World Socialist Web Site

Alexei Yarotsky’s remarkable memoirs of the early Soviet Union and the Stalinist terror: Part Two, “Golden Kolyma”

The second volume of Yarotsky’s memoirs, “Golden Kolyma” (Zolotaya Kolyma), covers his experiences in Kolyma, a region in northern Siberia, which arguably had the worst of all Stalinist labor camps.
World Socialist Web Site

Alexei Yarotsky’s remarkable memoir about the early Soviet Union and the Stalinist terror: Part One

Alexei Yarotsky: Litsom k proshlomu [Facing the Past], Moscow 2018. Alexei Yarotsky: Zolotaya Kolyma. Vospominaniia A. S. Yarotskogo o Kolyme v literaturnom kontektse [Golden Kolyma. The memoirs of A.
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Lenin’s anti-religious campaign in the early Soviet state

In the final years of his life, Vladimir Lenin oversaw a major campaign against religious institutions as the Soviet state consolidated power. This episode explores how Bolshevik ideology, political ...
Hyperallergic

The Idealism of Early Soviet Russia in Pictures

Arkady Shaikhet, “Express” (1939), gelatin silver print, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York (artwork © Estate of Arkady Shaikhet / courtesy Nailya Alexander ...
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A composer caught between conscience and survival

Dmitri Shostakovich rose to prominence in the early Soviet Union, only to find himself denounced during Stalin’s cultural purges. After a scathing attack in Pravda in 1936, he lived under constant ...