Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
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A story of the author’s participation in the anti-soviet organisation NTS in the 1970s and 80s. He describes very interestingly his training in London and tells about the Russian émigrés who were the leaders of this organisation, many of whom were old revolutionaries. But as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed in the 90s, the organisation ceased to exist: they had nothing to fight against. The author’s got a great sense of humour.
And the final book, The Cold Civil War.
It’s by a writer called Andrei Okulov. He’s a writer and journalist whose mother was a dissident. She went to prison here in Brezhnev’s time for publishing some leaflets against the Soviet authorities, and then was forced to emigrate. So the author grew up in Germany and at some stage was asked to join a secret organisation fighting against the Soviet regime. He describes very interestingly his training in London in the 70s and 80s and tells about the Russian émigrés who were the leaders of this organisation, many of whom were old revolutionaries. But, as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed in the 90s, the organisation ceased to exist: they had nothing to fight against. The author’s got a great sense of humour.
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Dr Lyubov Vinogradova was born in Moscow in 1973. After graduating from the Moscow Agricultural Academy and later defending a PhD in microbiology, she took a second degree in foreign languages, choosing English and German. In 1995 she was introduced to Antony Beevor and helped him research Stalingrad. Since then she has worked on many other research projects with Antony Beevor and other English-speaking writers and also her own projects. She is the co-author (together with Anthony Beevor) of A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army. She says American victims of the Great Depression came to Russia to find jobs and support their families in the 1920 and 30s. ‘The Soviet authorities used all sorts of tricks to get them to take up citizenship. They were told that they had to hand over their American passports temporarily and they never saw them again. And then they lost any rights that American citizens have or legal grounds to be protected. It was a great tragedy.’
