A fascinating, subtle, and finely written quest into the Russia of
today through the dark labyrinth of history. Brent unveils not only
the secrets of his journeys into Soviet Archives, but also a unique
yet personal portrait of an enigmatic country and a blood-soaked
century. --Simon Sebag Montefiore
Brent seized a unique opportunity that, if not for him, would
doubtless have been missed .[H]is book shows us the conditions
moral, personal, and material that Russians take for granted but
which are utterly unlike anything Americans have ever experienced.
--Gary Saul Morson
Brent's engaging memoir . . . reveals as much about the grim
realities of post-Soviet life and bureaucracy as it does about the
archives themselves. Equipped with little Russian and few contacts,
but with an almost palpable sense of decency and honest intentions
that illuminate his book, Brent explains for the general reader as
well as for specialists how he went about his work in the new
Russia. --Martin Walker
In a strongly-written, fascinating, and original book, Jonathan
Brent interweaves portraits of Russians in their daily lives with
an astute analysis of Joseph Stalin's legacy. --Philip Roth
In the first part of his engaging and well-written memoir, Inside
the Stalin Archives, Brent tells the story of the [Annals of
Communism's] genesis. He conjures up the Moscow of the early 1990s,
a time when the Russians were struggling to recover from the loss
of the old certainties following the collapse of the Soviet system
and adapt to a market-based economy. --Orlando Figes
Inside the Stalin Archives is a necessary report from the Soviet
netherworld of totalizing injustice that ought to have been
universally known throughout the greater part of the twentieth
century when it could not have existed. Jonathan Brent s
discoveries will shake and shock and indispensably enlighten.
--Cynthia Ozick
The author is careful to make neither heroes nor villains of the
ghosts he summons from the archives, incorporating flawed
personalities into stories of unthinkable justice. --Katya Tylevich
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