the nuance and charm that are some of Rasputin's strongest charms in his native Russian. In many places the English translation did a very poor job of conveying the Russian meaning. I compared the Russian original to the English translation several times throughout the novel. I feel that the translator simply wasn't up to the task although I certainly don't think I could do a better one. Translation is an art, and, at that, a fickle one.

One of my favorite little phrases that the translator decided to keep was "Japanese Gods," which is a euphemism for cursing in Russian that a charming old codger of a character frequently repeats in his efforts to keep from actually cursing around another character that he considers is a "lady."

Read "Farewell to Matyora" because it's a charming novel for a lover of Russian literature. I highly recommend it.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

If you are interested in the the british military mission and role in the Russian Civil war in south Russia 1919, this book is a must! Williamson was a British military advisor for the white Russian troops and personally eyewitnessed many things recorded never before or since. The book is the actual transcript of his diary found by his son or great grand son and published in 1971. Very valuable.

If you want to read detailed information about Union Pacific locomotives and trains, then this book is not for you.

If on the other hand you want to see some magnificent photographs of Union Pacific trains running down California's Feather River Canyon (surely one of the most beautiful stretches of railroad in the USA), then this book is a "must read". Photo captions indicate where and when the photographs were taken, but do not go in to details of the locomotives or the "technical side" of railroading.

This is undoubtedly one of the best railroad books I own.

Col. Loza is a Hero of the Soviet Union. He commanded Lend Lease Matildas and Shermans during the Great Patriotic War. James Gebhardt is a US veteran whose military background and command of the Russian language has enabled him to produce the most accessible book on the Eastern Front I have read. The clear explanations of Russian military terms and slang are worth the price of the book by themselves. Col. Loza explains his experience in all aspects and in depth. If you have questions about food, Lend Lease,tactical orginization, Soviet medal laws, or tank useage, this is the place to start.

This book tells the fascinating story of the role of the church, particularly the Roman Catholic church, in the collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. This subject has received precious little coverage in the popular press, but cannot be ignored by serious students of history. The author takes the position that it was neither Mikhail Gorbachev, nor Ronald Reagan alone that did it (brought down the Yalta imperial system), but the undeniable and inexorable faith of many Christians throughout Europe. The collapse of Communism had its roots in the early work of Pope Pius, Pope John XXIII, Paul VI and finally the Polish pastor/dramatist/linguist Karol Woytyla, who became Pope John Paul II. The close identification of Catholicism with the Polish history kept the national character alive and ultimately denied the power of tyranny in Poland and elsewhere. I recommend this book to anyone who is skeptical of the biases of the press

If you have ever tried to read Teresa of Avila and given up, Ruth Burrows may be the guide you need. In Fire Upon the Earth, she clarifies and updates Teresa's great portrait of the inner life. Both women are Carmelite nuns, but Burrows is our contemporary; she deftly bridges the cultural and intellectual chasm that divides us from Teresa's thought.
But Burrows is not merely an interpreter, although she is a wonderful one. She adds her own psychological insights and experience as a woman, nun, contemplative, and spiritual director, and the whole mix forms a powerfully encouraging and challenging message to us in the 21st century.

This book, written by a former inmate, describes no fewer than 1,976 concentration camps in the Soviet Union, as of early 1980. In the post-Stalin era alone, at least 1.6 million people died in these camps, and at the time of writing, inmates numbered in the millions (R.J.Rummel, "Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917," online). The author provides exact addresses as well as all the necessary instructions for reaching the camps, prisons and psychiatric prisons, inviting the reader to visit the inmates and their families; needless to say, few Western tourists accepted this challenge, amid their enthusiasm for détente and the Bolshoi Ballet.

The author describes a world of watchtowers manned by guards bearing machine guns, and electrically charged barbed-wire fences; he portrays prisoners in columns or transport vehicles, prisoners attacked by dogs, prisoners in camp uniforms with numbers across their chests, women prisoners, child and teenage prisoners (p3). These people are innocent human beings persecuted for thinking differently; reading "forbidden" philosophical, political or religious books; posting notices; raising a flag; demanding religious instruction for their children; or undertaking a private commercial initiative (pp3-4). Such were the "crimes" for which millions of Soviet citizens were savagely punished.

Perhaps the most distressing part of this work is the very first section, which lists 119 prisons and concentration camps built specifically for women and children (pp14-22): a picture of inmates at Orel, a camp with 3,000 children, contains a sign with the words "Honest work: the road home to the family," an obvious parallel with the Nazi slogan "Work shall set you free" ("Arbeit macht frei") (p16). As the author records, these camps were characterised by extreme violence and sadistic cruelty: thus in Novosibirsk, club-carrying guards "subject the young prisoners (aged 10 to 18) to merciless beatings" while children are sent to hard labour projects; in Gornyi, children endure backbreaking duties, despite the prevalence of hunger, while "[t]hose who fall ill and request transfer to a hospital are beaten;" and in Gor'kii, the victims were so brutalised that "[m]any of the children fell ill and died for lack of medical attention" (p18).

Then there is the short section entitled "Extermination Camps" (pp31-5), listing camps where prisoners, "forced to work under dangerously unhealthy conditions for the Soviet war machine, face a virtually certain death" (p31). The author identifies three categories: (1) camps where almost no-one ever comes out alive (the prisoners work in uranium mines and uranium enrichment plants); (2) camps where the prisoners are used for dangerous work in the arms industry (the prisoners perform high-risk duties in military nuclear plants); (3) camps where prisoners are used for dangerous work causing disability and fatal illness (the prisoners operate machines without ventilation). No fewer than 41 extermination camps are listed. By the second edition, the author had discovered another camp in Khaidarovka, where "prisoners die while mining uranium," and "a death camp with uranium mines" in the desert at Kul-Kuduk (p366); that brought the total to 43.

Next the author documents the existence of 85 psychiatric prisons, where mentally healthy human beings are administered heavy doses of neuroleptic drugs; where inmates are bound so that the victim's body becomes compressed as if in a vice; and where prisoners are beaten by criminals and subjected to electric shocks at the slightest provocation (p47). Former inmate Vladimir Bukovsky recalled the injections of sulfazine, which caused an abscess, high temperature and intense pain; torture with insulin shocks; and treatment with high doses of haloperidol to lower the dopamine level, inducing Parkinson's disease (Index on Censorship, October 2001). As the author points out, these horrors were inflicted as punishment for political dissent, for seeking to emigrate, or merely for expressing a belief in God.

The author reports that some camp inmates were driven to the point where they branded anti-communist slogans on their foreheads: at first, these were cut out of their flesh without anaesthesia, but now "such offenders are tried in secret and shot" (p370).

Finally, those who think that such horrors belong in the past should consider their present-day counterparts, such as the Chinese Laogai, with an estimated death toll of 15.7 million (R.J.Rummel, "China's Bloody Century," online) and an extensively documented record of brutal atrocities (Kate Saunders, "Eighteen Layers of Hell: Stories From the Chinese Gulag"). Is there any excuse for ignorance?