Title: The Future of an Illusion
First published: September 28, 2008
Description: Russia today is haunted by deeds that have not been examined and words that have been left unsaid. A serious attempt to understand the meaning of the Communist experience has not been undertaken, and millions of victims of Soviet Communism are all but forgotten. In this book the author, a former Moscow correspondent and longtime writer on Russia and the Soviet Union, presents a striking new interpretation of Russia's great historical tragedy, locating its source in Russia's failure fully to appreciate the value of the individual in comparison with the objectives of the state. He explores the moral and spiritual crisis of Russian society. He shows how it is possible for a government to deny the inherent value of its citizens and for the population to agree, and why so many Russians actually mourn the passing of the Soviet regime that denied them fundamental rights. Through a wide-ranging consideration of attitudes toward the living and the dead, the past and the present, the state and the individual, the author arrives at a distinctive and important new way of understanding the Russian experience.
Subjects: Communism, Soviet Union. Narodnyĭ komissariat vnutrennikh del, Kommunisticheskai︠a︡ partii︠a︡ Sovetskogo Soi︠u︡za, Public opinion, History, Atrocities, Soviet Union. Komitet gosudarstvennoĭ bezopasnosti, Soviet Union, Kommunismus, Vergangenheitsbewältigung, Kommunisticheskai͡a partii͡a Sovetskogo Soi͡uza, Russia (federation), politics and government, Kommunisticheskaia partiia Sovetskogo Soiuza, Soviet Union. Narodnyi? komissariat vnutrennikh del, Soviet Union. Komitet gosudarstvennoi? bezopasnosti